Conditional text for single-sourcing
Whaaa . . . . It WORKS! Thank you, eter. In case anyone else is interested, here is what works: Scenario: I have two conditional text tags: PDF and Online. For my PDF, which people will print and use in the field, I want this to show as my table title: Table 5.1 Connections and Switches For my online help, I want this to show: Connections and Switches To set it up, I entered this text into the Table Title field (the one that ends with a pilcrow): Connections and Switches Connections and Switches [The pilcrow appears here, FYI] So, I have two paragraphs in my Table Title field. I tagged the first one with my TableTitle tag, which inserted the autonumber, which happens to be 5.1. I then went into the Pagination tab of the Paragraph Designer for that tag. under Format I selected "Run-in Head" and clicked "Apply." I tagged the second paragraph with Body tag. Now when I display the PDF conditional text, I get "Table 5.1 Connections and Switches" only. When I display the online conditional text, I get "Connections and Switches" only. The "Run-in" setting for the Table Title does not cause it to run into, say, the first Heading cell or the first line of the next paragraph. It ends with the TableTitle field, I guess because it is an isolated text flow as Peter said. Awesome! Thanks again! --Nancy On May 12, 2009, Peter Gold wrote: The autonumber is a property of the Table Title paragraph format in your document. You can have more than one paragraph in a table header, and each paragraph can have a different format. So, you create and apply a non-autonumbered paragraph format to the complete sentence you use for your online/PDF table title, and manage its visibility with show/hide conditions. However, because a table title space is an isolated text flow (like a table cell), the last paragraph in it is considered to be the "end of flow," and is marked with the curly section symbol, not a paragraph return symbol. When you select and apply a condition to the whole end-of-flow paragraph, when you hide the condition, the curly symbol isn't hidden, so it leaves a blank line at the end of the table title or table cell. You can overcome this nuisance by including the Run-In property to either the autonumbered or non-autonumbered paragraph format, so that there's no extra blank line caused by hiding one or the other paragraph. HTH Regards, Peter __ Peter Gold KnowHow ProServices
Conditional text for single-sourcing
Hi, Nancy: On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 8:53 AM, Nancy Allison wrote: > This is a lengthy, nitty-gritty explanation of one oddity I'm encountering as > I rework a manual in Framemaker for conversion to a .chm file. So, if you > like nitty-gritty stuff, read on. If you find such discussions unbearably > tedious . . . you might want to read something else! > > Because I started with an existing manual, I couldn't create clean standards > that would make conversion easy. > > Example: the manual has introductory sentences like "Figure 3.12 shows a > waveform generated by an Open test." It is followed by an anchored frame > containing the figure, and then a caption with autonumbering that says > "Figure 3.12. Open Test Waveform" > > In the online help system, this topic can be reached from any direction; as a > result, chapter and figure numbers have no meaning. Therefore, I mask them > using conditional text. > > Translation standards say that it is best to create an entire, alternative > sentence, rather than creating conditional phrases. That's because the > grammatical structures of other languages may not accommodate the > alternatives that make sense in English. > > Therefore, I apply my PDF condition tag to "Figure 3.12 shows a waveform > generated by an Open test." and to the entire caption. > > I create this sentence: "The following figure shows a waveform generated by > an Open test." and apply my Online Help condition tag to it. > > The PDF has the original sentence, the figure, and the caption. > > The Online Help has the new introductory sentence, the figure, and no caption. > > OK, well and good. > > However, when I try to apply the same process to Table titles, I can rewrite > the introductory sentence just fine and apply conditional tags to the two > versions. > > But, the table title autonumber is built into the Table Title somehow. If I > select the Table Title and apply the "PDF" condition tag to it, and display > only the "Online Help" conditional text, I still get the autonumber in the > Table Title. The actual title text is gone, but the autonumber remains. It > seems to be hard-wired into the table itself. The