<?breakb>
Description
The <?breakt> and <?breakb> commands allow you to change paragraph break settings mid-paragraph, and simplify the use of conditional settings in the paragraph style. In addition, they allow multiple actions in a single setting.
Example 440. Start a new page with a break command
Both the <?breakb> and <?breakt> commands share the same syntax: its simplest form would be:
<?breakt b2>
Example 441. Set multiple break options with cumulative values
The bit or value settings are cumulative, so if you also wanted to start a new page and start column centering you could use this pair of commands.
<?breakt b2><?breakt b7>
Example 442. Set multiple break options with combined values
Using the example above, 'Start new page' has a value 2 and 'Start column centering' has the value 64. These are combined to give the command:
<?breakt 66>
Example 443. Start a new table cell immediately with <?breakb>
The <?breakb> command can take one additional parameter to indicate that the effect should occur immediately, without waiting for an end of line or paragraph:
<?breakb b10,1>
Syntax
<?breakb bit or value:n immediate:n?>
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bit or value
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For each paragraph, PTC ALD stores two 32-bit numbers containing the break flags. The first number relates to top-breaks (breakt), effective at the beginning of a paragraph, and the second to bottom-breaks (breakb), effective at the end of the paragraph. Each of the numbers can hold up to 32 break flags, referenced by their corresponding binary bit numbers, 1 to 32. The current bit numbers are as follows:
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Description of break flag
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Bit no.
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Value
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Top / bottom / both
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Start new column
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b1
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1
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both
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Start new page
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b2
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2
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both
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Reposition to first line
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b5
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16
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top
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Reposition to last line
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b6
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32
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top
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Start column centering
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b7
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64
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top
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Flush to column bottom
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b8
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128
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top
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Start new table cell
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b10
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512
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both
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Start new table row
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b11
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1024
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both
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Finish table
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b12
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2048
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both
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Soft column break
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b16
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32768
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bottom
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Soft page break
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b17
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65536
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bottom
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immediate
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Indicates if the effect should occur immediately, without waiting for an end of line or paragraph.
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0
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Do not effect immediately
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1
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Effect immediately
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Additional Information
PTC ALD provides several options for the placement of paragraphs, accessible from the > dialog box under Current paragraph and Before next paragraph. Values are stored in the lump attribute.
Bottom breaks will usually be actioned at the end of the current paragraph. The exceptions to this are the soft breaks, b15 ,b16 and b17, which are effective at the end of the current line.
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If there are no printable characters following a soft break implemented via a <?breakb> command at the end of a line, the <?breakb> command will be actioned at the end of the following line.
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