Text Insets with Frame10

[Combs, Richard]

Joy Kocar had some mostly excellent suggestions regarding text insets. Just a few comments/clarifications. 
 
> Ditto what Jeff said.
> 
> We have FrameMaker 10 unstructured books.
> 
> Examples of insets are copyright information and terminology. We reuse
> these in every book so they are consistent.
> 
> We use a spreadsheet to keep track of the insets and what books they
> are in.
> 
> Keep headings in the container file instead of the inset so you can
> plop the inset anywhere in another book. In one book it may be a level
> 2 heading while in another it may be a level 3.

I'll ditto that. It also helps with indexing and cross-referencing (see below) if the index and xref markers (typically in the topic headings) are in the container file.
 
> Cross-references from one inset to another don't seem to work. If
> anyone knows otherwise, please let me know!

They do (within FM) if created properly -- by first creating the xref marker at the destination and then pointing to it in the container doc. For more details, see this post of mine: 

http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers/2008-March/011323.html 

That post also explains how to make the xrefs work in PDF. Rick Quatro (frameexpert.com) has scripts to automate that process. 

For many more posts about text insets and xrefs (some of them useful, some full of misinformation), use this Google search string: 

text inset cross-references site:frameusers.com

> We have a special paragraph tag that we use as the first paragraph in
> an inset. If we don't, FM does weird things to the fonts. The tag uses
> a 2pt font so it doesn't take up much space.

It's a bug that comes up every few months on this list. Your solution is one workaround; I prefer another, simpler one. See the following: 

http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers/2009-August/017795.html 
http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers/2011-March/022536.html 

> We have a separate Insets.book with all the insets so we can do global
> searches. FM doesn't search insets within a container file. We can also
> make global format changes if our template changes.

Good idea. But you can simplify further. You may not need a book, just one file. Every text inset is a complete flow. But a single FM file can contain a large number of flows (I'm not sure what the limit is, but I've exceeded a hundred). You just add a disconnected page, give the text frame a unique flow name, rinse, and repeat. When you import a text inset into the container, specify the file containing all those text inset flows. FM will prompt you to select the specific flow you want. 
 
> Off the top of my head, those are the things that come to mind. Hope
> that helps.

Ditto. 

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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