Archive for the ‘ Adobe FrameMaker ’ Category

Adobe FrameMaker: But I Don’t Want a Plain Round Bullet

Bullets live in the Numbering Properties of the Paragraph Designer. If you are willing to use a plain, round bullet• you are in luck! It’s the very first option shown:

Just select the bullet symbol and the tab character as shown above, set your hanging indent in Basic Properties and you are good to go. But what if you don’t want a plain, round bullet? Not hard, but not intuitive for a new FrameMaker user, either. Here’s how:

Start by deciding what character you would like to use. Symbols like squares, circles, and diamonds are very common requests, but if you have access to more exciting ornamental fonts, then the fun is just beginning. To see your options, open FrameMaker 9*, click your mouse at the end of a bullet paragraph and choose File > Utilities > Character Palette.
Scroll through the list, looking for the ornamental fonts. If nothing else, you should at least have Webdings, and Wingdings 1, 2 and 3.
Hover over an interesting symbol to enlarge it, and when you find one you like, click once to add it to the document. In my example, I’m choosing a chipmunk icon in the Webdings font. Note the last line of the palette: Latin Small Letter O with Grave.
Click outside the palette to close it. I’m not actually seeing my chipmunk yet: it’s a Latin Small Letter O with [an accent] Grave. Good thing I saw that in the palette, so I’m not panicking, yet!
The next step is to create a character format to transform the ò into a chipmunk:
1. Select the letter
2. Tap Control + C (to copy the character to the clipboard to use in a minute)
3. Format > Character > Designer
4. Commands > Set Window to As Is
5. Type in a short, logical name—I used Webdings
6. Change the Family to the desired ornamental font
7. Optionally, change the size and/or the color
8. Click Apply, then Create
Ok, now I have a squirrel at the end of my paragraph. He was just there so that we could see what I was doing, go ahead and delete him.
Choose Format > Paragraph Designer > Numbering Properties. Tap Control + V to paste your symbol on the Autonumber Format line, followed by a tab. Don’t forget to pick your Character Format from the list on the right before you finish up with an Update All.
Cool! Chipmunk bullets!

Now, I do realize that unless you are working for the International Society of Chipmunks, you are highly unlikely to ever use this particular bullet in your technical documents. When I’m wearing my production hat, I’m usually forced to choose between boxes, diamonds, circles, etc. Here’s a handy list for “real life”:

Choose a symbol from the bottom row, and then look up to the top row for the corresponding keyboard character. Create a character format to change the font to Wingdings, and type the character on the autonumber format line and apply the character format through Paragraph Designer.

*For older versions of FrameMaker without the Character Palette, you can use Windows Character Map to locate the desired character.

2010: 09/03
CATEGORY: Adobe FrameMaker
TAGS: Adobe FrameMaker
Custom Bullets
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Adobe FrameMaker: How to Restart a Numbered List

by Barb Binder

FrameMaker offers us two ways to restart numbered lists in our documents: a manual technique and an automatic option.

Restarting a List Manually

Let’s start by examining the manual option, which is built into the Paragraph Catalog of all new FrameMaker documents. If you take a look at the numbering properties of Numbered and Numbered1, you’ll see that Numbered uses the <n+> building block, which adds 1 to the current counter and displays the results:

Numbered1 uses the <n=1> building block to reset the counter back to 1, and displays the results:

When we are using these default formats, or others based on the same logic, we simply assign Numbered1 to the first list item, and Numbered to the rest of the list. It’s a little clunky, but it works. Is there a better way? You bet.

Automatically Restarting a List

The more advanced way to reset your lists back to 1 again is assign the job to a different paragraph. You’ll need examine your document to determine which format always appears between the numbered lists. For me, it’s Body, but this will depend on your formatting. Once you determine which format to use you can give it the job of resetting the counter, whenever it appears. Here’s how:

1. Use only the <n+> building block to set up your lists.

2. Place your cursor in a paragraph that always appears before each new list. In my example, it’s Body.

3. Open up Numbering Properties in the Paragraph Designer.

4. Begin by assigning the building block <n=0>. It’s not in the building block list, so you’ll have to type it in, and then click Update All.

