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Property overrides can be achieved by supplying property names and the correspondingvalues in the option list of all PDF_fill_*block( ) functions as follows:p.fill_textblock(page, "firstname", "Serge", "fontsize=12");This will override the block’s internal fontsize property with the supplied value 12. Almostall names of general properties can be used as options, as well as those specific to aparticular block type. For example, the underline option is only allowed for PDF_fill_textblock( ), while the scale option is allowed for both PDF_fill_imageblock( ) and PDF_fill_pdfblock( ) since scale is a valid property for both image and PDF blocks.Property overrides apply only to the respective function calls; they will not be storedin the block definition.Controlling the display order of imported page and blocks. The imported page musthave been placed on the output page before using any of the block filling functions.This means that the original page will usually be placed below the block contents. However,in some situations it may be desirable to place the original page on top of the filledblocks. This can be achieved with the blind option of PDF_fit_pdi_page( ):/* Place the page in blind mode to prepare the blocks, without the page being visible */p.fit_pdi_page(page, 0.0, 0.0, "blind");p.fill_textblock(page, "firstname", "Serge", "encoding=winansi");/* ... fill more blocks ... *//* Place the page again, this time visible */p.fit_pdi_page(page, 0.0, 0.0, "");Cookbook A full code sample can be found in the Cookbook topic blocks/block_below_contents.Duplicating blocks. Imported blocks can also be useful as placeholder without any referenceto the underlying contents of the block’s page. You can import a page with blocksin blind mode on one or more pages, i.e. with the blind option of PDF_fit_pdi_page( ), andsubsequently fill the blocks. This way you can take advantage of the block and its properties,and can even duplicate blocks on multiple pages (or even on the same outputpage).Cookbook A full code sample can be found in the Cookbook topic blocks/duplicate_block.Linking multiple Textflow blocks. Textflow blocks can be linked so that one blockholds the overflow text from a previous block. For example, if you have long variabletext which may need to be continued on another page you can link two blocks and fillthe text which is still available after filling the first block into the second block.PPS internally creates a Textflow from the text provided to PDF_fill_textblock( ) andthe block properties. For unlinked blocks this Textflow will be placed in the block andthe corresponding Textflow handle will be deleted at the end of the call; overflow textwill be lost.With linked Textflow blocks the overflow text which remains after filling the firstblock can be filled into the next block. The remainder of the Textflow will be used asblock contents instead of creating a new Textflow. Linking Textflow blocks works as follows:238 Chapter 10: Variable Data and Blocks