autonumber is a property of the Table Title paragraph format in your document. You can have more than one paragraph in a table header, and each paragraph can have a different format. So, you create and apply a non-autonumbered paragraph format to the complete sentence you use for your online/PDF table title, and manage its visibility with show/hide conditions. However, because a table title space is an isolated text flow (like a table cell), the last paragraph in it is considered to be the "end of flow," and is marked with the curly section symbol, not a paragraph return symbol. When you select and apply a condition to the whole end-of-flow paragraph, when you hide the condition, the curly symbol isn't hidden, so it leaves a blank line at the end of the table title or table cell. You can overcome this nuisance by including the Run-In property to either the autonumbered or non-autonumbered paragraph format, so that there's no extra blank line caused by hiding one or the other paragraph. HTH Regards, Peter __ Peter Gold KnowHow ProServices
Re: Conditional text for single-sourcing
Whaaa . . . . It WORKS! Thank you, eter. In case anyone else is interested, here is what works: Scenario: I have two conditional text tags: PDF and Online. For my PDF, which people will print and use in the field, I want this to show as my table title: Table 5.1 Connections and Switches For my online help, I want this to show: Connections and Switches To set it up, I entered this text into the Table Title field (the one that ends with a pilcrow): Connections and Switches Connections and Switches [The pilcrow appears here, FYI] So, I have two paragraphs in my Table Title field. I tagged the first one with my TableTitle tag, which inserted the autonumber, which happens to be 5.1. I then went into the Pagination tab of the Paragraph Designer for that tag. under Format I selected "Run-in Head" and clicked "Apply." I tagged the second paragraph with Body tag. Now when I display the PDF conditional text, I get "Table 5.1 Connections and Switches" only. When I display the online conditional text, I get "Connections and Switches" only. The "Run-in" setting for the Table Title does not cause it to run into, say, the first Heading cell or the first line of the next paragraph. It ends with the TableTitle field, I guess because it is an isolated text flow as Peter said. Awesome! Thanks again! --Nancy On May 12, 2009, Peter Gold wrote: The autonumber is a property of the Table Title paragraph format in your document. You can have more than one paragraph in a table header, and each paragraph can have a different format. So, you create and apply a non-autonumbered paragraph format to the complete sentence you use for your online/PDF table title, and manage its visibility with show/hide conditions. However, because a table title space is an isolated text flow (like a table cell), the last paragraph in it is considered to be the "end of flow," and is marked with the curly section symbol, not a paragraph return symbol. When you select and apply a condition to the whole end-of-flow paragraph, when you hide the condition, the curly symbol isn't hidden, so it leaves a blank line at the end of the table title or table cell. You can overcome this nuisance by including the Run-In property to either the autonumbered or non-autonumbered paragraph format, so that there's no extra blank line caused by hiding one or the other paragraph. HTH Regards, Peter __ Peter Gold KnowHow ProServices ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Conditional text for single-sourcing
Hi, Linda. This is an interesting approach -- and I can easily see how we tech writers may develop standards that are pickier than our clients would ever require . . . just because we can, darn it! My manual has chapter page numbers (3-1 to 3-25, then 4-1 to 4-13, etc.). The table and figure numbers follow this pattern (Figure 3.2, Table 4.6, etc.) In this case, would you number table and figures straight through? Would you keep the chapter-# numbering scheme? I have to admit . . the illogic of keeping the #s is making my perfectionist tendencies unhappy, but then again, your (and my) clients aren't paying us to satisfy our personal perfectionism, are they! Thanks. --Nancy On May 12, 2009, Linda G. Gallagher wrote: Nancy, I know some folks may disagree with my approach, but I'll share it in case it might work for you. For the online help version of content, I do remove chapter numbering. I number tables and figures 1 through x throughout the whole "book" in both the print and help. I retain the table and figure numbers in the help, so that I can refer to them.
