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rlauriston
Inspiring
February 15, 2012
Question

automatically splitting a heading between two frames

  • February 15, 2012
  • 2 replies
  • 4051 views

I'm trying to simplify a template I inherited without changing its appearance. I'm using FrameMaker 10.

The First page layout has three frames: a small box at the top left that contains only the chapter number, to the right of that a rectangle that contains the chapter name, and a box below for the page body. All three are in the A flow and are autoconnected in the specified sequence.

Currently the chapter number and name are two paragraphs that use ChapNum and ChapName tags.

I'd like to combine these into one tag. Is there some way to format a paragraph tag so FrameMaker will put the autonumber in the first box and the title in the second?

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2 replies

R
rlauristonAuthor
Inspiring
February 15, 2012

I've got this working, though it's a kludge.

One of my goals here is to eliminate the need to break documents up into chapter files, so I can't use <$chapnum>.

For the chapter number, I have a background text frame with a Running H/F variable defined as <$paranumonly[ChapName]>.

The ChapName autonumber format is <n+>, character format Hidden.

The Hidden character format is 1 point, color white.

This works OK but I'd prefer to actually suppress the ChapName autonumber if there's some way to do that.

Arnis Gubins
Arnis Gubins
Inspiring
February 15, 2012

Make the first box small enough so that only the autonumber fits and use a leading space for the chapter title to ensure that it starts in the next box.

Alternately, you could use a cross-ref from the first box to the chapter title and use the <$paranumonly> building block in the cross ref. In the chapter paragraph autonumber use the "< $chapnum>" building block (note the leading space) to not display the number beside the chapter title.

R
rlauristonAuthor
Inspiring
February 15, 2012

A leading space for the chapter title will mess up the formatting and I can't build a cross-reference into a paragraph tag.

Maybe I could use a Running H/F in the first block in the master page.

P
peter minneapolis
Participating Frequently
February 15, 2012

rlauriston wrote:

A leading space for the chapter title will mess up the formatting and I can't build a cross-reference into a paragraph tag.

Maybe I could use a Running H/F in the first block in the master page.

A screenshot would help.

If the chapter number and chapter title are on the same line, consider a single text frame, the width of the body text, for the whole page, with the horizontal distance between the number and the title set by tab stops, and the distance between the chapter number/title line and the body text set by space below the chapter numbertitle.

[EDIT] Following-up on Arnis' suggestion, instead of a leading space between the chunks, consider inserting a non-breaking space after the first word of the title, to force it out of the small text frame. If the title is only one word, use enough non-breaking spaces to force it out. If the title is referred to in a cross-reference, or extracted for a TOC, the trailing spaces may be problematic. [/EDIT]

HTH

Regards,

Peter

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Message was edited by: peter at knowhowpro

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