Conditional Frames

Concept

Frames can have certain conditional properties. It is possible to show or hide frame content on various levels (per frame, page or layer ) using either toggle- or variable conditions.
This counts for both printing and non-printing frame content. Frame conditions are mostly set using layers, on which those frames are located.

You could for example decide to not include a certain page, that has a text frame containing a legal text, in certain alternate layouts, while other layout versions do have that page included.
Using conditions on frame content improves flexibility in document editing as you can easily have different versions of the same document without having to manually duplicate and redesign.

Layer visibility

Layers can be made visible or invisible.

To do so, go to Document Tab > Layer List panel and click on the checkbox to the left of the layer name

In this example the layer "New Layer 2" is invisible, while layer "New Layer 1" is visible.

Visibility using variables

Another way to show or hide layer is using variables. To do so :

create a variable of the type checkbox
go to Document Tab > Layer List panel
click the edit icon of the layer for which you want to set the visibility variable
in the New Layer Settings window select the variable from the Visibility Variable pulldown menu
go to Variables tab > Variable Input panel and click the checkbox of the variable to hide or show the layer (see screenshots below)

Creating the variable

Selecting the variable for the layer

The variable "layer_visibility" will toggle layer "New Layer 2" visible/invisible

Layer output

Layers can be in- or excluded from output to PDF, Chili packages, images etc.

To do so :

go to Document Tab > Layer List panel
click the edit icon of the layer for which you want to set the output option
see Include in output checkbox

Help layers

Layers can be set to be a Help Layer. A help layer can be used to add non-printing, extra information for various elements in your document.

For example it could be very handy to have visual markers where variables are used in the document.
Administrators, designers or users who are allowed to, toggle between source and preview mode of variables to identify variable locations using source view.
But restricted end users could have a help layer instead to see where the variables are.

To create a help layer, do the following :

go to Document Tab > Layer List panel
click the edit icon of the layer that you want to become a help layer
see Is Help Layer checkbox

When a layer is defined as help layer, you will see an eye icon in the layerlist :

The same icon will then be present in the main toolbar, and functions as a toggle, to turn help layers on or off :

Alternate Layouts & inclusion variable conditions

Alternate layouts are another convenient way to conditionally change your document. Pages, layers and frames can be set to be in- or excluded from certain layouts.
Pages can also be in- or excluded using variables.

Pages

To set a page inclusion variable do the following :

create a variable of the type checkbox
select a page that will have an inclusion variable
go to the Pages tab > Page Settings panel
set a variable from the Inclusion Variable pulldown menu
you can now toggle the page from the Variable tab > Variable Input panel

Here page 1 is selected, and will be toggled by variable "include page 1"

Output

Pages can be in- or excluded from output to PDF, Chili packages, images etc.

To do so :

select the page you want to in- or exclude from output
go to Pages tab > Page Settings panel
see Include in output checkbox

Alternate Layouts

To set an alternate layout condition for a page do the following :

select the page you want to be in- or excluded from an alternate layout
go to Pages tab > Page Settings panel
see Include In All Layouts pulldown menu
select one or more layouts

If the page has to be included in all versions of the document then just check the
checkbox Include In All Layouts. The pulldown menu will only be available if you
uncheck this and need to make a selection of certain layouts for the page.

Here, page 1 is selected and will be included only in the layouts [Default] and "portrait alt. layout"

Layers

To set an alternate layout condition for a layer do the following:

select the layer you want to be in- or excluded from an alternate layout from the Document tab > Layer List
go to Document tab > Layer Settings panel
see Include In All Layouts pulldown menu
select one or more layouts

Here, the layer "New Layer 1" is selected and will be included in the layout "landscapte alt. layout" only

Frames

To set an alternate layout condition for a frame do the following :

select a frame you want to be in- or excluded from an alternate layout
go to Frame tab > Frame Location panel
see Include In All Layouts pulldown menu
select one or more layouts

Here, the frame will be included only in the layouts [Default] and "landscape alt. layout"