Conditional text for single-sourcing
I've not used chapter-x numbering in a long time. Unless a document is maintained in a binder and you update and send just some chapters, I see no benefit to it. These days, we generally just send out the whole PDF, not individual chapters. Others may have a different process, but this has been working for my clients for years. I've numbered all my books for quite some time 1 through x for all numbering: pages, tables, and figures. If the chapter numbering isn't serving a specific purpose, I'd consider numbering everything 1 through x and make it all easier to maintain. I'm often in a crunch to make one or two last-minute updates and deliver the final version. I try to keep things simple (but still useful and usable), so that it is as easy as possible to not mess up when I get rushed. The more complexity, the easier it is to hose things up. HTH. ~ Linda G. Gallagher TechCom Plus, LLC lindag at techcomplus dot com www.techcomplus.com 303-450-9076 or 800-500-3144 User guides, online help, FrameMaker and WebWorks ePublisher templates -Original Message- From: Nancy Allison [mailto:ma...@verizon.net] Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 8:59 AM To: lindag at techcomplus.com Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com Subject: Re: RE: Conditional text for single-sourcing Hi, Linda. This is an interesting approach -- and I can easily see how we tech writers may develop standards that are pickier than our clients would ever require . . . just because we can, darn it! My manual has chapter page numbers (3-1 to 3-25, then 4-1 to 4-13, etc.). The table and figure numbers follow this pattern (Figure 3.2, Table 4.6, etc.) In this case, would you number table and figures straight through? Would you keep the chapter-# numbering scheme? I have to admit . . the illogic of keeping the #s is making my perfectionist tendencies unhappy, but then again, your (and my) clients aren't paying us to satisfy our personal perfectionism, are they! Thanks. --Nancy On May 12, 2009, Linda G. Gallagher wrote: Nancy, I know some folks may disagree with my approach, but I'll share it in case it might work for you. For the online help version of content, I do remove chapter numbering. I number tables and figures 1 through x throughout the whole "book" in both the print and help. I retain the table and figure numbers in the help, so that I can refer to them.
Re: Conditional text for single-sourcing
Hi, Nancy: On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 8:53 AM, Nancy Allison wrote: > This is a lengthy, nitty-gritty explanation of one oddity I'm encountering as > I rework a manual in Framemaker for conversion to a .chm file. So, if you > like nitty-gritty stuff, read on. If you find such discussions unbearably > tedious . . . you might want to read something else! > > Because I started with an existing manual, I couldn't create clean standards > that would make conversion easy. > > Example: the manual has introductory sentences like "Figure 3.12 shows a > waveform generated by an Open test." It is followed by an anchored frame > containing the figure, and then a caption with autonumbering that says > "Figure 3.12. Open Test Waveform" > > In the online help system, this topic can be reached from any direction; as a > result, chapter and figure numbers have no meaning. Therefore, I mask them > using conditional text. > > Translation standards say that it is best to create an entire, alternative > sentence, rather than creating conditional phrases. That's because the > grammatical structures of other languages may not accommodate the > alternatives that make sense in English. > > Therefore, I apply my PDF condition tag to "Figure 3.12 shows a waveform > generated by an Open test." and to the entire caption. > > I create this sentence: "The following figure shows a waveform generated by > an Open test." and apply my Online Help condition tag to it. > > The PDF has the original sentence, the figure, and the caption. > > The Online Help has the new introductory sentence, the figure, and no caption. > > OK, well and good. > > However, when I try to apply the same process to Table titles, I can rewrite > the introductory sentence just fine and apply conditional tags to the two > versions. > > But, the table title autonumber is built into the Table Title somehow. If I > select the Table Title and apply the "PDF" condition tag to it, and display > only the "Online Help" conditional text, I still get the autonumber in the > Table Title. The actual title text is gone, but the autonumber remains. It > seems to be hard-wired into the table itself. The autonumber is a property of the Table Title paragraph format in your document. You can have more than one paragraph in a table header, and each paragraph can have a different format. So, you create and apply a non-autonumbered paragraph format to the complete sentence you use for your online/PDF table title, and manage its visibility with show/hide conditions. However, because a table title space is an isolated text flow (like a table cell), the last paragraph in it is considered to be the "end of flow," and is marked with the curly section symbol, not a paragraph return symbol. When you select and apply a condition to the whole end-of-flow paragraph, when you hide the condition, the curly symbol isn't hidden, so it leaves a blank line at the end of the table title or table cell. You can overcome this nuisance by including the Run-In property to either the autonumbered or non-autonumbered paragraph format, so that there's no extra blank line caused by hiding one or the other paragraph. HTH Regards, Peter __ Peter Gold KnowHow ProServices ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Conditional text for single-sourcing
