[Framers] "Secret" Freeze Pagination Feature

Tue Apr 25 04:57:46 PDT 2017

Hi Stefan,

Instead of freeze pagination, what I would like is a pagination warning. 
This feature would, when turned on, warn you when a paragraph with one 
of the user-specified specified styles moves to a new page, and when 
some rows of a table end up on a new page. This would be helpful when 
editing a doc, so that you know when the pagination changed and the TOC 
needs to be updated, or to look over the tables to see where rows moved 
to a new page. For extra credit, the feature would also provide a list 
of where these changes occurred. This would be a great help. Many times 
after a few edits, I find myself reviewing the entire doc to see where 
the headings appear and updating all the TOCs just in case a heading, 
table caption or figure caption, moved to a new page.

The current feature the way it is is pretty much useless to me.

--
Shmuel Wolfson
Technical Writer
058-763-7133

, Rick Quatro wrote:
> Hi Stefan,
>
> The concept behind Freeze Pagination could be very useful for certain
> categories of documentation. The way it is implemented in FrameMaker
> severely limits its usefulness. Here are the major problems that occur when
> you freeze pagination:
>
> 1. Paragraphs that break across a page are split into two paragraphs.
> 2. Tables that break across a page cause point pages to be added as soon as
> the pagination is frozen.
> 3. Content after last page of a multi-page table is pushed to the following
> page.
> 4. This may be the hardest to live with: autonumbers are reset on each page
> because of the disconnected text frames.
> 5. You can't freeze pagination in a structured document.
>
> I have a good client that uses point pages for documentation used in a
> particular transportation sector. I wrote a "PointPages" plugin back in 2005
> or so that overcame some of the limitations listed above. I sold a few
> copies but you had to follow a specific process to get good results and I
> got a disproportionate number of support requests, so I discontinued it. I
> converted some of the key functionality to a set of FrameScript scripts so
> that my client could still use point pages in her documentation. She still
> uses it for her client today.
>
> If you are curious about how I overcame the limitations of Freeze
> Pagination, you can see the PointPages documentation at
>
> http://www.rickquatro.com/resources/PointPages.pdf
>
> Be careful that you don't ask the wrong question about Freeze Pagination.
> The question should not be "Do you use it?" You should ask, "Do you have a
> need for a reliable point-page feature?" The answer to the first question
> could be a reflection on the limitations of the feature in FrameMaker, not
> the need for point pages in general. That said, I don't think there is a big
> demand for point pages in general. I have had a few requests over the years,
> but not a large amount.
>
> As far as the existing command, my suggestion would be to leave it there.
> Since it is not documented, it is not likely to become a support problem for
> Adobe, but I know at least one client that still uses it. I can't see any
> reason to take it out unless it is somehow "in the way" in the code.
>
> But what about a Point Pages feature that actually works! I am not sure what
> the demand is, but the simplest solution could be a way to apply custom
> numbering to individual pages, just like custom numbering can be applied to
> entire FrameMaker files (and book components). The premise behind Freeze
> Pagination is that the point pages would be automatically created after
> pagination was frozen. But I think people would give up this automated
> aspect and be willing to apply the point page numbering "manually" if this
> was available to them in FrameMaker. The users of my plugin were certainly
> willing to do some manual work to get point pages in their docs.
>
> Rick
>
> Rick Quatro
> Carmen Publishing Inc.
> rick at frameexpert.com
> 585-366-4017
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Framers
> [mailto:framers-bounces+rick=rickquatro.com at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf
> Of Stefan Gentz
> Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2017 5:20 AM
> To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Subject: [Framers] "Secret" Freeze Pagination Feature
>
> Hi Framers,
>
> Klaus Daube reminded me a few days ago, that there are some "secret"
> features in FrameMaker, that are still present in the product today, but are
> no longer in the UI nor documented, especially "Freeze pagination" and "Open
> Heroic". I'm currently going through them and discuss them with the product
> managers and documentation team.
>
> So, one of these "secret features" is "Freeze pagination": It's still
> present in FM 2017 and can be accessed with Esc-p-z.
>
> For those who do not know the feature: Let's say you have a 100-page
> document with one text flow. On the master page you have a footer with a
> page count variable (<$curpagenum>). Now you can "freeze pagination" which
> will disconnect all text frames (that is, you get 100 disconnected pages
> with a Text Flow "A"). Now you can add new disconnected pages between other
> pages (called "point pages"). Or if you are at the end of a page and add new
> content, a new page is added right next to the current page with a connect
> text frame to the previous page. The page number will show a "point page
> number" (e.g. when you add pages after page 7, they will be numbered as 7.1,
> 7.2 etc.).
> The idea of this feature back in the days was to create "revision pages"
> ("point pages").
>
> That said, I understand how the feature works, but in more than 20 years I
> have never used it myself (never had a use case for it) nor met anyone ever
> using it and all people I have asked in the last days who know this feature
> told me the same (never had a use case).
>
> My question to you:
> - Has anyone ever used this feature when it was still present in the UI many
> versions back?
> - Is anyone still using it?
> - What is the use case scenario that you can think of where it still might
> be useful?
>
> Your feedback will help us to have a new look at this feature and discuss
> what to do with it (bring it back to the UI and document it or keep it
> hidden or maybe even remove it).
>
> Looking forward to your feedback,
> Stefan Gentz
> Adobe Worldwide TechComm Evangelist
>
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