5. Don’t panic that you now have a 0 in front of every Body paragraph format. That’s what <n=0> does—it sets the counter to 0 and displays the results. Focus for a moment on the actual lists in your documents. Are they all restarting with 1, even without the use of the <n=1> building block? If yes, continue reading. If not, maybe the paragraph you selected doesn’t really appear between each list. Hit Undo and find one that does.

6. Once you can see how using another format to reset the list works, it’s time to hide the zeros. All you need to do is change <n=0> to < =0> (just change the letter n to a space) and pick Update All.

Here’s why it works: while <n=0> tells FrameMaker to reset the counter to zero, and display the results, < =0> tells FrameMaker to reset the counter to zero and NOT display the results. How cool is that?

2010: 09/01
CATEGORY: Adobe FrameMaker
TAGS: Adobe FrameMaker
Numbered Lists
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Adobe FrameMaker 9: Deleting Empty Pages

by Barb Binder

For those of you transitioning to FrameMaker from Microsoft Word, the empty pages left at the end of a document can be bothersome.

The first rule to learn is that the single fastest way to delete empty pages is to save your document. When you save, empty pages are deleted. Of course, this assumes a few things.

Choose Format > Page Layout > Pagination. Ensure “Before Saving & Printing” is set to Delete Empty Pages.

If you confirm the settings shown above, but the empty pages refuse to go away when you save or print, read on…

If the page in question is using a custom master page, choose Format > Page Layout > Master Page Usage and reassign the default Right/Left masters.

Save your work and the empty page should be gone.

If not, read on…

Another reason that empty pages stick around is if the master pages are using overrides. View the master pages via View > Master Pages and switch back the Body Pages (View > Body Pages). Select Remove Overrides.

Save your work and the empty page should be gone. But… if not, read on…

Yet another reason a page won’t go away is if the page contains the start of a new flow (i.e., Flow B) or a disconnected page. Choose Special > Delete Pages and remove the page manually.

If the page disappears, but returns after you update your book, it’s likely the book pagination is set to add blank pages to force a new chapter to begin on a specific page side. In the book window, you can choose Format > Page Layout > Pagination and you’ll find the same options you saw for single documents. Book commands override the document commands, so I just ignore document pagination and always set it at the book level.

2010: 08/31
CATEGORY: Adobe FrameMaker
TAGS: Adobe FrameMaker
Deleting Empty Pages
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Adobe FrameMaker: Custom Table Rules

by Barb Binder

Ever wondered how to edit the rules listed in Table Designer? When you are designing a new table format, or refining an existing one, you need to make decisions about how the ruling lines should look in your tables. When you go to the Ruling properties of the Table Designer, you are presented with 10 lists of available ruling styles:

In a new, default document, each list looks like this:

But what if you have other plans for your table rules? Let’s say you’d like a thicker line than Thick, or perhaps want to use any color other than the default black? Did you know that you can add/edit ruling styles through Custom Ruling & Shading? I didn’t think so. This is one of my regular polling questions in my FrameMaker classes, and most students simply stare blankly at me when I ask the question. Based on my many years in front of FrameMaker students, this particular feature is not one I’d label as “discoverable” (Adobe-speak for a feature you’ll easily find and figure out on your own).

Here’s how to modify the ruling line lists:

Open Table > Custom Ruling & Shading
Click on one of the ruling styles in the list (I picked “Thick”) and then click the Edit Ruling Style button. Now, what you do on the Name line will impact how the styles lists are modified:
1. If you leave a default name you will update the existing style;
2. If you type a new name, you will leave the default styles alone, and will be adding a new style to the list.
In my example, I’m adding a new style called “Thickest”. Pick the color, pattern, width (which means height), and whether you want a single or double line. I’m going with a 6 pt Forest Green rule.
Click Set to add/modify the ruling style, but don’t click Apply! That would assign your new rule to whatever is selected in the table. Instead, just close or collapse the panel.
Return to Ruling properties in the Table Designer and drop down any of the lists, and presto! Your new (or improved) ruling style is ready to go!

