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L
leond81233442
Participant
March 5, 2018
Question

FrameMaker 2017, PDF bookmarks out of control

  • March 5, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 1130 views

[Book with 30 FM files. I had four files that were missing bookmarks, which prompted me to try fixing the problem. Big mistake].

Because FM won't allow me to set the order of paragraphs in the Include Paragraphs box (default is alphabetical), I'm stuck with this order: 1Head, 2Head, Chapter Title, Procedure Title (with appropriate indents).

Unfortunately, that's the order in which the Bookmarks actually appear in the saved PDF: that is, the 1Head and 2Head bookmarks appear above (before) the Chapter Title. I tried setting an umbrella setting for the entire book, but that only resulted in dozens of unwanted paragraphs (Step_1, Table_Cap_Next, etc.) added to the PDF settings for each file in the book

Perhaps related to this issue, is that the TOC had the same problem, but I could at least reorder the TOC entries manually.

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    3 replies

    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Barb BinderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 5, 2018

    Would do this at the book level, leond81233442​.

    With the book file active, choose File > Save as PDF. You can expect to see all kinds of junk in the left "Include Paragraphs" column, so press the Shift key and click the right pointing arrow to move everything into the right "Don't Include" column.

    Once the left column is cleaned out, you can double click the tag names you want to include in the bookmarks, and as previously mentioned, use the chevrons >> to set the bookmark indent level. In my TOC, the ChapterTitle, ContentsTitle and IndexTitle are all level 1, the Heading1s are level 2, and the Heading2s are level 3. They are always alphabetical in the dialog box.

    But in chronological order in Acrobat or Reader:

    ~Barb

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    L
    leond81233442Author
    Participant
    March 12, 2018

    Barb, I'm not sure your example applies here, since all of your selections are actually in alphabetical order (C, C, H, H, I). Were you to create a new paragraph style alphabetically preceding ChapterTitle (Body_Special, for example), that entry would likely appear at the top of the Include Paragraphs list, with no option to move it down.

    Although I've edited the physical, source TOC file to reflect the proper navigation, the PDF output shows the bad navigation in both the TOC and the Bookmarks (see the graphic below).

    Upon further analysis (this only happens in four of the 15 chapters), I'm guessing that those four documents were corrupted at some point (many years of usage by non-writers). Also, not having worked with FM for some time, and unable to consult with absent previous users about the infrastructure, how would I go about creating a new document with all the formatting? I've tried using the Import Format from Document, but that was less than helpful. Is the only alternative to:

    1. Copy one of the "good" documents
    2. Strip its contents
    3. Copy content from the "bad" document (and run it through a Notepad "bath")
    4. Paste "clean" content into new document and assign correct formatting
    5. Delete "bad" document and replace it with the new, (hopefully) good document.

    Actually, should I create a new forum subject for this question? Anyway, see my example below.

    D
    DavidCFrye9643826
    Inspiring
    March 12, 2018

    The order in which the bookmarks appear in your PDF setup interface is irrelevant to the order of the actual bookmarks. If your tag names are "A_Level_1_Heading" and then "Chapter Title," as long as "A_Level..." is indented one level and "Chapter..." has no indents, then whatever is tagged with "Chapter..." will appear at the top level.

    What's interesting is that you say the bad order appears in both the TOC and PDF bookmarks. Both use order present in the file to determine the order of presentation. So, if it's bad in both, the order of appearance is not what it appears to be. The only thing I can think of that might do this is that you have more than one text flow. The TOC looks similar to what a TOC would look like for an InDesign bulletin layout (e.g., article starts on page 1, but picks up on page 10, while article 2 also starts on page 1, but picks up on page 5, and so on).

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 5, 2018

    Doesn't the level of indenting set the order in the PDF generation? And doesn't the Headings Table in the Reference page of your TOC deal with the order of headings in the TOC?

    Matt-Tech Comm Tools
    Community Expert
    Matt-Tech Comm ToolsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 5, 2018

    While the paragraph tags appear in an alpha sort in the dialog, they will be shown in chronological order in the PDF.

    It sounds like the nesting of the bookmarks is incorrect. Can you share a screenshot of your bookmark settings?

    If Chapter Title is your first-level bookmark, and 1Head is your second-level bookmark, then you should see improvements in the display of bookmarks in the PDF.

    -Matt

    -Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant
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