Conditional text in Frame 9

[Martin Ley]

Hi Rick,

Sounds like a plan - thanks for getting back to me on this. I won't go off list yet, as others may be interested or have more comments (apologies if you get this twice, therefore). If we can crack it, though, I would be definitely interested in a FrameScript.

Your initial suggestions sound good, but there may be exceptions/complications. 

* Certainly, if a complete paragraph has one (or more) conditions applied, the paragraph marker should retain those conditions when a new paragraph is created

* Consider a paragraph that is completely unconditional except for the last word; in this case FrameMaker gets it right: it leaves the paragraph marker unconditional and starts a new unconditional paragraph

In the following examples, <A>...</A> denotes the extent of the conditional text; note carefully the position of the pilcrow (¶) , inside or outside the conditional markers; I apologise if the <A> tags or the pilcrow (¶) get messed up in translation:

Example 1:
===================

	Hello <A>world</A>¶

Placing the cursor after 'world', pressing Return and typing 'Goodbye' gives:

	Hello <A>world</A>¶
	<A>Goodbye¶</A>

===================


* I'm pretty sure FrameMaker makes mistakes when changing the Show/Hide settings. I've seen a heading concatenated onto the end of the previous paragraph, which really screws things up and means you have to check carefully after updating. This will be caused by unconditional paragraph markers. I haven't tested this thoroughly, but subsequent changes in Show/Hide followed by another Update will compound the issue.

I think this may be caused by FrameMaker's inconsistent behaviour when concatenating paragraphs (by a conscious deletion on the user's part, or automatically when changing Show/Hide settings). Consider these two cases:

Example 2 (duff first para thanks to Frame):
===================

	<A>Hello world</A>¶
	<A>Goodbye¶</A>

Placing the cursor before 'Goodbye' and pressing Delete gives:

	<A>Hello worldGoodbye¶</A>

===================


Example 3 (intentional conditional 'world'):
===================

	Hello <A>world</A>¶
	<A>Goodbye¶</A>

Placing the cursor before 'Goodbye' and pressing Delete gives:

	Hello <A>worldGoodbye¶</A>

This one will definitely screw you over!!!

===================

Martin


On 26 Jan 2011, at 22:01, Rick Quatro wrote:

> If this becomes a maintenance hassle, it could be fixed automatically with
> FrameScript. I am thinking you could have a script that would check to see
> if an entire paragraph except the paragraph mark is conditional, that it
> would automatically apply that condition to the paragraph mark. The script
> could be triggered automatically when you show or hide conditional text, or
> perhaps when you add a new paragraph. If you are interested, send me a
> sample document offlist and I will see what is possible and let you know.
> 
> Rick Quatro
> Carmen Publishing Inc.
> 585-659-8267
> rick at frameexpert.com
> 
> *** Frame Automation blog at http://frameautomation.com
> 
> Subject: Re: Conditional text in Frame 9
> 
> That's exactly what I thought when I read your original post. We're
> experiencing the same problems at work... ultra frustration at how the
> conditional text that used to work like a charm and that you could rely on
> now doesn't work worth a dang! Adobe I hope you're listening...
> 
> If we come across anything that helps, I'll be certain to send it along.
> 
> Cheers,
> Deb
>