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RobertD55
Participant
September 30, 2020
Question

FM 2019, Version 15.0.7.973, Condtional Text and tables

  • September 30, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 229 views

Good day everyone.

 

My company recently updated to FM2019 from FM11. So far things are going quite well. But we have found one annoying issue.

I have a document that has a paragraph with a table anchored to it. I want the text to be conditional but not the table. But when I select the text, it includes the table. I turn off the conditonal text for the table, but when I hide the original text, the table still hides along with the text it is anchored to. But I want the table to still show. Is there anyway to turn off the automatic text and table "linking" that is going on?

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    2 replies

    F
    FieryPantone
    Legend
    October 1, 2020

    LinSims' reply is exactly what I would have suggested – which, of course, validates my thinking rather than that first reply ;-} I don't think I've ever anchored a table to a content paragraph. (or where I first came across this as a tip)

      R
      RobertD55Author
      Participant
      October 1, 2020

      Thanks for the replies. I will give them a try.

       

      FieryPantone, we anchor all of our tables to a content paragraph. Normally we don't have to worry about conditonal text with the tables because they are suitable for all customers. However, on occasion we have to make the tables for certain customers. in FM11 it was easier to them seperate. With just changing over to FM19, we have to relearn a few tricks.

      LinSims
      Community Expert
      LinSimsCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 1, 2020

      A lot of people do. I prefer keeping them separate.

       

      One reason is exactly the situation you're looking at, which is that if you want to keep the table visible but not the text, you can't. Well, you can, if you're careful to select just the text and not include the table anchor and paragraph marker, but then you get what appears to be a blank line containing the table so you might as well just put it in its own anchor paragraph so you can adjust spacing, which is what I suggested.

       

      Another is that it's easier to select an entire table if its anchor is in its own paragraph.

       

      Another is that if you have a number of tables following each other, it's hard to select just the one you want if the anchors are piled up on top of each other. I used to put a couple of spaces between the anchors to make that easier, but if the last line of the text is almost to the margin, you start getting apparently extra blank lines. 

       

      In short, I find it makes more sense to put each table anchor in its own paragraph. Others may find that their mileage varies.

      LinSims
      Community Expert
      LinSimsCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 30, 2020

      Put the anchor for the table in its own paragraph. If you are worried about the extra gap, make a special tag for the anchor paragraph that sets the font to 2 pts and the space below the paragraph to -2 pts.

       

      Be aware that hiding the paragraph will make the anchor paragraph use the same font size as the text in the hidden paragraph. You'll need to go through each time to you regenerate for TOCs and Xrefs to apply the [Default Font] character tag to the anchor paragraph.

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