Disappearing anchored frames: strange FrameMaker bug

[Les Smalley]

Are your frames anchored to a unique paragraph tag?  If they are, a possible fix is to change the pagination properties for the 'anchor' paragraph to be across all columns and sideheads.  You may need to adjust the anchored frame placement if it in fact does indent based on the sidehead margin which I know is a pain...

If the sidehead margin really isn't used, meaning all the paragraph style are set to span across columns and sideheads, why can't you delete it?  It should have no visible effect on the documents and may simplify work going forward as well as possibly eliminate the disappearing anchored frame issue.  

If the template has other problems as you indicate, I would try a test: create a new blank document, set up the master (with the possible exception of the sidehead space) and reference pages manually to match the document design in question, and then import only the paragraph, character, table and cross-reference formats from an original document.  Test this as a template on a couple of files to see if the problems are solved.

– Les

--- On Mon, 12/7/09, Steve Rickaby <srickaby at wordmongers.demon.co.uk> wrote:
I have made a little progress by messing with a test file. I'm still looking for quick fixes, of necessity.

The template for this book was inherited from an Indian company, and had some bad stuff in it (such as requiring a triple-click to select a word rather than a double-click (!?&*?!), of which perhaps not all has been cleaned out. The main flow has a 30-point left/right side-head margin, although I have no idea why: it's not used for anything. We are stuck with this design as several books have already been published using it.

Anyway, in the test file I can make a specific figure 'disappear' by floating it. By experimentation, it seems that this problem only occurs if the anchored frame is wide enough to move into the side-head margin. This effect is reproducible:

. Set frame width to be inside side-head space

. Float it - figure behaves as expected

. Enlarge frame so that it just expands into side-head space

. Anchored frame vanishes

. Undo - anchored frame reappears

When the frame is visible, FrameMaker places it such that it divides the rows of a table. That might be part of the bug.

This at least gives me a possible workaround. I will persist.

-- 
Steve