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Sections

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Overview

Within a document, there is often a need for groupings of content on a basis larger than a paragraph (for example, ensuring that a specific set of paragraphs and tables are printed in a landscape view, while ensuring that the remainder of the document is printed in a portrait view). In order to group this content, a document can be divided into multiple sections, each of which defines a region of content in the document and allows the application of a set of section-level properties.

Definition

A document contains at least one section. A section is a sequence of contiguous paragraphs within a sub-document’s text buffer. To delimit document sections, the end of a section is marked by a specific section break (or by the final paragraph’s end mark at the end of the document). The boundaries of sections mark locations where the layout rules for a document (the page size and orientation, the size of columns, text of headers and footers, the availability and display of page numbers, etc.) are changed.

A section is a logical unit that contains settings specific for its different elements and that defines to which text buffer interval these settings should be applied. Programmatically, a section is implemented as the Section client object. A list of section objects in the document can be accessed through the sectionsInfo client property (RichEditDocument.sectionsInfo) in the following notation:

clientRichEditName.document.sectionsInfo

A section defines the following settings.

  • Start position (Section.start)

    A position in a sub-document text buffer where the section’s first paragraph starts.

  • Length (Section.length)

    The number of characters in a section within the text buffer.

  • Element properties

Client API

The following client commands are available for manipulating sections and their settings. Call the commands in the notation given below:

clientRichEditName.commands.commandName.execute(parameter_if_any)

Command Name Link Description
Page    
changePageMargins RichEditCommands.changePageMargins Gets a command to apply page margins settings to sections located within a selected range.
changePageOrientation RichEditCommands.changePageOrientation Gets a command to apply page orientation settings to sections located within a selected range.
changePageSize RichEditCommands.changePageSize Gets a command to apply page size settings to sections located within a selected range.
Columns    
changeSectionColumns RichEditCommands.changeSectionColumns Gets a command to apply column layout settings to a section.
changeSectionEqualColumnCount RichEditCommands.changeSectionEqualColumnCount Gets a command to change the number of columns having the same width in a section.
Header/Footer    
setDifferentFirstPageHeaderFooter RichEditCommands.setDifferentFirstPageHeaderFooter Gets a command to enable (or disable if it is enabled) a different page header and footer for the first page of the current section.
Dialogs    
openPageMarginsDialog RichEditCommands.openPageMarginsDialog Gets a command to invoke the Margins tab of the Page Setup dialog window.
openPagePaperSizeDialog RichEditCommands.openPagePaperSizeDialog Gets a command to invoke the Paper tab of the Page Setup dialog window.
openSectionColumnsDialog RichEditCommands.openSectionColumnsDialog Gets a command to invoke the Columns dialog window.
setPageSizeDialog RichEditCommands.setPageSizeDialog Gets a command to invoke the Page Setup dialog.