Frame's lame callouts
Yves Barbion
yves.barbion at gmail.com
Thu Nov 15 04:47:16 PST 2007
And adding to what Ann and Diane said, I can also suggest the following:
* Create a dedicated table format for your callouts. This can be a
single-cell table with shading, for example light yellow. Thus,
you can place these callouts on dark and light backgrounds, for
example pictures taken with a digital camera. The callouts will
always be visible.
* Also use callout lines with a white "border" for the same reason:
no matter what the background color is, the callout lines will
always be clearly distinguishable. To do this: draw a dark-colored
line of 0.5 pt. Copy and paste the line and change its thickness
to 2 pt. Make the thick line a bit longer. Select both lines and
align them T/B and L/C centers. Leave both lines selected and
group them. You can also change the lines' cap style to round to
make them look really nice.
* If possible and appropriate, use letters (A, B, C, D...) instead
of "full text" as callouts and put the callout text below the
graphic. It may require a bit more effort of the reader to look
up the relevant callout, but it will save you a lot of work if the
documentation is translated. You won't need to waste your time
resizing the callout text frames. You can also put the entire
graphic and the callouts in a dedicated graphic table. This makes
it easier to position the callout text: next to the graphic or in
two columns below the graphic. You can put the graphic in the
header row of the graphic table and the callout text (e.g. A.
On/off switch) in the body rows. Thus, the callouts will always
stay together with the graphic, for example at the bottom of a
column or page.
* If you cannot use callout letters, make sure that the callout text
frames are large enough to accommodate translated text.
Of course, all of the above, applies to unstructured FrameMaker. In
structured FrameMaker (for example with DITA) : place your callouts on a
separate layer in Photoshop or Illustrator and check with your
translation company whether they can easily handle this.
Good luck and kind regards
Yves Barbion
Documentation Architect
Adobe-Certified FrameMaker Instructor
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Diane Gaskill wrote:
> Adding to what Ann said, ALL text in frames is picked up by the Translators
> Workbench and can easily be translated as part of the body text flow. Free
> text winds up at the end of the file. Although it is translatable, it take
> more time and you will be charged for it becasue they have to look at it
> separately. My advice to anyone whose docs have even the remotest chance of
> being translated - use text frames for anything that will be translated,
> including callouts of course.
>
> I did not see this mentioned so I also wanted to say something about
> shortcuts when creating callouts. Create a callout-sized text frame and tag
> the empty paragraph with your callout tag. Move the frame to the side of he
> page. Then copy and paste the empty frame wherever you need a callout.
> Edit the text in each callout. Much easier and faster than creating a new
> text frame and tagging the text every time.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Diane Gaskill
> Hitachi Data Systems
> ========================
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
> [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com]On Behalf Of Ann Zdunczyk
> Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 2:02 PM
> To: framers at frameusers.com
> Subject: RE: Frame's lame callouts
>
>
>
> Another reason to use Text Frames rather than Graphical Text is if you have
> you documents translated this works MUCH better. I have seen do done both
> ways and if you use Graphical text the layout person has to remember to see
> if the translated text is hidden under the edge of the graphic frame. If you
> use the Text Frames then the text wraps with in the frame.
>
> Z
>
> ******************************************************************
> Ann Zdunczyk
> President
> a2z Publishing, Inc.
> Language Layout & Translation Consulting
> Phone: (336)922-1271
> Fax: (336)922-4980
> Cell: (336)456-4493
> http://www.a2z-pub.com
> ******************************************************************
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
> [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Susan Modlin
> Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 4:57 PM
> To: Rene Stephenson; Fred Ridder; Flato, Gillian; framers at frameusers.com
> Subject: Re: Frame's lame callouts
>
> I also use a text frame, but take it one step further with a FrameScript
> that inserts a text frame in an anchored frame, sizes it, and sets the
> paragraph tag for me.
>
> ...Susan
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Rene Stephenson <rinnie1 at yahoo.com>
> To: Fred Ridder <docudoc at hotmail.com>; "Flato, Gillian"
> <gflato at nanometrics.com>; framers at frameusers.com
> Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 12:11:59 PM
> Subject: RE: Frame's lame callouts
>
>
> My solution for this is creating a paragraph tag (Callouts) and using the
> Text Frame tool to draw a little text box for the callout. Doing this also
> enables us to insert cross-references for callouts, which adds similar
> navigation to graphic hotspots. ;-)
>
> Rene Stephenson
>
> Fred Ridder <docudoc at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Gillian Flato asked (in part):>
>
>> Does anyone know why I can't apply styles to them globally? I have to
>> open up the character designer and apply a style to each word
>> individually.
>>
>
> Callouts created with the drawing tools cannot be manipulated with named
> styles because they are not paragraphs in the text flow. They are lines of
> characters in a graphic frame which is entirely separate from the text flow
> even though it is surrounded by it.
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