Frame 12.0.3 update: fails to import paragraph style - MY ERROR

[Craig Ede]

Rebecca,

What you have described is the same behavior that occurs when you leave the remove overrides box unchecked. The standard paragraphs change according to the new definition and the overridden paragraphs remain as they were, overrides of the standard. Nowadays there always seems to be at least a couple of ways to accomplish the same thing in these sorts of software packages. You get to pick the implementation method you choose, but the underlying conceptual foundation needs to be understood in order to pick the one you really want.

Where things get dicey is where large blocks of text have been cut and pasted into a document where the names of formats are the same, but the definition of the tag is different. At  that point everything is flagged as an override, both the original standard paragraphs and the particular overrides that were chosen for special cases. The only way to get anything predictable at that point is to blow away ALL the overrides (i.e. make everything adhere to the various format definitions) and then override as necessary for the few special cases. (Since you're coming into a new environment where any number of things might be different, including page size, it is unlikely that the overrides would makes sense anyway, except by chance.) And, if there are more than a few overrides, you should probably be defining some new formats to use for those cases.

I handled FM documents for a medical device manufacturer when I worked in translation where every paragraph was an override, apparently because some writer pasted text in from another source and didn't understand that overrides need to be the exception in FM documents. Once this happens everybody seemed to be afraid to fix this by deciding how they actually want to see the paragraph for fear that standardizing things would "change something" that the FDA would be troubled by, forcing a review of the entire document for re-proofing. This is the insidious way that a writer who doesn't know the tool can create a lot of extra work in the maintenance of a document. I call it the PageMaker mindset where things are just plopped down and all the document consistency aspects/tools/safeguards of FM are ignored.

Craig

> On 10/2/2014 6:07 PM, Rebecca Officer wrote:
> > Hi Craig and Theresa
> >
> > I didn’t realise the “remove overrides” only removed the overrides for
> > the selected format types. That’s good to know, thanks.
> >
> > But you can update formats in a document without removing overrides. For
> > your example, suppose my section headings start at the top of a page,
> > but in a few cases I’ve overridden that to make a heading start
> > “anywhere”. If I import a new font setting without removing overrides,
> > FM changes the font from Times to Garamond, while preserving my start
> > position overrides. I like that!
> >
> > On the other hand, if I’d overridden the font setting on a paragraph,
> > and I import a format with a new font, then that paragraph’s font won’t
> > change – FM’ll preserve my override.
> >
> > Theresa, did your target paragraph have an override on the exact setting
> > you were trying to change? Or did it have an override on some other
> > paragraph setting?
> >
> > For me, FM12.0.3 seems to be behaving the way I expect, which is nice.
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > Rebecca
> >
> > *From:*Craig Ede [mailto:craigede at hotmail.com]
> > *Sent:* Thursday, 2 October 2014 6:25 a.m.
> > *To:* Rebecca Officer
> > *Subject:* RE: Frame 12.0.3 update: fails to import paragraph style - MY
> > ERROR
> >
> > Rebecca,
> >
> > The overrides in affected apply only to the format types you've checked
> > above. If you don't want them removed you don't check the box for that
> > format type.
> >
> > If that were not the case, how would you apply new formats to a
> > document? Say you want to change a document to be 9 x 6 format from
> > letter portrait and all fonts from Times to Garamond. The beauty of FM
> > is that you can (with a well designed new template) put all that in
> > place with minimal fix-up after the fact.
> >
> > Craig
> >
> >> From:Rebecca.Officer at alliedtelesis.co.nz
> > <mailto:Rebecca.Officer at alliedtelesis.co.nz>
> >> To:TdeV at bstw.com <mailto:TdeV at bstw.com>; framers at lists.frameusers.com
> > <mailto:framers at lists.frameusers.com>
> >> Subject: RE: Frame 12.0.3 update: fails to import paragraph style - MY ERROR
> >> Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2014 01:55:22 +0000
> >>
> >> But that checkbox shouldn't be necessary! You should be able to update a paragraph tag's settings without removing all overrides from the document.
> >>
> >> Cheers
> >> Rebecca
> >>
> >>
> >
> 
 		 	   		  
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