setting default page size in ConTeXt?

setting default page size in ConTeXt?

[Thomas Porter]

Well, since the newest context did not like me running pdftex 13.d, and I got
weird '...doclipping...' error messages on my test file, I re-installed my
tetex 1.0 RPM's on my redhat system, and started going to work getting it set
up again:

-set the default papersize in xdvi and dvips to US letter.

-got my modes and default printer set.

-added etex to the ConTeXt paths in texmf.cnf

-uncommented out the ConTeXt formats in fmtutil.cnf.

-created the ConTeXt formats for en nl and de.

-changed the default papersize in pdftex.cfg from A4 to US letter

After all that, I can use pdflatex to produce 8.5 x 11 documents from LaTeX
source, but running texexec --pdf on ctest.tex (included below) results in an
A4 page size as reported by acroread.  I am stumped and have not found a place
to set paper size in ConTeXt.

ctest.tex:

\starttext
\startstandardmakeup
\midaligned{How to make a Context document.}
\midaligned{by}
\midaligned{Tom Porter}
\stopstandardmakeup
\completecontent
\chapter{Introduction}
Well, this is pretty neat, if it works.  I will see how it does in just a minute.
I really need to determine if this is a useful tool, or if it is YALT. \index{YALT} ...
\chapter{One Chapter}
\section[firstsection]{The first section}
It seems that this does work, somewhat.  I guess it might work for me.  I sure hope so.
\section{The second section}
\subsection{the first sub section}
Perhaps it will not be another YALT afterall.  BTW that means Yet Another Latex Tool. \index{YALT} ...
\subsection{the second sub section}
It is hard to think of silly text to put into this kind of thing after a while.  I hope this ends up going to more than one page.
\section{The third section}
Here is more of my text as requested in the sample.
\chapter{Another Chapter}
Now, here is more text.
\chapter[lastchapter]{The Last Chapter}
This is the last of my text.  I hope it is enough.
\completeindex
\stoptext

-- 
Tom Porter                                       txporter@mindspring.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 
'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will 
the right answers come out?'  I am not able rightly to apprehend the 
kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."

Re: setting default page size in ConTeXt?

[Tobias Burnus]

Thomas Porter wrote:
> 
> Well, since the newest context did not like me running pdftex 13.d, and I got
> weird '...doclipping...' error messages on my test file, I re-installed my
> tetex 1.0 RPM's on my redhat system, and started going to work getting it set
> up again:
> 
> -set the default papersize in xdvi and dvips to US letter.
> 
> -got my modes and default printer set.
> 
> -added etex to the ConTeXt paths in texmf.cnf
> 
> -uncommented out the ConTeXt formats in fmtutil.cnf.
> 
> -created the ConTeXt formats for en nl and de.
> 
> -changed the default papersize in pdftex.cfg from A4 to US letter
> 
> After all that, I can use pdflatex to produce 8.5 x 11 documents from LaTeX
> source, but running texexec --pdf on ctest.tex (included below) results in an
> A4 page size as reported by acroread.  I am stumped and have not found a place
> to set paper size in ConTeXt.

How about:
\setuppapersize[letter][letter] %% Print the document in lettersize on a
lettersize paper

If you always want to have this size, you might want to create a file
cont-sys.tex, in which you put your defaults.
(maybe using \writestring{MY PERSONAL SETTINGS!} or so, makeing it easier to
remember, to include this file, when you give the TeX file away. This file is
included automatically.)

Maybe you need to use this command to:
\setuplayout   %% This is the s-green = s-pre-02 style, so the layout isn't
suiteable for letter format
  [backspace=1cm,
   topspace=1cm,
   margin=0pt,
   header=0pt,
   footer=0pt,
   bottomdistance=.875cm,
   bottom=1cm,
   width=fit,
   height=fit]

Tobias

Re: setting default page size in ConTeXt?

[Hans Hagen]

Thomas Porter wrote:

> Well, since the newest context did not like me running pdftex 13.d, and I got
> weird '...doclipping...' error messages on my test file, I re-installed my
> tetex 1.0 RPM's on my redhat system, and started going to work getting it set
> up again:

Strange that it does not work. Looks like a mixture between old and new
files. Clipping is added in the latest versions, but used nowhere in the
styles. It could be that you had a new special driver file and an old
context or so. Keep in mind that context is monolithic: change all
files, never one or two (unless yoy know what you're doing). This
disadvantage is compensated by the fact that once it runs, you don't
have to worry about fetching whatever files from wherever. 

Hans 

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