character tags affecting PDF bookmarks

[Shlomo Perets]

Jeff,

>I have an FM book with the normal TOC, LOT, LOF auto-generated files.  I
>save the book as PDF.  In the Bookmarks pane of the resulting PDF file,
>each line in the TOC, LOT, and LOF are active PDF hyperlinks and work as
>expected with one exception.
...
>If I apply a "red" character tag to just the word Options, "Table 1:
>Configuration" is black and an active hyperlink, "Options . . 2" is red
>and not a hyperlink.
>
>If I generate a PDF file of just the chapter file (rather than a
>book-level PDF), applying a character tag to the TableTitle has no
>effect on the PDF bookmark (color or what works as a hyperlink).
>
>Can anyone explain this behavior?  Why do character tags affect the PDF
>bookmarks only when the PDF is generated from the .book file, and not
>when I generate a PDF from the single file.  I don't see anything in the
>PDF Options for controlling this


Are you referring to PDF bookmarks or links?

With respect to links: With all FM versions, the link area created by 
hypertext markers is delimited by a change of character properties (or the 
presence of character tags).
If your TOC entries retrieve character formatting from the source file (eg 
Superscript) or have character formatting in the TOC reference page, the 
link will be present in the beginning of the paragraph and extend only 
until the change of properties is encountered (eg the page number will not 
be hyperlinked, if present at the end of the paragraph).
See http://www.microtype.com/Hmmms.html#0305 for some examples.

This behavior is the same whether it's a generated file or a regular 
chapter, and applies equally to all methods of FM->PDF creation.

The only effective workaround is to use a FrameScript that duplicates the 
automatically-generated hypertext markers for each of the character format 
regions within the TOC paragraph. (The script can be activated 
automatically whenever the TOC is generated/updated).

With respect to bookmarks: PDF bookmarks generated by FrameMaker do not 
retrieve any character property, so if you have Italic/Bold/Symbol fonts 
within the paragraph, these are not present in the bookmark.
If you specify the TableTitle paragraph as a bookmark, related bookmarks 
will be spread throughout the set of bookmarks, possible nested under 
collapsed bookmarks. If you would like to provide direct/efficient access 
to Table/Figure bookmarks, grouping is possible through a function in the 
FM-to-Acrobat TimeSavers add-on.
See http://www.microtype.com/ImprovePDF05.html for examples.


Shlomo Perets

MicroType * http://www.microtype.com
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