Creating a working generated TOC using Structured Framemaker

[russ at weststreetconsulting.com]

Valerie,
 
Perhaps, then, your XML equivalent is not representative of what you are actually seeing, because that example you provided does put the text inside the desired element. If the text is actually not being wrapped, something is wrong with your conversion table.
 
Note that if you are generating your TOC based on elements and those elements have context labels, the context labels appear in parenthesis for the TOC formats. For example, a Heading element with a context label of "1" would generate the Heading(1)TOC format in the TOC.  For some reason, when you reference these formats in a conversion table, you need to escape the parenthesis with backslashes. I don't know why this is.  Something like:
 
Wrap this object or objects         In this element
 
P:Heading\(1\)TOC                   TOC1
P:Heading\(2\)TOC                   TOC2

It seems like you may have already gotten that part, so if so, please disregard. One other item of note is that there may not be any good reason to preserve the inherent hierarchy of a TOC in the structure, unless some post process depends on it. Otherwise, because the TOC is autogenerated, there is no value to the added complexity of structural hierarchy. In other words, you might be able to get away with somthing like:

TOC
| 
| - TOC1
|
| - TOC2
| 
| - TOC2
| 
| - TOC3
| 
| - TOC2
| 
| - TOC1

etc.

In any case, you should be able to structure a TOC with a valid structure in the end. I've done it many times.

All this does beg the question, though, of why you want to do this. I used to do it out of a sense of purity, but finally realized that it had no value to me. If you are exporting XML, I'd think that any post-process would do its own contents and indexing.

If all else fails and you really need this, send me a sample TOC and your conversion table. I should be able to find your problem without too much trouble.

Russ
 
 

 

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Creating a working generated TOC using Structured
Framemaker
From: "Valerie Lipow" <vallipow at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, February 08, 2008 1:36 pm
To: russ at weststreetconsulting.com
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com

Hi Russ,

Thanks for replying!

The problem I see is that in the Structure View window, with the text of the Heading lies outside of a tagged element; i.e., in FM it appears with the red vertical ellipsis and seems to be outside the valid structure.

If I can relax about the look of the Structure View, please let me know, and I'll use this Structured TOC as is. If there is something else I should do in the EDD, please advise.

Val

On Feb 8, 2008 5:04 AM, <russ at weststreetconsulting.com> wrote:
Valerie,

I have used lots of structured TOCs before, so I'd like to try to help. However, I'm having a little trouble understanding your question, because based on your description, your outcome seems correct to me. You said you ended up with this:


<Heading /Level/TOC>
<hypertext> the link to the source in the .fm document </hypertext>
.....the text of the Heading in the .fm document
</Heading /Level/TOC>


Isn't that what you want? This should produce an operational TOC entry and looks like what I have produced in the past when using structured TOCs.

Rudd

Message: 21
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 11:27:27 -0800
From: "Valerie Lipow" <vallipow at gmail.com>
Subject: Creating a working generated TOC using Structured Framemaker
- Need Help
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Message-ID:
<808ccaab0802071127g667a1dcev388563a8d4463fd2 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I have inherited a book containing multiple documents and generated TOC and
Index. The documents have been structured. However, I want to structure the
TOC and Index as well. I have created a Conversion Table and an EDD to
impose structure on the generated TOC.

As I was experimenting with this type of EDD on a generated file, I saw in
the Structure View that FM imposes a <hypertext> element in the TOC that
captured the .fm link to the Heading in the document that was added to the
TOC design. However, the text of the Heading appears outside the structure;
i.e., the pointer to the Heading and the Heading text are separated in the
structure, and FM created the marker to the pointer, although the marker was
absent in the EDD.

I understood that because no <hypertext> marker was in the EDD, the
<hypertext> pointer ID in file.fm </hypertext> was not recognized when I
imposed the EDD on the document. So, I added a marker in the EDD called
<hypertext>.

When I reimposed the EDD on the generated TOC, the content appears as
follows:

<Heading /Level/TOC>
<hypertext> the link to the source in the .fm document </hypertext>
.....the text of the Heading in the .fm document
</Heading /Level/TOC>

What should the EDD look like to capture the Heading and the pointer?

Thanks in advance,
--
Valerie Lipow
vallipow at gmail.com







-- 
Valerie Lipow
vallipow at gmail.com