(Newbie) Structured FM Question: Notes, Tips, etc.

[Lin Surasky]

Hi all-

I'm brand-spankin' new to this structured stuff, so please bear with me
and my ignorance....

We have a fabulous unstructured template that has 4 different table
formats our writers use to insert alerts (Notes, Tips, Important facts,
and Warnings). All of the table formats are single-row, two-column
layouts, but each table format (named zNote, zTip, etc.) is unique in
two ways: the color of the column rule and the paragraph tag used in the
first column of the table, which corresponds to the type of alert (note,
tip, etc.). For example:

     |
Note | Note text goes here. Note text always uses one 
     | of two paragraph formats: Note or Note Bullet.
     | 

The word Note (or Tip, etc.) is actually a graphic on the reference page
that the paragraph format zAnchorNote calls. When a user inserts a Note
in the unstructured template, the paragraph formats are automatically
assigned. So if a user inserts a Tip and they choose the zTip table
format, the word Tip automatically appears in the first column, because
the table format is using zAnchorTip, which calls the right graphic from
the reference page....

Okay... So here's my structured question, in case anyone's still
reading.

What's the best way to implement this and still get the same end result?
Should I not be using tables? The closest I can get is inserting a table
with the same paragraph format assigned to both table cells, which I
don't want. How do you specify one paragraph format for one column and a
different format for the second column?

Thanks for any and all help!
-Lin

Lin Surasky
Technical Writer
Retalix USA
520-298-7757 x3109
www.retalix.com