[Framers] Toggling Condition Indicators Individually

[Lin Sims]

There hasn't been a need to include this kind of information before, and
I'm the only one in the company with this need now. Plus, the conditions in
use change depending on the IP and the customers, so including info in the
style guide (we do have one!) won't help, alas.

Without even meaning to, I'm usually the one who breaks the program or
finds the unusual problem. 😁 Recently I found that the version of Vasont
we have (I think it's the latest release), automatically chooses SVGZ as
its image format when you want to update an SVG file, instead of the SVG
file you actually want.

For now, I'm settling on using our mandated settings file to set the
conditions and colors for the combination peculiar to the review
information my boss wants to see.

I rather expected it's what I'd have to do, but dang, being able to just
... toggle would be nice. Although given that there's no predetermined set
of conditions means the script would have to incorporate the conditions in
the file into its GUI and do it every time. Ah, well.

On Fri, Nov 18, 2016 at 12:28 PM, Peter Gold <peter at petergold.photography>
wrote:

> 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
>>>
>>>


-- 
Lin Sims