Re: setting up even and odd pages

[Mari Voipio <mari.voipio@iki.fi>]

Paul Tremblay wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 25, 2005 at 10:56:55AM +0100, Hans Hagen wrote:
>>There are several methods, like:
>>
>>\setuplayout[left] [....]
>>\setuplayout[right][....]
> 
> 
> This doesn't work for me. ConTeXt simply ignores the command.

Same here - ConTeXt just reverted to default margins (I assume) instead 
of doing what it'd been told with the above commands... I checked with 
\showsetups, it really totally ignored whatever I told it to have as 
backspace.


However, Paul, if you "just" want mirror margins, i.e. "outside" and 
"inside" margins, it can be done with the correct set of commands - by 
trial and error I've gotten this to work:

\setuplayout
      [location=middle,		%"doublesided" NOT good here, don't try!
      footer=1cm,		%just a preference...
      backspace=5.5cm,		%inside margin from edge of page
      width=12cm,		%textwidth, give lots of empty space
      leftmargindistance=5pt,   	%space between inner margin and text
      rightmargindistance=5pt]  	%space between outer margin and text

(Note. This layout gives a wide *inner* margin, i.e. wide margin at the 
spine/middle of a book, because the finished product is put into a 
ringbinder, which 'eats' up quite much of the inside margin. Might look 
funny to you with the fairly narrow text and wide inner margin, but 
works nicely when in the binder.)


THIS is what turns the above (originally set up for a single right-hand 
space, that's why 'left' is inside and 'right' is outside) into mirror 
margins:

\setuppagenumbering
	[alternative=doublesided,
	 location={header,margin}] %number in header at outer margin

[Actually, when I compile my manual with the above settings and print 
for example pages 7 and 8 as duplex and hold the page against light, 
there's an ever-so-little discrepancy by 1-1,5 mm on the margins on 
different sides, but this might be our printer rather than the settings. 
Doesn't bother me, the readers of the manual will never notice nor care.]


My chapters always start on an odd page on the right, i.e. as the 
traditional book layout dictates, and this seemed to be a default 
setting. Thus I didn't have to do anything about that, the pagenumbering 
setting fixed all of it.



If you have an A4 page, 210 mm wide, this should suffice for you to give 
your mirror margins - remember that the first page that comes out will 
be an odd page, i.e. a right-hand page!

----
\setuplayout
      [backspace=.5in,		%1/2 inch inside margin
      width=17.2cm]		%textwidth, leaves 1" for outer margin

\setuppagenumbering
      [alternative,doublesided]
----

If you are on letter paper, it is of course easy to resort to inches 
altogether, the total width of a letter paper is 8.5 inches, so your 
backspace (inner margin) is 0.5in and if you want 1 inch outer margin, 
8.5-1.5 gives "width=7in".
[The example above might be off by a millimeter or two, although I can't 
tell if it is my math, my ConTeXt or my LaserJet that causes this...]


A mistake I as a Windows user made in the beginning was trying to set 
BOTH margins. When I realized that what I really need to do is to set 
one (=left) margin and textwidth and whatever was left would make up the 
second (=right) margin, my layouts started to work a lot better!

BTW, I found the graphic on p. 23 of the "big manual" (ConTeXt-en on 
paper) to be very instructive and helpful. Once I had digested what it 
really meant (and how it differed from for example Word and PageMaker), 
I started to understand the layout commands a lot better and finally got 
my manuals to look like I wanted them to look.



Hope this helps,
		Mari
		just a Windows dummy from the cold North