This is a lengthy, nitty-gritty explanation of one oddity I'm encountering as I rework a manual in Framemaker for conversion to a .chm file. So, if you like nitty-gritty stuff, read on. If you find such discussions unbearably tedious . . . you might want to read something else! Because I started with an existing manual, I couldn't create clean standards that would make conversion easy. Example: the manual has introductory sentences like "Figure 3.12 shows a waveform generated by an Open test." It is followed by an anchored frame containing the figure, and then a caption with autonumbering that says "Figure 3.12. Open Test Waveform" In the online help system, this topic can be reached from any direction; as a result, chapter and figure numbers have no meaning. Therefore, I mask them using conditional text. Translation standards say that it is best to create an entire, alternative sentence, rather than creating conditional phrases. That's because the grammatical structures of other languages may not accommodate the alternatives that make sense in English. Therefore, I apply my PDF condition tag to "Figure 3.12 shows a waveform generated by an Open test." and to the entire caption. I create this sentence: "The following figure shows a waveform generated by an Open test." and apply my Online Help condition tag to it. The PDF has the original sentence, the figure, and the caption. The Online Help has the new introductory sentence, the figure, and no caption. OK, well and good. However, when I try to apply the same process to Table titles, I can rewrite the introductory sentence just fine and apply conditional tags to the two versions. But, the table title autonumber is built into the Table Title somehow. If I select the Table Title and apply the "PDF" condition tag to it, and display only the "Online Help" conditional text, I still get the autonumber in the Table Title. The actual title text is gone, but the autonumber remains. It seems to be hard-wired into the table itself. It appears that my only recourse is to set my table formats to No Title in the Table Designer, and then insert a free-standing autonumbered Table Title paragraph, which can be completely masked with conditional text. This means redoing a lot of tables (in a 400+ page document), and in the template I am creating, and I am not looking forward to it. Have you encountered this problem (the non-disappearing table autonumber)? Do you have any other technique for doing this? Thanks for reading all this.
Conditional text for single-sourcing
Nancy, I know some folks may disagree with my approach, but I'll share it in case it might work for you. For the online help version of content, I do remove chapter numbering. I number tables and figures 1 through x throughout the whole "book" in both the print and help. I retain the table and figure numbers in the help, so that I can refer to them. Sometimes, I need to refer to a table or figure that is not below (it's in another topic, and I don't want to include the same table or figure multiple times). This helps to keep topics short and helps not bloat the total size of the help. It also makes the content easier and faster to maintain, by not having as much conditional content what you described. My clients appreciate that. I've never had anyone comment on the numbering in the help. I know many in our field say we should not number figures and tables in help, but I don't think users know the difference or care. If users can find the information they want, and a link with a table or figure number takes them to information they need, they're happy. Just food for thought. ~ Linda G. Gallagher TechCom Plus, LLC lindag at techcomplus dot com www.techcomplus.com 303-450-9076 or 800-500-3144 User guides, online help, FrameMaker and WebWorks ePublisher templates -Original Message- From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Nancy Allison Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 7:54 AM To: framers at lists.frameusers.com Subject: Conditional text for single-sourcing This is a lengthy, nitty-gritty explanation of one oddity I'm encountering as I rework a manual in Framemaker for conversion to a .chm file. So, if you like nitty-gritty stuff, read on. If you find such discussions unbearably tedious . . . you might want to read something else! Because I started with an existing manual, I couldn't create clean standards that would make conversion easy. Example: the manual has introductory sentences like "Figure 3.12 shows a waveform generated by an Open test." It is followed by an anchored frame containing the figure, and then a caption with autonumbering that says "Figure 3.12. Open Test Waveform" In the online help system, this topic can be reached from any direction; as a result, chapter and figure numbers have no meaning. Therefore, I mask them using conditional text. Translation standards say that it is best to create an entire, alternative sentence, rather than creating conditional phrases. That's because the grammatical structures of other languages may not accommodate the alternatives that make sense in English. Therefore, I apply my PDF condition tag to "Figure 3.12 shows a waveform generated by an Open test." and to the entire caption. I create this sentence: "The following figure shows a waveform generated by an Open test." and apply my Online Help condition tag to it. The PDF has the original sentence, the figure, and the caption. The Online Help has the new introductory sentence, the figure, and no caption. OK, well and good. However, when I try to apply the same process to Table titles, I can rewrite the introductory sentence just fine and apply conditional tags to the two versions. But, the table title autonumber is built into the Table Title somehow. If I select the Table Title and apply the "PDF" condition tag to it, and display only the "Online Help" conditional text, I still get the autonumber in the Table Title. The actual title text is gone, but the autonumber remains. It seems to be hard-wired into the table itself. It appears that my only recourse is to set my table formats to No Title in the Table Designer, and then insert a free-standing autonumbered Table Title paragraph, which can be completely masked with conditional text. This means redoing a lot of tables (in a 400+ page document), and in the template I am creating, and I am not looking forward to it. Have you encountered this problem (the non-disappearing table autonumber)? Do you have any other technique for doing this? Thanks for reading all this. ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as lindag at techcomplus.com. Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/lindag%40techcomplus.com Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: RE: Conditional text for single-sourcing
I've not used chapter-x numbering in a long time. Unless a document is maintained in a binder and you update and send just some chapters, I see no benefit to it. These days, we generally just send out the whole PDF, not individual chapters. Others may have a different process, but this has been working for my clients for years. I've numbered all my books for quite some time 1 through x for all numbering: pages, tables, and figures. If the chapter numbering isn't serving a specific purpose, I'd consider numbering everything 1 through x and make it all easier to maintain. I'm often in a crunch to make one or two last-minute updates and deliver the final version. I try to keep things simple (but still useful and usable), so that it is as easy as possible to not mess up when I get rushed. The more complexity, the easier it is to hose things up. HTH. ~ Linda G. Gallagher TechCom Plus, LLC lindag at techcomplus dot com www.techcomplus.com 303-450-9076 or 800-500-3144 User guides, online help, FrameMaker and WebWorks ePublisher templates -Original Message- From: Nancy Allison [mailto:ma...@verizon.net] Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 8:59 AM To: lin...@techcomplus.com Cc: framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: Re: RE: Conditional text for single-sourcing Hi, Linda. This is an interesting approach -- and I can easily see how we tech writers may develop standards that are pickier than our clients would ever require . . . just because we can, darn it! My manual has chapter page numbers (3-1 to 3-25, then 4-1 to 4-13, etc.). The table and figure numbers follow this pattern (Figure 3.2, Table 4.6, etc.) In this case, would you number table and figures straight through? Would you keep the chapter-# numbering scheme? I have to admit . . the illogic of keeping the #s is making my perfectionist tendencies unhappy, but then again, your (and my) clients aren't paying us to satisfy our personal perfectionism, are they! Thanks. --Nancy On May 12, 2009, Linda G. Gallagher wrote: Nancy, I know some folks may disagree with my approach, but I'll share it in case it might work for you. For the online help version of content, I do remove chapter numbering. I number tables and figures 1 through x throughout the whole "book" in both the print and help. I retain the table and figure numbers in the help, so that I can refer to them. ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Re: RE: Conditional text for single-sourcing
Hi, Linda. This is an interesting approach -- and I can easily see how we tech writers may develop standards that are pickier than our clients would ever require . . . just because we can, darn it! My manual has chapter page numbers (3-1 to 3-25, then 4-1 to 4-13, etc.). The table and figure numbers follow this pattern (Figure 3.2, Table 4.6, etc.) In this case, would you number table and figures straight through? Would you keep the chapter-# numbering scheme? I have to admit . . the illogic of keeping the #s is making my perfectionist tendencies unhappy, but then again, your (and my) clients aren't paying us to satisfy our personal perfectionism, are they! Thanks. --Nancy On May 12, 2009, Linda G. Gallagher wrote: Nancy, I know some folks may disagree with my approach, but I'll share it in case it might work for you. For the online help version of content, I do remove chapter numbering. I number tables and figures 1 through x throughout the whole "book" in both the print and help. I retain the table and figure numbers in the help, so that I can refer to them. ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Conditional text for single-sourcing
Nancy, I know some folks may disagree with my approach, but I'll share it in case it might work for you. For the online help version of content, I do remove chapter numbering. I number tables and figures 1 through x throughout the whole "book" in both the print and help. I retain the table and figure numbers in the help, so that I can refer to them. Sometimes, I need to refer to a table or figure that is not below (it's in another topic, and I don't want to include the same table or figure multiple times). This helps to keep topics short and helps not bloat the total size of the help. It also makes the content easier and faster to maintain, by not having as much conditional content what you described. My clients appreciate that. I've never had anyone comment on the numbering in the help. I know many in our field say we should not number figures and tables in help, but I don't think users know the difference or care. If users can find the information they want, and a link with a table or figure number takes them to information they need, they're