Two Ways to Look at the Same Document

GridDoc's default view is a spatial canvas. Blocks sit where you put them. Formulas connect across the canvas. The layout is yours to control, and nothing forces you into a linear flow.

That flexibility is useful when you're building — arranging a load calculation table next to the formula block that references it, or placing a chart directly beside the text that explains it. The canvas gives you authoring control that a word processor can't.

But when it's time to hand something off, the spatial view isn't always the right format. Reviewers often want a document they can scroll through from top to bottom. Clients want a clean PDF. Submission templates require standard page dimensions. For all of those cases, GridDoc has Book View.

What Book View Does

Book View renders your GridDoc document as a paginated layout — standard page dimensions, top-to-bottom flow, consistent margins. It's the same content, the same live formula values, the same blocks you built on the canvas. The difference is how it's presented.

When you switch to Book View, GridDoc flows your blocks into a page layout based on their vertical position on the canvas. Blocks that sit higher on the canvas appear earlier in the document. The result is a clean, readable sequence that can be printed directly or exported as a PDF without any reformatting.

Page Layout Controls

In Book View, you have access to layout controls that aren't relevant on the canvas:

Page size. Choose from standard formats — Letter, A4, Legal — or set a custom page size for a specific submission template.

Margins. Set the margin on each side independently. Useful when your organization has a cover page template with specific margin requirements for body pages.

Headers and footers. Add document metadata — project name, document number, page number, date — that appears consistently on every page. These can include live values from your document, so a revision date in the footer stays current as long as the corresponding field in your document does.

Page breaks. Insert explicit page breaks between blocks to control where sections start. If you want your load calculations to always begin on a fresh page regardless of what precedes them, you can enforce that without rearranging content on the canvas.

The Canvas and Book View Stay in Sync

Switching between views doesn't require any conversion or export step. Book View is a live rendering of your document — when you make a change on the canvas, it's immediately reflected in Book View. Formula outputs, table values, text edits — all of it stays current regardless of which view you're working in.

This means you can iterate on the canvas with the spatial flexibility that makes editing efficient, then flip to Book View to check how the paginated output looks, make adjustments, and flip back. No round-tripping between applications.

Who Uses Book View

Engineers submitting calculation packages. Structural, mechanical, and civil engineers often need to submit calculation documents in a specific format — paginated, with page numbers, headers, and a consistent margin. Book View handles this without requiring a separate Word or PDF template.

Technical writers working from engineering inputs. When a document needs to be handed off to a writer who will edit the narrative sections, Book View provides a familiar reading format while keeping the underlying formulas live.

Anyone producing a deliverable from a working document. The canvas is where you work. Book View is what you send. For most engineering workflows, you want both.

Exporting From Book View

Once your layout is set, GridDoc can export the Book View to PDF directly. The export preserves fonts, formula values, table formatting, and page structure exactly as rendered. What you see in Book View is what appears in the PDF — no surprises from a print driver interpreting your layout differently.

For documents that will go through multiple rounds of revision, the export is repeatable. Change an input value, recalculate, export again. The output reflects the current state of the document every time.

The Right View for the Right Context

Book View doesn't replace the canvas — it completes it. The spatial canvas is where GridDoc's formula engine, cross-block references, and Draw to Solve features do their work. Book View is where that work becomes a document you can hand to someone else.

Most engineering work involves both phases. GridDoc is built to support both in the same file.

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Book View is available now in GridDoc. Try it free at griddocx.com — build on the canvas, deliver in Book View.