Horizontal Range Braces

[Syed.Hosain at aeris.net]

Thanks! I will give this a try today.

Z

-----Original Message-----
From: Baruch Brodersen [mailto:Baruch.Brodersen at bigbandnet.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 6:15 AM
To: Syed Zaeem Hosain (Syed.Hosain at aeris.net);
framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Horizontal Range Braces

Z,

You can create horizontal range braces in the Delimiter menu of the
Equation editor (Special > Equations Delimiter).

Inserting them is a little trickier. Create an equation with the sole
content being the horizontal range brace. To extend the width of the
brace you need to add text characters in the equation. If you don't want
those to appear in your final document, create a color---name it
something like "Invisible" (Special > Color > Definition > New Color)
and then give it an invisible view: (Special > Color > View >
Invisible). 

[It's been a while since I've done this, so feel free to chime in on the
correct method.]

Then create a new charter format and set everything to As Is except the
color, which you should make Invisible. Use that to make the characters
needed to widen the horizontal range brace disappear.

Shrink-wrap the equation (Esc, m, p), then select the equation's
anchored frame and change the alignment from Cropped to Floating
(Special > Anchored Frame). Drag the horizontal range brace to the
location you want, then right-click to send-to-back or front, or
whatever. You might consider creating the whole lot in a text inset so
the horizontal range brace moves with the text.

Best,

Baruch Brodersen


-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of
Syed.Hosain at aeris.net
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 2:21 AM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: 

Hi, all.
 
I am using FrameMaker 8 on a Windows Vista system.

How can I insert a "horizontal range brace" character or graphic like
the ones used in figure 3-4 on page 23 of this paper:

"h t t p : / / w w w . c d g . o r g / resources / white_papers /
MEID_EUIMID_Migration . p d f"

(All these e-mails from me to the list are bouncing. I assume they are
not going through due to the above URL. I will try again with many
spaces inserted. Please remove them to get to the file.)

The figure uses downward (and one upward) pointing brace-like "range
delimiters" that I'd like to do in a similar way for some diagrams I am
working. And to be able to simply and easily stretch them horizontally
to grow and shrink them as needed for other ranges. Without messing up
the quality of the curves at each end - i.e., make them look similar.

I can do everything else in that figure pretty easily, but I am stumped
on this particular item! I thought about trying to use the Equation
editor (did not see anything useful), or rotating a "{" text box (looked
messy when stretched), but these attempts did not work. The graphics
drawing tools just seem too limited for this ...

I am trying to avoid any tools outside FrameMaker to achieve this
result, by the way.

Thoughts? How have other people done anything similar?

Thanks in advance,

Z