Bleeds and a FrameMaker graphics oddity

[Steve Rickaby]

I've been trying to set up a bleed margin on a rectangular graphical ornament on the master page. The visual appearance of the ornament is required to be a .25 point rule 'flush' with the page edge. (Uh-huh). Thought someone might be interested in the problem and one possible solution...

Try this: on a master page, use the graphics tools to draw a rectangle. Now use the nudge keys to nudge it off the right-hand side of the page. No problem.

Now try the same thing with a horizontal line: no problem.

Now try it with a vertical line. Uh? Seems like FrameMaker's coded so that a graphic object is not allowed to be made invisible by moving it completely off the visible page. Makes sense, I guess, *but the rule is applied even if the object being made 'invisible' is part of a group*. This means that it's impossible to set up a bleed area for a rectangular ornament by grouping a thick line with the right-hand edge of the thin rectangle.

Workaround A: create a solid rectangle, then mask it with a white rectangle to leave the required borders, and nudge it off the page edge? Nope: this doesn't work with other solid color on the page, as a transparent object is required.

Workaround B: create the rectangle by grouping four lines of differing thicknesses? Nope: fails the 'object cannot be made invisible even if part of a group' rule.

Workaround C: try the same sort of thing with graphics boxes with solid borders. Fails for more or less the same reasons - an object cannot be made completely invisible.

Workaround D: create the required graphical object elsewhere and import it into the master page. Bingo! An anchored frame in a text frame can be nudged off the visible page, therefore so can its contents. This allows precise positioning of the imported object, even if some of it is off the page edge.
-- 
Steve