Unstructured to Structured: Question about retaining paragraph formats - Re-opened

[Scott Prentice]

Also .. it wasn't clear to me (I may have missed it) if these 
"structured" files are sourced as XML or FM binaries. If structured FM 
binaries, local (non-EDD) formatting will generally stick around, but 
can revert to the EDD-defined formats under certain situations. 
Personally, I find that the structured FM binary route can cause more 
problems than it solves (I know this is not a widely-held belief, so 
take with a grain of salt).  :o

If XML sourced (the "proper" way to do structured authoring in FM .. 
IMHO), heed Chris' advice.

...scott


On 9/11/12 10:45 AM, Chris Despopoulos wrote:
> I thought the idea was to format via the EDD, only.  Users should 
> never just apply pgf formatting, because it will get lost (as you 
> describe).  Structure demands template dictatorship on steroids...  Or 
> rather, it imposes it.  To add new pgf formats, and to set up users to 
> apply them, you would have to:
> * Create the new formats
> * Modify the EDD and the XML to include attribu.tes
> * Use the attributes to set the current formatting for the given *element*
> * Modify the EDD to set up format rules that map your formats to the 
> attribute vals
> * Store all the above in the template
>
> In theory, you could create an attribute that is a list of values, and 
> each value is the name of a pgf format.  Then you set up format rules 
> for every pgf-level element to apply the format that matches the 
> attribute value.  Then do the same for char, table, and other 
> formats???  But this kind of defeats the purpose of structure.  The 
> idea with structure is (as has already been said) to separate 
> structure from display.  You want a machine to make the display 
> decisions at the last minute.  And FrameMaker is just one such 
> machine.  By using that principle, then you can automate great things, 
> like if you move a section to become a sub-section, all the formatting 
> adjusts automatically.
>
> I'm sure you know all this, but maybe you need to remind the customer. 
> Or maybe you need to interpret the customer request as a symptom that 
> the EDD/DTD is not sufficiently specified for their project.  Maybe 
> it's time to address more fundamental issues?
>
>

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