Document Type
Slide deck or paged document, and which sheet is the cover?
✅ NormativeSettled. The requirement holds as written.📚 Document ruleNeeds other pages of the same document; decided once and applied on every page.Read §4.4 in the RFC ↗
Whether a document is a slide deck or a paged document, and which sheet is its cover, MUST be decided once from the whole document and applied to every page. Only the cover MAY carry a Title element.
When it applies
Two decisions change how single pages are read, and neither can be made from one page:
| Decision | How it is recognised | What it changes on every page |
|---|---|---|
| Slide deck or paged document | A deck is landscape sheets with one title per sheet, each sheet a self-contained slide. | In a deck every slide title is a top-level heading; in a paged document depth carries over page breaks. See Heading Depth Across Pages (§4.5). |
| Which sheet is the cover | The title or front page: the document's own name set large, often with authors, a date or a logo, and no body text. | Only the cover carries the Title class and the document title. The same words on a later page are page furniture or Text. |
sheet 1 QUARTERLY RESERVING REVIEW ← cover: Title
sheet 2 Quarterly Reserving Review · 2 ← running header: furniture, not Title
Reading the examples. Each one pairs a source page with the output the rule expects. ✅ Sample: the rule applies. ❌ Counter-sample: it looks like it applies and does not, or a rendering got it wrong. A non-conforming output, in red, is shown only for contrast. … marks content left out of an excerpt.
The point, in a small example
Compare the cover with later interior pages of the same document. The repeated text FIELD GUIDE changes role: Title on the cover, Page-header in the interior. These pages are made up to isolate the rule.
The cover title is not a recurring section
This is the cover of a paged document. Its title is a Title element. A matching running header on later interior pages is page furniture, not another Title.
Source page
Expected output
# FIELD GUIDE
Revision ADocument structure continues across pages
Two consecutive interior pages are shown in order. The document title is on an earlier cover; sections use level 2 and subsections level 3. The running header is plain text on both pages. The printed folios stay in their footer bands; they are not physical sheet indices.
Source page
Expected output
FIELD GUIDE
## 2 Maintenance
### 2.1 Inspection
Inspect daily.
Revision A · Page 4
---
FIELD GUIDE
### 2.2 Cleaning
Clean weekly.
Revision A · Page 5Requirements
- The decisions MUST be made from the document, not from one sheet. A landscape page on its own does not make a deck — reports insert landscape tables — and the largest line on sheet 1 is not a title if sheet 1 is a transmittal letter.
- A document with no cover MUST NOT have a Title element anywhere. The first heading MUST NOT be promoted to fill the gap — that is the never invent failure.
- The same words printed on a later sheet MUST NOT be a Title element; they are page furniture or Text.
Mixed documents
A report with a slide deck appended, or a deck with printed appendix pages, MUST be decided per part. The boundary between the parts is where the decision changes, and each decision MUST be applied to its whole part rather than sheet by sheet.
A single page
Where only one page is available, neither decision can be made. The page MUST be treated as a paged document with no cover: no Title element, and any title-sized line rendered as a heading at the depth the page itself supports.
Neighbouring rules, and how they differ
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Rule id document-document-type · rule document layout