Question about flow and background text frames

[Andy Kass]

Thanks, Richard, for confirming that that's just how FM works.

I still don't see the technical limitation. Master pages are applied
to the body pages, which in my mind implies being copied into the
relevant body page. So it would be possible to compute the page that
the text frame appears on and link to it in the TOC. If a text frame
is used repeatedly, it should just get several TOC entries (indexing
would work similarly).

To me, it just seems that disconnecting a text frame is overloaded
with the meaning of making it background as well. I'm thinking it
should work just like a text inset, just stored on the Master pages
instead of in a separate file (because it will never be shared with
another file). But I'm new to working with Body/Master/Reference
pages, so maybe I am misunderstanding them.

  Andy

----- "Richard Combs" <richard.combs at Polycom.com> wrote:
> The primary purpose of background text frames is to hold text that
> repeats on multiple pages -- yes, you may have a First master page
> that occurs only once per file, but it's the exception that proves the
> rule. :-) 
> 
> The functionality you'd like really can't be made to exist without
> significant change in how FM works. 
> 
> A TOC consists of hypertext links (go to markers) to specific points
> in the flow (destination markers). If the destination marker were on
> the master page, how would the link work? FM would have to somehow
> replicate that destination marker on each body page (floating on the
> page somewhere, since there's no text location for it) where the
> background text appeared. 
> 
> If there were more than one such body page, which one would the link
> in the TOC point to? FM would then have to make each replicated marker
> unique so that each link pointed to a unique destination. 
> 
> The "workaround" is to put the heading in the main flow at the top of
> the first body page. And then don't edit it. It's only going to change
> if someone consciously edits the text. Is it really that hard for you
> and/or your co-workers to refrain from doing that? :-) 
>
> Andy Kass wrote:
>  
> > I'm working on templates and having an issue with background text
> > frames. What I'd like is for the Glossary and Index template files
> > to have permanent headings, that is cannot be edited on the body
> > pages.
> > 
> > After reading the help, it sounds like I need to put the heading in
> > a background text frame on a First master page. But to make a
> > background text frame, it must be untagged and unconnected, which
> > means the heading it contains no longer shows up in my Table of
> > Contents.
> > 
> > Does anyone know a workaround or another way to achieve this?