Missing a blank line in the TOC for a manual

[Combs, Richard]

Thomas Scalise wrote:
 
> I am using Frame8 p277 unstructured on a desktop running XP SP3.
> 
> 
> 
> I have a manual with 5 chapters, When I compile the manual, the TOC puts
> the correct blank line between the last entry in Chapter 1 and the
> Chapter name for chapter 2, and so on, until we reach Chapter 4. There
> is no blank line between the last item in Chapter 3 and the Chapter name
> for chapter 4. The blank line returns between the end of Chapter 4 and
> the Chapter name for Chapter 5, and so on to the Index.
> 
> 
> 
> I have done some sleuthing and determined that the problem lie with the
> end of Chapter 3 in the book. All the chapters show that they are in
> Flow A. The only difference is that the end of Chapter 3 has, as its
> last item, an end-of-flow mark. I don't know why that mark is at the end
> of Chapter 3. It is possible that Chapter 4 was copied from another book
> and inserted in this book.
> 
> 
> 
> I think that is the problem but I have not been able to erase that mark.
> Can anyone suggest how best to solve this aggravating problem?

Are you using a book containing individual chapter files or not? You describe Chapter 4 as "inserted in this book," which suggests it's a file. 

If each chapter is in its own *.fm file (the normal way of doing things in FM), then _every_ chapter file ends with an end-of-flow symbol because a text flow is fully contained in a file. The chapters aren't "in Flow A," it's the other way around. "A" is just the default name for the main flow in each file. There is no connection between Flow A in Chpater 1 and Flow A in Chapter 2. They just happen to share the same name (which you're free to change). 

OTOH, if you have all your chapters in a single FM file -- well, IMHO that's a bad idea, and it undermines some of the advantages to FM's book functionality. But if that's what you have, then the only reason for the main flow to end part-way through that file is because what follows is in a different/disconnected flow. You should preferably split the chapters into separate files, and barring that, cut and paste the contents of the disconnected second flow into the end of the first flow (then delete the empty pages). 

But none of that directly deals with your TOC problem. There shouldn't be "blank lines" in your TOC. The correct way to create extra space above the chapter titles is to define that space into the paragraph format for the chapter title entries in the TOC. Assuming the paragraph format used for chapter titles is ChapTitle, then the format for their TOC entries is ChapTitleTOC. 

As for the blank lines you do have, are they actually empty paragraphs? (Turn on View > Symbols if it isn't on; do they end with a pilcrow, or end-of-paragraph symbol?) If they are what's their paragraph format name? If their format name is FoobarTOC, that means your TOC setup is telling FM to include Foobar paragraphs in the TOC, and in your chapters (either at the end or at the beginning before the title) you have empty Foobar paragraphs. 

The best practice fix, as I mentioned, is to use the paragraph format definitions to create the desired spacing. But as a quick fix, you could add an empty Foobar paragraph (or whatever it is) either at the end of Chapter 3 or above the title of Chapter 4, whichever convention is used in the other chapters.

HTH!

Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
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