2010: 08/03
CATEGORY: Adobe FrameMaker
TAGS: Adobe FrameMaker
Rules
Table
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Adobe FrameMaker: Why Can’t I Edit my Document?

by Barb Binder

FrameMaker has had a view-only option for as long as I can remember. Long before most of us began using Acrobat for view-only file distribution, a product called FrameViewer was available to address that need for early FrameMaker users. The idea was that you could create a complicated FrameMaker publication, and then distribute it electronically for viewing out in the field with the much-less-expensive FrameViewer.

To preview how a file would act in the FrameViewer environment, you could lock your FrameMaker document and render it read-only. Once locked, you could easily follow any document hyperlinks and test your online/PDF navigation systems.

These days, most people rely on Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader for electronic file distribution (FrameViewer disappeared years ago). So what does this have to do with your FrameMaker workflow? Back in the day, you used a complicated keyboard shortcut to lock and unlock a FrameMaker file: Esc F l k. (That means press the Esc key, then a capital F, then a lowercase l and a lowercase k. In my head I’m thinking: Esc File lock) Since there wasn’t a menu command, it wasn’t very easy to accidently lock a document.

With the introduction of FrameMaker 7.2 and beyond, Adobe provided a handy button that will lock a document. In 7.2 and 8, the button sits on the Formatting Bar and the tooltip label reads “Toggle View only.” In FrameMaker 9, the button changed to a little padlock icon and now appears on the Quick Access Bar (right next to the Print button)

The new, more prominent position of the lock button makes me nervous. Imagine this: you are in a hurry and want to print your document. You miss the Print button and click the Lock button, but don’t realize it. Suddenly, you have a reduced set of menus, and you can’t edit the file. In a panic, you might click the Undo button–which doesn’t unlock the document. Worse, even closing and reopening the document doesn’t unlock it. Of course, all you have to do is click the lock button one more time to remove the view-only property, but when I’m panicking, I rarely think clearly enough to make a rational decision like that.

The moral of this little story: unless you are checking your hyperlinks, stay away from the lock button. If you suddenly can’t edit your file, and you notice that about half of the normal menus are missing, it means you must have clicked it and put your document into view-only mode. Seek out the lock button, click it again to unlock your file, and maybe make a mental note to stay clear of it in the future,

2010: 07/01
CATEGORY: Adobe FrameMaker
TAGS: Adobe FrameMaker
Locking/Unlocking a Document
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Adobe FrameMaker: More on Reference Pages

by Barb Binder

In a previous post, Adobe FrameMaker: What are Reference Pages?, I talked a bit about the most basic reference page, called Reference. In a new default document, when you chose View > Reference Pages, you land on a page that looks like the one below, and you learned about the purpose of the top two frames. So what about the second two frames? And the entire rest of the page, which is currently empty?

The second two frames are used to place a repeating graphic element (in this case a single or double ruling line) either above a paragraph, below a paragraph, or both.

Before we try, you need to remember one thing from last week: The labels above each frame are strictly there for your convenience, they don’t do anything except call out the names of the frames. What matters is the name of the frame underneath the label. To see a frame’s name, click on the edge to select it and look at the middle of the status bar at the bottom of the page.

So, open a document with a subheading format and let’s give this a try. Place your cursor in your top level subheading and open the Paragraph Designer (Ctrl+M). Navigate to the Advanced tab. At the bottom of the dialog box, click the Frame Above Pgf or Below Pgf drop-down menus and you will see that there’s a list of frames from the first reference page. Select one and then click Update All to place a ruling above or below all your subheads:

But what if you’d rather use a different graphic above or below your subheads? A nice Hawaiian flower perhaps? Here’s how:

Choose View > Reference Pages
Choose Graphics > Tools to show the Graphics toolbar
Use the Place a Graphic Frame tool to draw a frame on the page, under the other ones. Name it Flower:
Use the Draw a Text Line tool to add the optional label above the frame. Again, name it Flower.
Use the Select Object tool to select the frame and place an image of a flower in the frame:
Choose View > Body Pages
You should still be within your subheading and the Paragraph Designer > Advanced Properties should still be on your screen… click the Frame Above Pgf drop-down menu, choose Flower and then click Update All.
Now there should be a flower over each of your subheads.

