[Framers] Who's in charge?

[Peter Gold]

Hi, Dennis:

Be prepared to get a fire-hose full of replies. The list members are
generous indeed. No question is too small to ask, so don't be reluctant.
Once you get into your own "zone" of FrameMaker skill, you'll be answering
stuff for others.

I won't go into much detail. Others probably will. I do want to mention a
few points:

* FM 7.2 is pretty old. It may be that there are some display bugs that
were fixed in newer versions. It may also be that some display bugs appear
when using it a newer Windows version than it was certified for. So, this
may address the disagreements you see in the User Interface (UI.)

* Setting paragraph properties can be confusing, especially when working
with existing formatted content, especially if that's been done
haphazardly. If a paragraph's text has been formatted directly by applying,
say, italic and blue with keyboard shortcuts or from toolbar icons, or with
a named character format, then creating and applying a named paragraph
format to that paragraph may not overrule some of the existing properties.
(Recently the term "baked in" is gaining traction to describe all kinds of
stuff. This may be one instance where it's apt.) I don't know if there's
any place where you can find orderly rules for how these somewhat
idiosyncratic conflicts resolve. Your best bet IMO would be to start by
designing a paragraph format in a new blank document, using the paragraph
designer. Even better would be to find a style guide for your document set,
if one exists, and create the named formats it specifies. The only thing
better than this would be to find a FM document set with all of these
formats and other elements already defined and with examples of each and
use them, become familiar with them, then learn to modify them to better
suit your needs.

* You can import formats from existing FM documents. You may be able to
find some useful existing FM example doc sets with a web search. If they
are created in later FM than yours, however, you'll need someone to open
them for you in a newer FM and use File > Save As > MIF (FM's Maker
Interchange Format) to create files you can open in your earlier version.
Or, you can download and use the FM trial version for 30 days, if you need
to use this MIF method.

HTH


On Tue, Nov 29, 2016 at 10:46 AM, Dennis Brunnenmeyer <
dennis.brunnenmeyer at gmail.com> wrote:

> FrameMaker 7.2, Unstructured
> Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit
> Target output: PDF only
>
> As a relatively new beginner, I hate to bother experts with this question,
> but where can I find concise information about the topics below. I have the
> original Adobe 7.0 book as well as their Classroom In A Book. Neither of
> them, as far as I can tell, address the overall concept of how these tools
> described below interact with each other. Instead, those books seem to be
> just a list of step-by-step procedures on how to accomplish tasks.
>
> Oh, and I also have The Complete Reference / FrameMaker 7 book by Sarah
> O'Keefe and Sheila Loring. It's size alone is intimidating, but maybe the
> information I need is somewhere in there.
>
> It seems to me that there are three ways to affect paragraph styles:  1)
> Paragraph designer while in Body view mode, 2) Paragraph designer while
> viewing Master and Reference Pages, and 3) the Formatting Bar.
>
> Compounding my confusion is the fact that there are character and
> paragraph styles on the Reference pages that aren't in the Character
> catalog and Paragraph catalogs.
>
> When working on a paragraph on the body pages, it seems like the
> Formatting bar and the Paragraph designer sometimes "disagree" with each
> other. Trying to change the  Default font style for a paragraph sometimes
> doesn't "take hold," meaning no visible changes are made when applying the
> desired change.
>
> If I want to change the color of the text in a paragraph designer, do I
> need to create a new character format or a new paragraph format?
>
> Again, all I'm looking for, as far as I can tell, is a proper reference
> document that explains the interaction between these tools,  a general
> discussion of when and how they interact, and which one to use.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Dennis...
> _______________________________________________
>
> This message is from the Framers mailing list
>
> Send messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Visit the list's homepage at  http://www.frameusers.com
> Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/fr
> amers%40lists.frameusers.com/
> Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/li
> stinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com
> Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com
>
>