happy. Just food for thought. ~ Linda G. Gallagher TechCom Plus, LLC lindag at techcomplus dot com www.techcomplus.com 303-450-9076 or 800-500-3144 User guides, online help, FrameMaker and WebWorks ePublisher templates -Original Message- From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Nancy Allison Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 7:54 AM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: Conditional text for single-sourcing This is a lengthy, nitty-gritty explanation of one oddity I'm encountering as I rework a manual in Framemaker for conversion to a .chm file. So, if you like nitty-gritty stuff, read on. If you find such discussions unbearably tedious . . . you might want to read something else! Because I started with an existing manual, I couldn't create clean standards that would make conversion easy. Example: the manual has introductory sentences like "Figure 3.12 shows a waveform generated by an Open test." It is followed by an anchored frame containing the figure, and then a caption with autonumbering that says "Figure 3.12. Open Test Waveform" In the online help system, this topic can be reached from any direction; as a result, chapter and figure numbers have no meaning. Therefore, I mask them using conditional text. Translation standards say that it is best to create an entire, alternative sentence, rather than creating conditional phrases. That's because the grammatical structures of other languages may not accommodate the alternatives that make sense in English. Therefore, I apply my PDF condition tag to "Figure 3.12 shows a waveform generated by an Open test." and to the entire caption. I create this sentence: "The following figure shows a waveform generated by an Open test." and apply my Online Help condition tag to it. The PDF has the original sentence, the figure, and the caption. The Online Help has the new introductory sentence, the figure, and no caption. OK, well and good. However, when I try to apply the same process to Table titles, I can rewrite the introductory sentence just fine and apply conditional tags to the two versions. But, the table title autonumber is built into the Table Title somehow. If I select the Table Title and apply the "PDF" condition tag to it, and display only the "Online Help" conditional text, I still get the autonumber in the Table Title. The actual title text is gone, but the autonumber remains. It seems to be hard-wired into the table itself. It appears that my only recourse is to set my table formats to No Title in the Table Designer, and then insert a free-standing autonumbered Table Title paragraph, which can be completely masked with conditional text. This means redoing a lot of tables (in a 400+ page document), and in the template I am creating, and I am not looking forward to it. Have you encountered this problem (the non-disappearing table autonumber)? Do you have any other technique for doing this? Thanks for reading all this. ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as lin...@techcomplus.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/lindag%40techcomplus.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameuser
Conditional text for single-sourcing
This is a lengthy, nitty-gritty explanation of one oddity I'm encountering as I rework a manual in Framemaker for conversion to a .chm file. So, if you like nitty-gritty stuff, read on. If you find such discussions unbearably tedious . . . you might want to read something else! Because I started with an existing manual, I couldn't create clean standards that would make conversion easy. Example: the manual has introductory sentences like "Figure 3.12 shows a waveform generated by an Open test." It is followed by an anchored frame containing the figure, and then a caption with autonumbering that says "Figure 3.12. Open Test Waveform" In the online help system, this topic can be reached from any direction; as a result, chapter and figure numbers have no meaning. Therefore, I mask them using conditional text. Translation standards say that it is best to create an entire, alternative sentence, rather than creating conditional phrases. That's because the grammatical structures of other languages may not accommodate the alternatives that make sense in English. Therefore, I apply my PDF condition tag to "Figure 3.12 shows a waveform generated by an Open test." and to the entire caption. I create this sentence: "The following figure shows a waveform generated by an Open test." and apply my Online Help condition tag to it. The PDF has the original sentence, the figure, and the caption. The Online Help has the new introductory sentence, the figure, and no caption. OK, well and good. However, when I try to apply the same process to Table titles, I can rewrite the introductory sentence just fine and apply conditional tags to the two versions. But, the table title autonumber is built into the Table Title somehow. If I select the Table Title and apply the "PDF" condition tag to it, and display only the "Online Help" conditional text, I still get the autonumber in the Table Title. The actual title text is gone, but the autonumber remains. It seems to be hard-wired into the table itself. It appears that my only recourse is to set my table formats to No Title in the Table Designer, and then insert a free-standing autonumbered Table Title paragraph, which can be completely masked with conditional text. This means redoing a lot of tables (in a 400+ page document), and in the template I am creating, and I am not looking forward to it. Have you encountered this problem (the non-disappearing table autonumber)? Do you have any other technique for doing this? Thanks for reading all this. ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.