TOUGH ONE

Peter Gold peter at knowhowpro.com
Sat Jan 27 08:40:39 PST 2007 

You're welcome, Michael.

Once again you've only replied to me, rather than to the list. You need 
to understand that this is a shared community in which whoever knows 
something to contribute, does contribute. Writing only to one community 
member puts the work on that person, and also closes off the possibility 
that others may have more useful information for you.

You're correct that you should have disclosed more detail about the 
complex task you're working on. You don't say how you're scripting - 
FrameScript, FrameAC, or some other tool. There are many skilled users 
of both tools in the FrameMaker user community who could probably offer 
you some paths to solutions as free advice, or as paid custom scripting 
help. I do not know any of the scripting tools.

Further, it seems that you may not have any identifying characteristic 
for the paragraphs that need the special attention, or at least that the 
decision about when to apply the special attributes to a paragraph isn't 
available in the paragraph or its format. For this kind of work, perhaps 
structured FrameMaker would work. It's able to check rules that you set 
up, and apply formatting and other changes. For example, if you want the 
last paragraph in a numbered or bulleted list to have extra space after, 
you can write this into the EDD, and FrameMaker's rules-checker will do 
it. This means that you only need to apply one format for all list 
items, instead one for the "regular" items, and a special one for the 
last. Similarly, a rule can identify the first item in a numbered list, 
and apply the equivalent of <n=1>, and apply the equivalent of <n+> to 
all the others. When you move items in the sequence, the rules recheck 
the list and apply the first-item rule to the new first item, and the 
last-item rule to the new last item.

Taking on the task of migrating to structure isn't trivial, but if 
you're already willing to invest in learning scripting, you might find 
advantages to learning the structured approach. There are many skilled 
structure folks in the community who can help you when you get stuck.

I'm copying this to the list, for others to see, and perhaps comment upon.
________________
Regards,

Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices


Michael Zaichenko wrote:
> Peter, thanks for such an extensive answer.
> I took notes. Sorry for not telling you at the start, I'm quite 
> advanced in FrameMaker and been scripting for years. It is as well my 
> omission to not tell you I'm looking for a scripting solution to this 
> pbm. See, what I'm trying to resolve here is a separate page or a 
> spread where only one property of each (no necessarily consecutive) 
> paragraph (not necessarily similarly tagged) has to change 
> independently of the rest of the properties (this would need to be 
> done on several files). Like if you would copy and paste paragraph 
> properties but only selected ones.
> I'm developing a script to do this thing and I'm half way with it - 
> storing needed attributed in an .ini file. The bug I'm running into is 
> that I can't replace properties in the property list or apply only 
> those from the .ini file. .ini file contains strings like 'PROPERTY 
> KeepWithNext(0)'
> See what I mean? Sorry for not being clear at the start.
> Michael
>
>
>> From: Peter Gold <peter at knowhowpro.com>
>> To: Michael Zaichenko <biozaichenko at hotmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: TOUGH ONE
>> Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 17:52:05 -0600
>>
>> Hi, Michael:
>>
>> (PLEASE NOTE: It's always a good idea to reply to the list, or both 
>> the list and the person, rather than replying only to the person. 
>> This helps share the information as well as the effort of responding 
>> to follow-on questions.)
>>
>> Thanks for your question. I took a closer look at the help 
>> documentation and noticed - actually, I didn't notice - the important 
>> missing step:
>>
>> To modify specific paragraph or character attributes across several 
>> different character or paragraph formats:
>>
>> NOTE: Always experiment on saved copies, not on your only good 
>> versions of the files.
>>
>> * Select the paragraph formats you want to modify. If they are not 
>> consecutive, rearrange or re-tag a series of paragraphs to suit your 
>> needs.
>>
>> * Open the appropriate designer (Paragraph, Character, or Table - 
>> YES!!! you can redefine tables the same way.)
>>
>> * The missing step: Choose Commands > Set Window to As Is. This makes 
>> all the properties in the designer become "no change."
>>
>> * Choose the property page you need, Basic, Default Font, etc. Set 
>> the specific attribute or attributes on that property page as you need.
>>
>> * Click Update All.
>>
>> * In the Global Update Options dialog box that appears, choose (Name 
>> of the property page) Only (Don't choose All Properties). The 
>> selected paragraphs (characters, tables) are defined to the new 
>> property attribute(s) of this one property page.
>>
>> * Change to another property page, again choose Commands > Set Window 
>> to As Is, and repeat with this and any other property pages you need.
>>
>> When you're done with these changes and have decided that they are 
>> what you want, save the file.
>>
>> To change the format properties in more than one file, using a 
>> FrameMaker book file is the most efficient. If you're not familiar 
>> with using books, search for books in FrameMaker help and read up on 
>> it. If you are familiar with books, search for Changing the format of 
>> files in a book in Help. You'll see how to import formats from the 
>> single changed file to other files in the book. There's a 
>> cross-reference link in this topic to Importing and updating formats, 
>> for more information.
>>
>> If your "random files" are not in a book, you can use File > Import > 
>> File from one file to one file, rather than using the book for 
>> importing from one file to many. Or, you can create a book, add the 
>> names of the random files to the book, then import the format(s) from 
>> the one prototype file to the whole group at once.
>>
>> Again, use a saved copy of all files while you're experimenting with 
>> these techniques.
>>
>> Other resources: Search Google, the frameusers.com archives (when 
>> they're repaired), and the FrameMaker User-to-User groups at 
>> Adobe.com. These questions have been answered before, and you may 
>> find other approaches in these resources.
>>
>>
>> HTH
>> ________________
>> Regards,
>>
>> Peter Gold
>> KnowHow ProServices
>>
>> Michael Zaichenko wrote:
>>> Thanks Peter,
>>> what if I want to paste one or two properties to several documents 
>>> consecutively without changing rest of the settings. UpdateAll is 
>>> not an option here.
>>> I literally need to copy one or two properties and paste them across 
>>> several documents at random.
>>> Ideas?
>>> Michael
>>>
>>>
>>>> From: Peter Gold <peter at knowhowpro.com>
>>>> To: Michael Zaichenko <biozaichenko at hotmail.com>
>>>> CC: framers at lists.frameusers.com
>>>> Subject: Re: TOU`GH ONE
>>>> Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:39:31 -0600
>>>>
>>>> Hi, Michael:
>>>>
>>>> Search for
>>>>
>>>> Globally applying formats to text
>>>>
>>>> in FrameMaker's help.
>>>>
>>>> HTH
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Peter Gold
>>>> KnowHow ProServices
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Michael Zaichenko wrote:
>>>>> Hello there,
>>>>> Looking for a way to copy one property of a paragraph? like it's 
>>>>> spacebelow or keepwithnext? and paste it over to many other 
>>>>> paragraphs. BUT ONLY ONE PROPERTY.
>>>>> Braincracker, huh?
>>>>> Michael
>>>>
>>>
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