Even/Odd headers

[scottwhitlock]

Am I just having a senior moment, or is there no way to define different headers/footers for even/odd pages?

Scott

[scottwhitlock]

Never mind, found it. It's under "Use Facing Pages" on the margins palette. Does anyone else find this unintuitive? Shouldn't this option be in the Header/Footer palette?

Scott

[Groucho]

Never mind, found it. It's under "Use Facing Pages" on the margins palette. Does anyone else find this unintuitive? Shouldn't this option be in the Header/Footer palette?

I think it had better stay there, Scott. Facing Pages is not merely a matter of header and footer. It reverses margins and gutter too. Thus the inner margin and the gutter are on the left in an odd page, and on the right in an even page. The layout mirrors on every other page, so to say. So Facing Pages involves sections or the whole document, not just the header or footer.

Cheers, Henry.

[scottwhitlock]

Never mind, found it. It's under "Use Facing Pages" on the margins palette. Does anyone else find this unintuitive? Shouldn't this option be in the Header/Footer palette?

So Facing Pages involves sections or the whole document, not just the header or footer

That's my point. It's completely unintuitive. You have a header/footer palette that does not include this even/odd option, a header/footer palette that springs alive when you click in the header or footer. It's not necessarily going to dawn on the user that just because he or she wants even and odd footers that they ALSO want the full facing page experience. I'm not saying remove it from that palette, but it definitely needs to be on the Header/Footer palette as well.

Scott

[greenmorpher]

I agree, Scotty. I was caught out by this unintuitive behaviour as recently as yesterday when explaining facing pages set up to the Childe Jessica -- second only to her mother in the art of carefree layout.

"You just select 'Facing Pages' in the Section palette," I told her, "then you go down to the Header/Footer palette and ... um ... and ... bugger! It has to be here somewhere!"

"You have to click in the footer or the header," she smugged (how DARE she know more about some aspect of NWPro than me?). "It's pretty odd, isn't it?"

"Good God, I'd forgotten that little insanity," I replied, shifting ground as fast as my arthritic joints would allow as the parental pedestal crumbled beneath my feet.

SHE KNEW (blast her shining eyes and golden voice) SHE WAS TELLING A LOVING DAD HOW TO OPERATE HIS OWN WP!!!

All right thinking Solanums should hang their heads in shame at introducing and perpetuating a feature which allows children, even quasi-adult, university student children, who need to be led by the hand to the Section palette to find "Use Facing Pages", to know of a single piece of odd interface which allows them to slide into a position which undermines the shibboleth of parental superiority!

Speaking of which (the Section palette), surely there should be a Document palette where Facing Pages would come up, and you might have the option, for example, of setting the document up so text appeared only on the odd pages, leaving the even pages free for illustrations, or you you had one string of text on the odds and another, e.g. the same document in a second language, on the evens.

Or is that possible already?

Actually, I wonder why all that layout stuff needs separate palettes. I suspect it is because you have the drawer, so if you have the drawer, you have separate bits of the clutch of interactive commands in separate palettes. They should all be in one palette.

And the option for odd header AND/OR footers with facing pages should be included without clicking in the header or the footer.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes", the secrets of how type can help you to sell or influence, and "How to Start and Produce a magazine or Newsletter", now at the new low price of $29.95. See these books and more at http://www.worsleypress.com or Amazon.