Spanned figures in multi-column layouts: SOLVED

[Steve Rickaby]

At 18:01 +0000 7/12/06, Steve Rickaby wrote:

>I am struggling to find a way to make an anchored frame span more than one column of a multi-column layout. If I set the frame uncropped, it messes with the text flow (the text threads to adjacent columns above the figure, which is not what I want), and if I set it cropped, half of it disappears behind the adjacent column of text. If I create a  paragraph for the anchor that has 'across all columns' set, I get the same effect as setting the frame uncropped.
>
>I suspect it might be something to do with the runaround properties of the frame, but I seem to remember that this can only be accessed using Dark Magic. Can anyone suggest a solution?

It turns out that my mistake was to use anchored frames at all. (Yes, I know I said 'I am struggling to find a way to make an *anchored frame* span...', but I was deep in a fallacious mind-set.) Not being used to multi-column layouts with figures - as opposed to indexes, with no figures - I naturally thought in terms of anchored frames. This is not helped by the fact that if you paste a graphic into a text flow, FrameMaker's default behavior is to create an anchored frame and place the graphic in it.

The solution is blissfully simple:

. Create a multi-column master page (in my case, three) as required by the text layout.

. On the body pages, use the graphic tool to draw the (static) frame for the graphic.

. Right-click the graphic frame and select 'Runaround properties...' (this is the key step - for some reason, you cannot do this with an anchored frame).

. Set runaround to 'run around bounding box'  (the other options are 'run around contour' and 'no runaround')

. Import required graphic into frame

The graphics frame can then be dragged around the page and resized and the text obligingly flows around it. However, maddeningly, if you copy and paste it, FrameMaker puts the pasted version into another verdammt anchored frame :-(

Thanks to Art and Fred for their help.

-- 
Steve