Using Master Pages and Design Views

Every form design contains at least one master page that Adobe LiveCycle Designer creates automatically. You can put objects on a master page that should appear on any resulting page at runtime. For example, your company logo. Such objects that never change are called boilerplate objects.

Everything that is on an (abstract) master page reappears on every page issued (design view).

On a master page, include at least one content area. This defines the size of the content area to be used for dynamic output. You can only include content areas on the master page.

Dynamic content is wrapped up in pages (design view). A page (design view) uses the space provided by a content area. If, at runtime, the content area is not sufficient due to a large amount of data, the body page looks for the next content area (which might involve an automatic page break).

Think of a page (design view) as nothing more than a wrapper or a container for dynamic content. You might have one single page (design view) in a form with lots of items at runtime, but the printout would have many pages.

For further organizing pages (design view), content area and pages can be broken down for better presentation and management as they can contain subforms.

It is always a good idea to start with the static part of a form on the master pages.

A page (design view) is a top-level subform. It serves as an organizing unit for dynamic content and can be laid down only in the content area of a master page. Make sure that you set it to Top of Next Page if you want it to use the next master page in the hierarchy, or set it to Top of Page... if you want to start a new page.

Choose the Following Previous option for the first page (design view) to start with the first master page in the Hierarchy tab.

If you set a page’s (design view) place to On Page <Master Page>, the possible scenarios are as follows:

• If the preceding subform is already laid out on that master page, the page (design view) follows on the same output page (provided there is enough space).
• If the preceding subform is laid out on a different master page, the system inserts a page break and a new output page begins using the desired master page.

New Page – Example: Inserting the Terms and Conditions

Display the terms and conditions on a separate page with a special layout as follows:

1. Define an extra master page (as TERMS).

2. Create a new page (design view).

3. For the new page (design view), which is a subform, choose Top of Page "TERMS" in the Place field.