Even/Odd Page Layout Issue

[Fred Ridder]

Responding to Alison Craig, Kristen Abbott wrote:

> Is it possible the consultant used conditional text that is hidden? I've
> seen FM leave "empty" pages in a file when you turn off conditional tag
> display, because the text is still there but the pagination is not
> updated when it's not visible.
> 
> I'd turn on all conditional tags in your files and check that.


I'm sorry but you are not correct when you say that when you hide a condition "the text is still there". When you hide a condition, each block of content that is tagged with the condition collapses into a marker. Only the marker is "still there" in the document, and since markers have zero width the collapsed conditional content does not affect the pagination. When you hide the condition, it is truly as if the hidden content does not exist.

What you may have seen and misinterpreted is that FrameMaker never reduces the number of pages in a file when content is removed (either by deleting or by hiding) *until you save the file*. But if you save a file after hiding a condition, all the truly empty pages at the end of the file *will* be deleted just as if you had deleted the conditional text rather than hiding it. But all the caveats that have been mentioned about pages that are not truly empty (assigned master pages, empty graphic frames, etc.) still apply. 

-Fred Ridder