Now, what about the rest of that page? You could use it to add additional graphics you’d like to reference on the Body Pages or you could draw a text frame and leave notes for your co-workers about the job

2010: 06/30
CATEGORY: Adobe FrameMaker
TAGS: Adobe FrameMaker
Reference Pages
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Adobe FrameMaker: What are Reference Pages?

by Barb Binder

FrameMaker offers three types of pages: Body, Master and Reference.

Body pages are where you will do most of your work. This is where you flow your text and place pictures. Master pages are for the repeating elements: the headers, footers, logos–items you want to appear on every page and in the same position.

So what’s the role of those pesky Reference pages? Let’s start with the basics. In a new default document, when you chose View > Reference Pages, you land on a page that looks like this:

You see four frames, three of which contain ruling lines, and four text labels. The labels are for your convenience, they don’t do anything except help you quickly identify the names of the frames.

Try this: click on the edge of one of the four frames and look at the middle of the status bar at the bottom of the page–that’s where the all-important frame name appears. OK, so what do we do with them?

The first two are used automatically when you insert a footnote or a table footnote into your document. FrameMaker calls in the appropriate frame and places it above the first footnote on the page. Regular footnotes get a rule, with space below, and table footnotes just get a bit of space (that’s why there isn’t anything in the TableFootnote frame).

If you don’t like the way the footnotes look in your document, change its appearance on the Reference Page. You can make the footnote frames taller or shorter to control the vertical spacing above the first footnote, or modify how the line looks (make it longer or shorter, move it up or down within the frame, or change its color, width or style).

Try changing the Footnote rule on the Reference Page so that it looks like this:

And you will change all the footnotes on the Body pages so that they’ll look like this:

And you thought you were stuck with the default footnote rules!

2010: 06/28
CATEGORY: Adobe FrameMaker
TAGS: Adobe FrameMaker
Reference Pages
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Adobe FrameMaker: A Few Favorite Timesavers

by Barb Binder

Over the past 20+ years, I’ve worked primarily as a computer trainer, but try to set aside between 20-25% of my time for production work. This gives me a chance to get out of the classroom and relax, but also to learn what it’s like for my students to actually work in their software. Here are a few of my favorite FrameMaker shortcuts:

Go to your computer’s Control Panel and open the Mouse controls. On the Pointer Options tab, select Automatically move pointer to the default button in a Dialog Box and click OK.

FrameMaker’s dialog boxes pop up all over the place. This one little checkbox will save your wrist the extra movement to reach the OK button. Especially important as our monitors get larger and larger!
Rapidly pull out all those extra hard returns: Find: \p|\p, Change to: \p and turn Use WildCards on.
Use keyboard shortcuts. Tables are one place where I slow down in production. I particularly like these (remember that all Escape key shortcuts are sequential-you can execute them with one finger):
- Esc ti (Insert a table)
- Esc ta 1 t Enter (Add a header row)
- Ecs tl (straddle selected table cells)
- Esc tw (shrinkwrap cells to selected cells contents)

My FrameMaker students will all recognize this sentiment, which I drill into them during class: when you can shave seconds here and there from your workflow, those seconds will eventually grow into minutes and hours. And for the longest jobs, the time you save can mean the difference between a free weekend, and one spent in front of the computer, trying to make your deadline.

