[pmwiki-users] hard page break in print view

[Russ Fink]

>On Thursday, 20 October 2005 11:18 AM, Chris Cox <ccox at airmail.net> wrote:
>
> >> Just a suggestion: it may be appropriate to tansfer this to
> >> the print css, so there is always a new page before (say)
> >> <h2>. Otherwise, the authors have to remember to apply the
> >> style to every heading on every page to get a consistent
> >look.
> >
> >I disagree with trying to build a side effect into the existing print
> >css. The idea of a printable view is different from guessing where
> >page breaks should go (people like to decide those things).  Now...
> >it we wanted to make a separate print css or a switch... that's
> >ok.
>
>Oops. I agree with you. What I *meant* to say is that an administrator
>may wish to put that into a print css for the site (or a group), if
>that's the appropriate thing to do. Although I think of it as a site-
>specific presentation rule, rather than a side-effect or a guess.
>
><aside>PublishPDF lets /readers/ choose to make a particular heading
>level start a new page, at the time they print a page.</aside>
>

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions and the answer to my question.

I'm in favor of explicitly saying %newpage% rather than embedding in a <h2> 
style header.  In PmWiki 1, I actually edited my css file and added a style 
for <h6>, so that whenever I wanted a pagebreak, I just needed to do 
"!!!!!!".  Unfortunately, the same trick wouldn't work on PmWiki 2, and 
besides that, editing a CSS file is just one more thing to worry about.  
What if, for example, I pulled in a new skin?  Would I have to back-port my 
newpage CSS code into the new skin, if the skin didn't already support that 
feature?

Also, including page breaks in a heading level tag, effecting automatic page 
breaks, might cause confusion.  Why is my page breaking at this heading?  
Better to use explicit %newpage% style breaks rather than implicit breaks 
based on heading level.

Next, I like that the author decides the page breaks and not the reader.  
This at least strives for consistent presentation to the entire viewing 
audience.  Of course, they could get a different print representation based 
on browser differences, but that's hard to control, and probably why PDF is 
so popular.

I suppose I'm trained in the WordPerfect model of hitting "CTRL-ENTER" to 
force a page break, or Unix's ^L.  (With Microsoft, it's Insert... Section 
break... Next Page... {alas!})