§ Specifying a header or a footer

Figure 4-2. Layout of a header

{{document-title}}

The title of the document.

{{document-date}}

The publication date of the document.

The value of the variable comes from the last created or revised element found in the topicmeta/critdates or bookmeta/critdates element of the map. More precisely, it comes the value of attribute golive, modified or date, considered in that order. The value of this attribute must be something like YYYY-MM-DD, because it is parsed and then formatted according to the xml:lang of the map. For example, if golive="2014-02-23", with xml:lang="en", it gives: "February 02, 2014" and with xml:lang="fr", it gives: "02 Février 2014". If the map has no critdates element, then the current date is used. If the value of attribute golive, modified or date is not specified as YYYY-MM-DD, then this value is used as is.

{{chapter-title}}

The title of the current part, chapter, appendices or appendix . Empty if the map being converted is not a bookmap.

{{section1-title}}

The title of the current part, chapter, appendices or appendix or section 1 . A section 1 is specified by a non-typed topicref (that is, not a part, chapter, preface, appendix, dedication, etc) which is a direct child of a map or bookmap.

{{topic-title}}

The title of the current topic. All topics are guaranteed to have a corresponding {{topic-title}}. Even automatically generated topics such as toc or indexlist have a corresponding {{topic-title}}⁽¹⁾.

Restriction If you use XMLmind XSL-FO Converter to convert your DITA document to RTF, WML, DOCX or ODT, then {{section1-title}} and {{topic-title}} won't work. ({{chapter-title}} works fine though.) The reason of this limitation is that, unlike other XSL-FO processors, XMLmind XSL-FO Converter does not implement <fo:marker> and <fo:retrieve-marker> .

{{page-number}}

Current page number within the current document division (front matter, body matter or back matter) .

{{page-count}}

Total number of pages of the current document division (front matter, body matter or back matter).

{{break}}

A line break.

{{image(URI)}}

An image having specified URI. A relative URI is resolved against the current working directory. Example: "{{image(artwork/logo.svg)}}".

{{page-sequence}}

Not for production use. Inserts in the header/footer the name of the current page sequence . This allows to learn which name to use in a conditional header or footer. See below.

§ Conditional headers and footers

conditional_value --> case [ ";;" case ]*

case --> [ condition "::" ]* value

condition --> [ test_page_sequence ]?
                     & [ S test_page_layout ]?
                     & [ S test_page_side ]?

test_page_sequence --> page_sequence [ "||" page_sequence ]*

page_sequence --> "abbrevlist" | "amendments" | "appendices" | "appendix"
                              | "backmattersection" | "bibliolist" | "bookabstract" | "booklist" 
                              | "chapter" | "colophon" | "dedication" | "draftintro" 
                              | "figurelist" | "glossarylist" | "indexlist" | "notices" 
                              | "part" | "preface" | "section1" | "tablelist" 
                              | "toc" | "trademarklist"

Tip It's not difficult to guess that the name of the page sequence corresponding to the Table of Contents is toc and that the name of the page sequence corresponding to the Index is indexlist. However the simplest way to learn what is the name of the page sequence being generated is to reference variable {{page-sequence}} in the specification of a header or a footer.

• The page sequence to which belongs the page being generated.
• Whether the page being generated is part of a one-sided or a two-sided document.
• Whether the page being generated is the first page of its sequence. When the the page being generated is not the first page of its sequence, if the page being generated has an odd or an even page number.

test_page_layout --> page_layout [ "||" page_layout ]*

page_layout --> "two-sides" | "one-side"

test_page_side --> page_side [ "||" page_side ]*

page_side --> "first" | "odd" | "even"

Remember When the document has one side, the only possible page side is odd. The other values, first and even, are not supported. For example, something like 'one-side chapter||appendix even:: {{chapter-title}};;' cannot generate any text.

1. Use the empty string for the first page of a part, chapter or appendix.
2. Use the topic title for the pages containing the Table of Contents. This title is "Table of Contents", but localized according to the main language of the DITA document being converted.
3. Use the topic title for the pages containing the Index. This title is "Index", but localized according to the main language of the DITA document being converted.
4. For any other page, use the title of the DITA document.

Note Everything explained in this section applies not only to the contents of a column of a header or footer, but also to the proportional width of a column of a header or footer. Example: -p footer-right-width "first||odd:: 4;; even:: 1".