Slates

A Slate is a virtual layout surface – like a magic drawing tablet, you sketch content on it without it appearing on the page, inspect the result, and then place it wherever you want. A slate has its own grid and cursor, independent of the page.

Creating and placing a slate

<Slate name="sidebar">
    <Grid width="5mm" height="12pt"/>
    <Contents>
        <PlaceObject>
            <TextBlock>
                <Paragraph><Value>Sidebar content</Value></Paragraph>
            </TextBlock>
        </PlaceObject>
    </Contents>
</Slate>

<!-- Place the slate on the page -->
<PlaceObject slate="sidebar"/>

Why use slates?

• Independent grid: A slate can use a finer or coarser grid than the page.
• Measure before placing: Use sd:slate-width('name') and sd:slate-height('name') to query a slate’s dimensions before deciding where to put it.
• Reuse: Place the same slate multiple times.
• Discard: If the content doesn’t fit or isn’t needed, simply don’t place it – nothing ends up in the PDF.

Querying slate dimensions

<Slate name="card">
    <Contents>
        <!-- build the card content -->
    </Contents>
</Slate>

<!-- Check if it fits -->
<Switch>
    <Case test="sd:slate-height('card', 'cm') &lt; 5">
        <PlaceObject slate="card"/>
    </Case>
    <Otherwise>
        <ClearPage/>
        <PlaceObject slate="card"/>
    </Otherwise>
</Switch>

See also

• Slate reference
• Contents reference