question about overrides

[Deirdre Reagan]

Thanks all -- the concensus seems to be to create a special tag that I
can add to force the page break without creating an override.

Lester, to answer your question, there are times when we want the
whole paragraph to stay together. In Word, we highlight the paragraph
and choose Format > Paragraph > Keep Lines together.

A number of people have let me know that changing the Widow / Orphan
option in FM will allows me to keep paragraphs of a certain size
(seven lines, let's say) from breaking over two pages.

So that's good.

All my questions have been answered!

I really appreciate everyone's knowledge and willingness to share.

Deirdre

On 6/27/08, Lester C. Smalley <lsmalley at infocon.com> wrote:
> Fine-tuning the layout as the very final step before print is really the
> only place where such overrides are acceptable.  Then, when starting the
> update for the next edition, import formats from the template (or
> document itself) and remove overrides so you are back to only using the
> defined formatting again until it's press time.
>
> I avoid many of these overrides by defining a special "Page_Break"
> paragraph tag that has a very small (6 pt) font size, zero space above
> and large (999 pt) space below.  I can insert this BEFORE any item that
> needs to be forced to a new page, and not resort to applying a "top of
> page" setting as an override to those items.  Of course, this still
> suffers the possibility that added text earlier results in an undesired
> 'extra' page break.
>
> If I am reading your request correctly regarding keeping lines of text
> together, that is controlled by FrameMaker's Widow and Orphan setting.
> FM will not split a paragraph if it has fewer than twice this number of
> lines, e.g. if the Widow/Orphan value is 7, then a paragraph has to have
> at least 14 lines to be split over a column/page break (as fewer lines
> would not allow both 7 widowed lines and 7 orphaned lines.)  The
> downside is that you cannot specify different settings for widows and
> orphans, it is a single choice for both.
>
> Finally, I don't understand your statement "You can't Next Pgf a single
> paragraph" - can you clarify what you mean?  It certainly seems
> possible, but would be an override, which you're trying to avoid or at
> least minimize.
>
> On Friday, June 27, 2008 10:42, 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,
> |
> | Deirdre
>
> - Lester
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Lester C. Smalley              Email: lsmalley AT infocon DOT com
> Information Consultants, Inc.  Phone: 302-239-2942 FAX: 302-239-1712
> Yorklyn, DE  19736               Web: www.infocon.com
> -------------------------------------------------------
>