A page group can consist of three types of page:

• The main page is always present, and will always produce at least one output file during generation, e.g. a file called index.html. It may, however produce more: index.html, index2.html, index3.html, etc.
• Detail pages can be produced for each element. In a picture gallery, the main page(s) might contain preview images, clicking on which would call up the relevant detail page with the main image.
• Extra pages can be produced for each main page, for each detail page or once for the whole page group.

The main page consists of a number of elements. Each element can be a block of text, an image, etc.

A simple picture gallery page might look like this:

If there are a lot of elements, the main page might be spread out over several files. Our picture gallery might have index pages for images 1-100, 101-200, etc.:

Each element on the main page can generate a detail page. The detail page could for example contain extra text, an image, etc.

Using the picture gallery example, each preview image on the main page(s) is linked to its own detail page containing the full size picture, title, descriptive text etc.:

In many situations it can be useful to generate extra files based on the same data used to produce the main pages and detail pages. Any number of extra files can be produced for a page group. They can be generated for each main page, for each detail page, or just once for the whole page group (e.g. a HTML file containing a frameset). They can be HTML files, but also, for instance, Javascript routines which need to be different for each main page or detail page.

Continuing with the example of a photo gallery, suppose that for each detail page with the standard size photo we want another detail page with larger versions. For each main page an extra page will also be generated with preview images pointing to the large version detail files:

The group might also include a frameset page for the structure, and a search page showing all picture titles in alphabetical order. These will only be generated once for the page group:

The number of files produced for a main page depends entirely on the elements. The page group can be given a maximum number of elements per main page and/or a maximum number of detail pages to which a main page can be linked. Once a main page is 'full' during generation, an output file will be produced and a new main page started. This is useful, for instance, when a site contains a lot of images: they can easily be split up across several pages.

However, any element can be set to trigger the start of a new page, regardless of how many elements are already on the page. The page group which generated the page you are now looking at does not have any limit on the number of elements in a page. Instead, certain elements which mark the beginning of new subject matter are set to start a new page.