Different footers or headers in the same output

Post here questions and problems related to editing and publishing DITA content.
verostarry
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Jul 21, 2021 9:39 pm

Different footers or headers in the same output

Post by verostarry »

Hi,
I'm wondering if it's possible to set different headers or footers depending on how you've flagged a topic within the same PDF (and webhelp, but PDF is more important for us). For example, the default footer can say Revision 1, and certain pages in a next revision will have to say Revision 2 while the ones that were untouched stay Revision 1.
Thanks,
Veronica
chrispitude
Posts: 907
Joined: Thu May 02, 2019 2:32 pm

Re: Different footers or headers in the same output

Post by chrispitude »

Hi Veronica,

What elements or attributes in the DITA content do you want to use to trigger this? For example,
  • Would you be setting the @rev attribute to 1.0 or 2.0 to do this?
  • Would you be using some @outputclass value?
  • Would this be applied to <topic> elements, individual content elements, or possibly both?
julien_lacour
Posts: 481
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2019 3:47 pm

Re: Different footers or headers in the same output

Post by julien_lacour »

Hello Veronica,

In addition to what Chris said, you can take a look at this topic: How to Change Header Text for Each Topic.

Regards,
Julien
verostarry
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Jul 21, 2021 9:39 pm

Re: Different footers or headers in the same output

Post by verostarry »

Thanks Chris and Julien! I'll try to deep dive into this article and try things out. This change can and should be applied to topic elements. If an individual element within a topic changes, we consider the whole topic to be in whatever revision that change was under. That being said, it might make sense to add something to the header metadata.

The @rev attribute seems correct too, especially because we're talking about revisions. We have a manual where there are 5 different revision numbers living in the same manual (so potentially 5 varieties of footer).
Thanks for the help!
Post Reply