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Inspiring
Apr 14, 2022 1:52 PM UTC
Question

Automatic Justification of FrameMaker Index

In my Indexes, I have found that the page automatically justifies the index text entries. Is there a setting or method where justification is not automatic, so that I can get more text on the pages?

 

Thanks in advance.

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    9 replies

    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Apr 14, 2022 9:51 PM UTC

    I teach indexing once a month to my advanced students. It's a brand new book, and a brand new index, and I can tell you that we always need to change the justification to align left. The index styles default to justify. 

    This would be an excellent feature request, as would adding a tab between <$paratext> and <$pagenum> on the TOC reference pages. It's only been 30 years of manually changing these two things. LOL

     

    Now, you could modify the Level1IX , etc definition(s) either on the reference pages or on the body pages. It doesn't matter. They both control the same content.

     

    ~Barb

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    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Apr 14, 2022 5:55 PM UTC

    In my experience, FrameMaker does default to Justified for Level1IX, Level2IX, etc. While you are editing those styles, consider removing the hyphenation and increasing the widow/orphan lines to keep index entries from breaking across columns. 

     

    ~Barb

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    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    Inspiring
    Apr 14, 2022 6:06 PM UTC

    Hmmm  Not sure why the Justified was set, because I didn't set it. Perhaps the Reference pages already had the setting, because I didn't create or edit them myself. Hyphenation is already removed, but I will increase window/orphan for the breaks.

     

    Thanks Barb!

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    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Apr 14, 2022 2:47 PM UTC

    In the IX.fm file, what are the Alignment properties for the various Paragraph formats used?
    In the most recent book I did, it appears that FM might have defaulted to:
    GroupTitlesIX: Center
    Level1IX: left
    Level2IX: left
    … no Justified in sight.

     

    Settings on Reference Page IX could also be doing things that might look justified, via Tab Stops.

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    Inspiring
    Apr 14, 2022 3:09 PM UTC

    Ok, found out that FrameMaker apparently set the default in the Basic tab of the Paragraph Designer to Justified for the Index, because I never recall setting it to Justified. I will see if there is something in the Reference pages that gives me a clue.

     

    Thanks!

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    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Apr 14, 2022 2:16 PM UTC

    I'm not visualizing what you're saying is happening - can you post a screenshot of what you think the issue is? Use the picture icon to include an image inline (don't use attachments - makes it harder for people to see what you're talking about)

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    Inspiring
    Apr 14, 2022 2:57 PM UTC

    Unfortunately, I choose not to display it at this time because I have manually wrapped all of the index text lines to where I want them for a PDF output. Let me check to see if I have another book.  Bottom line is that the text is justifying entirely across the column., instead of having equal spacing between words...big gaps between letters.  Let me see if I can find another one.

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    Inspiring
    Apr 14, 2022 3:10 PM UTC

    Ok, Jeff, I found out that FrameMaker apparently set the default in the Basic tab of the Paragraph Designer to Justified for the Index, because I never recall setting it to Justified myself. I will see if there is something in the Reference pages that gives me a clue.

     

    Thanks!

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