Text Insets: Any Gotchas?

[Steve Rickaby]

At 13:22 -0700 15/5/07, Angela Akridge wrote:

>Are there any gotchas with using text insets? For example, can I insert
>xrefs so long as all books that use the text inset have the section to which
>the text entity references? I assume that I'd need to regenerate to get the
>appropriate page number as the page number will vary from book to book.

Yes, there are, although it depends a lot whether the inset files are pure text (plain ASCII) or formatted text such as another FrameMaker file. It's a pity that the term 'text inset' is used, rather than, say, 'file insets', as the fact that text insets are most often *not* pure text is confusing:

. There is a bug in FrameMaker that causes an inset of a FrameMaker file to apply the paragraph formatting to the line following the inset. There are workarounds to this, which you should be able to find in the archives.

. For the same or a related reason, consecutive text insets can pose problems.

. A normal FrameMaker cross-reference into a text inset will break when/if the inset is updated. The workaround for this is the create an explicit cross-reference to a named marker. That is, you must create a named marker in the FrameMaker file to be inset, import it, and then explicitly reference that marker in your cross-reference(s). You cannot, of course, create a cross-reference into an ASCII inset.

. Search/replace and spell checking don't look inside text insets. A way around this is to separately create an ur-book that contains all your text inset files, and spell check/search that. The ur-book is merely a maintenance device, and has no relationship to your working book(s).

. The inheritance of variables in text insets is complex and depends on the formatting options of the inset. It could therefore pose a maintenance headache.

. Ditto conditional text settings.

I recently wrote an article about the use of text insets to construct modular books. Mail me off list if you'd like a copy.

I don't really understand your point about page numbering, other than to say yes, you always have to update a book to get correct page numbering.

-- 
Steve