Question on external formats and question on TOC settings

[Paul Pehrson]

Hello fellow Frame users,

This is my first post to the list; I joined yesterday. I've been using Frame
for about two years, but I only recently started a job where I'm a lone
writer, in charge of all documentation for my organization. Previously, I've
been using Frame, but my supervisor was the one who created/updated all
templates, formats, etc., so I didn't really learn to use a lot of Frame's
features.

I'm excited to be on this list and to learn from your collective experience.

Today I come with two questions. First: is there a way to use an external
formats document similar to a CSS style sheet using unstructured Frame?

I have four books that I'm developing concurrently. The average book has 6
chapters, so I've got a good number of individual .fm documents I'm working
with. As I go, I'm encountering new format needs. I modify the format
accordingly, but then I have to import that document's formats into all the
other documents I'm working with. I'd like to know if Frame has an external
formats document that can be referenced, such that formats changed in that
document are automatically reflected across all documents that link to that
formats doc. Does that make sense? Do you know any way to make Frame do
this? (I'm stuck with Frame 7.0 for now.)

Second: When you build a TOC, is there a way to get Frame to insert a tab
between the heading text and the page number? I'm having to do this manually
every time I build the book files (which is daily, because I'm making my
in-process work available to our internal developers and support people).
I'm just sure there must be some place where I can tell Frame that I want a
tab between the heading text and the page number. I just can't find it. Any
help available?

Thanks. I look forward to participating in the Framers online community.


Paul Pehrson
Midvale, UT