[Framers] Toggling Condition Indicators Individually

[Peter Gold]

Hi, Lin:

On Thu, Nov 17, 2016 at 4:06 PM, Lin Sims <ljsims.ml at gmail.com> wrote:

> I hadn't, but in my case it won't work. There isn't enough white space in
> the standard template to do this, and I'm not allowed to play with page
> layout. There's a corporate-mandated template we all use.
>

​I get it. What I don't get is why a template mandate would want to
preclude improving efficiency, communication, and accuracy, etc.

How about one or more of these variations:

* Create a document with the supporting information ​for the template
documents

* Incorporate the supporting information in the style guide ("What? There's
a style guide? Radical!")

* Include the document with all book template sets

* Create a one-line non-printing cross-reference in every document
template. that points to the style guide, or to that standalone supporting
document. As to shortage of white space, a good place might be in the edge
area that printers leave blank.

Going back to your earlier question about scripting, probably "yes, it's
possible." You'd need to plan the scripts as finely as you've planned the
various combinations of conditional text. It's doable, IMO.

HTH


On Thu, Nov 17, 2016 at 4:56 PM, Peter Gold <peter at petergold.photography>
> wrote:
>
>> Have you thought of displaying these and other useful reminders, hints,
>> keys, legends, indicators, etc., in header/footer or other non-main-content
>> areas on master pages? You can contain them in anchored frames whose parent
>> paragraph was conditionalized so that a single show/hide command would be
>> the only action needed. This "master" condition name and a brief
>> instruction could be displayed in a non-printing color, so it would always
>> be visible.
>>
>> This is one missing FrameMaker feature that, IIRC, has never been
>> requested, namely a place to display such info outside the main content
>> area. Layout applications, like InDesign, offer such non-printing bleed and
>> slug areas. In FM, the convention has been, when needed, to design oversize
>> pages and use cropping marks.
>>
>> HTH
>>
>> On Thu, Nov 17, 2016 at 3:24 PM, Lin Sims <ljsims.ml at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Earlier I got excellent advice on how to build conditional expressions.
>>> I'm
>>> hoping someone here has thoughts on the above. This question actually
>>> concerns the same set of files with 8 or 10 different condition tags in
>>> it.
>>>
>>> My boss has a hard time remembering what each condition indicator is
>>> actually indicating. As a result, he has asked me to create numerous
>>> versions of the document set that have various conditions turned on, but
>>> only one of the indicators being visible.
>>>
>>> That is to say, if the document has conditions A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and
>>> H,
>>> he wants to see the information tagged A, D, F, and G, but he only wants
>>> the INDICATOR for F to be visible.
>>>
>>> Right now I'm using MIF snippets to reset the colors for A, D, and G to
>>> black on white (having discovered that As-Is just doesn't cut it), and
>>> another MIF snippet to reset them to their normal colors, but it sure
>>> would
>>> be nice if I could toggle the indicators for individual conditions. The
>>> way
>>> I'm doing it is a bit error prone, and it is also very tedious.
>>>
>>> Is this something that could be done with an ExpressScript or MIF
>>> editing?
>>> Is it worth putting individually toggleable condition indicators in as a
>>> feature request with Adobe? Am I the only person with an issue like this?
>>> --
>>> Lin Sims
>>
>>