2010: 06/25
CATEGORY: Adobe FrameMaker
TAGS: Adobe FrameMaker
Shortcuts & Timesavers
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Adobe FrameMaker: Dictionary-Style Running Heads

by Barb Binder

If you are creating reference materials like a dictionary, glossary or telephone directory, you may be called on to produce “live” running heads, but with a twist. FrameMaker’s Running H/F 1 variables are all set to go gather paragraphs from a document and display them in a running head, but the assumption is that you want the first paragraph from the page.

For example, if page two has three Heading1s, and you set your variable to <$paratext[Heading1]>, FrameMaker will pull the first Heading1 off the page, and will ignore the other two. In reference materials, that will work great for the left page header, but you may find it helpful to pull the last Heading1 off of the right hand pages, to show the range of information that appears on the facing pages spread. Here’s how:

Set the Running H/F 1 variable on the left page to <$paratext[Heading1]>.
Set the Running H/F 2 variable on the right page to <$paratext[+,Heading1]>.

That’s it! The plus sign (+) tells FrameMaker to find the last paragraph on the page matching the tag rather than the first paragraph.

2010: 06/23
CATEGORY: Adobe FrameMaker
TAGS: Adobe FrameMaker
Dictionary-Style
Running Heads
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Adobe FrameMaker: Even Smarter Running Heads

by Barb Binder

In a previous post, Adobe FrameMaker: Smart Running Heads, I covered creating smart running heads (using variables for “live” running heads that pull data off the page). These are great for your readers because they can tell at a glance what chapter and/or section they are in.

But what if you need to pull different paragraph formats into the running heads in different documents (for example, you want your contents title in your table of contents, your chapter titles in the main body of the book, and the index title in the index)? You could set up different master pages in each document, but then if you need to make a global change to, let’s say the margins, when you import your Page Layout formats, you’ll wipe out the customization. I have a much better way for you:

Choose View > Master Pages.
Click in a background frame to set up a header or footer.
Choose Format > Headers & Footers > Insert Other.
Scroll down to the Running H/F variables and select Running H/F 1 (assuming you aren’t using it elsewhere. If you are and don’t want to mess it up, just pick the next available Running H/F variable–you have a total of 12, and I’m pretty sure you aren’t using all of them.)
Examine the default definition: <$paratext[Title]>

In English, this says: “go get the paragraph text of the paragraph format called Title and put it in the running head.”
Click the Edit button on the Variables pod (button number 3):
Edit the variable definition to call out each of the formats you’d like to see in your running head:<$paratext[ContentsTitle,ChapterTitle,IndexTitle]>In English, the variable now says: “If you can find a ContentsTitle, go get it and put it in the running head, but if you can’t find it, see if you can find ChapterTitle and put that in the running head. If you can’t find either, see if you can find IndexTitle and put that in the running head.”

Wow! Now you can have one variable that works for the front matter, the body of the book, and the back matter. That’s a smart variable!

2010: 06/21
CATEGORY: Adobe FrameMaker
TAGS: Adobe FrameMaker
Running Heads
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Tips & Tricks for Creative Professionals and Technical Writers using the Adobe Creative Suite & the Adobe Technical Communications Suite

Adobe FrameMaker: But I Don’t Want a Plain Round Bullet

Adobe FrameMaker: How to Restart a Numbered List

Restarting a List Manually

Automatically Restarting a List

Adobe FrameMaker 9: Deleting Empty Pages

Adobe FrameMaker: Custom Table Rules

by Barb Binder

In a new, default document, each list looks like this:

Adobe FrameMaker: Why Can’t I Edit my Document?

Adobe FrameMaker: More on Reference Pages

Adobe FrameMaker: What are Reference Pages?

Adobe FrameMaker: A Few Favorite Timesavers

Adobe FrameMaker: Dictionary-Style Running Heads

Adobe FrameMaker: Even Smarter Running Heads

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Tips & Tricks for Creative Professionals and Technical Writers using the Adobe Creative Suite & the Adobe Technical Communications Suite

Restarting a List Manually

Automatically Restarting a List

by Barb Binder

In a new, default document, each list looks like this:

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