Question on external formats and question on TOC settings

[Bodvar Bjorgvinsson]

I see that you have got very good replies to your question, but
because you mention CSS, I gather that you are familiar with
HTML/XHTML/XML. At the same time the question rather implies that you
are not familiar with Structured FrameMaker.

Structured FrameMaker works in a similar way but much more
efficiently, one of the main differences being that the styling is
more or less intermixed with the Element Definition Document (or the
EDD) which basically works as a combination of a DTD and CSS. Based on
how you set this up (you can have the EDD refer to the Paragraph and
Character catalogs or do all the formatting within the EDD even in a
hierarchial way such as with CSS).

When you have set up the EDD you can import it, even if only to get
some formatting changes into the document you are working on. But this
is harder to learn than meddling with the Paragraph and Character
Designers.

I hope this will not scare you away from looking into the Structured
FM. It has its definitive upsides for a lot of document types.

Bodvar Bjorgvinsson
Air Atlanta Icelandic.


On 10/17/06, Paul Pehrson <paulpehrson at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
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