hypertext marker location in generated index

Shlomo Perets shlomo2 at microtype.com
Wed Jan 28 22:12:48 PST 2009


Suzanne,

You wrote:

>I'm editing a manual in unstructured FM 7.2 and until recently I was
>under the impression that someone forgot to set up the index to make
>its entries clickable.
>
>however I came to realize that, in the generated TOC, the hypertext
>markers are located at the start of each line, and you can click
>anywhere on the line to access the related content, whereas, in the
>generated index, the markers appear *after* the associated entry, and
>the clickable area does exist but it is very small (it is limited to
>the exact location of the marker). ...


When FrameMaker creates hypertext markers in indexes, it places
the markers in front of each page number.

Active areas expand on both sides of the marker, until there is
(a) a change in character properties, or (b) beginning or end of
paragraph are met, or (c) another hypertext marker is found --
whatever comes first.

If there is no special formatting of page numbers, the active
area includes the entire page number, as a minimum. First page
number in each entry will also make the index term itself
clickable.

If you want the index page number to look different (eg blue),
modify the paragraph properties of the IndexIX pgf (<$pagenum> in
the Index specification in the reference page) using the
paragraph designer. You may also add a character format in front
of the <$pagenum> building block.

If the active area matches the width of the hypertext marker
itself (very small), this indicates that there are some
additional character properties applied. Other than removing the
additional character properties, a FrameScript can be used to
duplicate the unique hypertext marker in each area with distinct
formatting. While this is typically useful in TOC (where entries
may retrieve formatting from source paragraphs, such as
superscript or font changes), it should not be needed in indexes.


Shlomo Perets

MicroType * http://www.microtype.com
FrameMaker training & consulting * FrameMaker-to-Acrobat TimeSavers

"Improve Your FrameMaker Skills" live web-based training sessions
(Including an "Indexing Essentials" session, February 12)




More information about the framers mailing list