Thank you for your replies. This reading material you pointed me to should answer all my questions, else, I might drop a question here again later :).
Thanks again, this was really helpful! - Kári Hreinsson On 11/3/05, Mojca Miklavec <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Kári Hreinsson wrote: > > Hello, > > > > I have been trying to use ConTeXt for setting up a book with a list of > > students in my school, with pictures of them, phone numbers, emails > > and such. > > > > I thought I could use ConTeXt for the job since LaTeX gave me much > > trouble in trying to alter the layout and look of the page. > > > > I found the "layer" feature in ConTeXt which I found very interesting > > and thought I could use it to position items (such as text info, > > images and the layout) within these layers since they offer very > > precise positioning with a x-y grid like system. > > > > When I was trying to use this feature for multipage document it cut of > > all of the pages except the first. I found out that the layers > > weren't thought to be part of the content of the file but more like a > > background and I can't figure out how to use them on many pages > > without placing something like a dot on every page. Is there any way > > to do this? > > If "a dot" is the source of all your problems, you can easily solve > this by placing a \strut instead of a dot at the top of the page. > (Perhaps even \null would do.) \strut is an empty box with width zero > and height of "one line" (generally speaking). > > I was confused for a long time since there are at least five different > ways to achieve the desired results, each one with its advantages and > drawbacks, so you may have to be even more specific about the layout. > > You can do the whole page with layers if you are sure that you want to > provite all the coordinates by hand. If you use an alternative way (if > you place a figure at the left or right side of text for example), > space will be reserved and text will flow around the figure. If you > place a figure in a layer, you'll have to manually adjust text > width/height/hole, so that it won't overlap with the figure. > > Some alternatives to layers that come to my mind in the first moment are: > 1. tables (http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Tables_Overview) > with \bTABLE ... \eTABLE you can manully specify widths and heights of > table cells and put photos in the left cell with specified width. The > rest of data can go to the remaining cells on the right with > automatically determined widths and heights. > > 2. grid typesetting > http://pragma-ade.nl/general/manuals/details.pdf > you can position the stuff on the grid (still precise, but in other > units than centimeters) > > 3. http://wiki.contextgarden.net/Chromatograms uses \startpositioning > ... \stoppositioning, which is probably something similar to layers. I > never used it, but perhaps you can take a look if you find it useful. > > 4. many other ways for sure (depending on your needs), in worst case > even plain TeX ;) > > > I discovered that the layers were "inserted" into the document via > > "\setupbackgrounds[page]" so I understand why it acts like this but I > > am asking if there is some way of getting layers working like I want? > > How is that? You can place layers in other ways than on the whole page > (you can say that a layer has to be two centimeters from the bottom > and three centimeters from the left edge or that it has to be 1cm > wider than the text area of the page), you can put them in the > backgrond or on the top of text, but you can't prevent them from being > invisible to the rest of the page content (you can't place a layer and > expect a text portion to flow around that layer). > > > Maybe I am going in completely wrong way? Is there any other good way > > to do this, that is positioning items with x-y coordinates or > > something totally different that I am missing? > > see above (tables, grid, ...) > > > Another thing I was wondering about is how to make items like images > > bleed (that is to go over the edge of the paper, to avoid white lines > > at the margin). Can I use negative values for positioning to achive > > that? > > You have a couple of examples in the official documentation (page 32 > of details.pdf for example). google.com: "bleeding > site:pragma-ade.com" > If you position using frames, you can use negative values, yes. (See > the example below.) > > > All help is greatly appreciated since I am not understanding this and > > I haven't found much help on the internet regarding this subject > > (contextgarden had only one example page that had layers). > > Patrick already mentioned the new "search engine ;)" through articles. > I often use google.com and "layers site:contextgarden.net" for > example. You can find a lot in old mailing list archives. > > > > > > > \setuppapersize > [A4][A4] > \definelayer > [page] > [width=\paperwidth, > height=\paperheight] > \setupbackgrounds > [page] > [background=page] > \setupexternalfigures > [location={local,global,default}] > \setupframed > [align=middle, > frame=on] > > \starttext > \startstandardmakeup > \setlayerframed > [page] > [voffset=1cm, > hoffset=-2cm, > preset=lefttop] > %[width=xxx] > {\externalfigure[cow]} > \setlayerframed > [page] > [voffset=10cm, > preset=lefttop, > width=\paperwidth, > frame=off, > align=middle] > {\bfc Cut the head!} > \stopstandardmakeup > \stoptext > _______________________________________________ > ntg-context mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context > _______________________________________________ ntg-context mailing list [email protected] http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
