question about overrides

[Stuart Rogers]

Deirdre Reagan wrote:
> Hi all, good morning.
> 
> FM 8.0, XP.
> 
> This is really a best practices question.
> 
> A couple of weeks ago, there was a discussion about overrides, and how
> they should be used rarely or not at all.
> 
> So I thought about that and started to watch our use of overrides.
> 
> We use overrides all the time.  For instance, if a figure would be
> better placed at the top of the next page, we create that override
> (our figure tag is set at Anywhere).
> 
> We also used Top of Page when we want to keep a paragraph from
> breaking over two pages.
> 
> Is it really preferable to create a paragraph tag for each instance of
> formatting?  I'd end up a lot of one-time-use-only tags.
> 
> Also, most of these overrides occur in the editing process, after the
> content has been established and we are focused on making the document
> look professional.  Should I be creating tags as I edit the document,
> rather than override the existing tag as I make layout decisions?
> 
> A second question, now that I'm really thinking about this:
> 
> I'm really bothered by the Top of Page as an override, because if we
> add text to the front end, that override is going to force a Top of
> Page we might not want.  But I haven't been able to find a "keep
> together" option, like Word has for keeping lines of text together.
> Next Pgf is similar, but it works differently in significant ways.
> You can't Next Pgf a single paragraph, for instance, but you can keep
> it whole without forcing it to the top of the next page in Word.
> 
> Anyway, any comments and insight into the override / editor's role /
> tidying up the document / is there a "keep together" issue would be
> most welcome!
> 
> Thanks,

It's normal procedure to tidy up page layouts as a last step after 
content editing.  There are different methods that can be used to 
accomplish the task, but there is no advantage to creating single-use tags.

You can override the pgf tag as you do now.  The advantage is that if 
content changes and you need to tweak layout again, you can simply 
import pgf formats from the current document and tell FM to remove 
overrides in the process.  This is safe only if you restrict overrides 
to a very limited set of purposes and can confidently remove them all.

Some people like to avoid overrides completely, and use a different 
technique to bump pgfs to the next page.  Create a "pb PageBreak" pgf 
tag that has a font size of 2pt and a space after of 999pt.  When you 
want to bump a pgf to the following page, insert a blank pgf before it 
and tag it with the page break tag.  You can supplement this method with 
simple cut/paste operations to reposition figures and captions, tables, etc.

As for keeping the lines within a single pgf from breaking, Keep With 
Next Pgf obviously doesn't apply.  Instead, increase the Widow/Orphan 
value on the Pagination tab, or use the page break tag method.  (MS 
Word's keep together option will still force a pgf to the next page if 
it doesn't all fit on the current page.  You'll get the same effect in 
FM by setting Widow/Orphan to a high value.)

HTH,

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

srogers phoenix-geophysics com

In matters of politics, I never believe anything until it's officially 
denied.