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Question

FrameMaker Ver. 16 - Paragraph Designer Pagination issue

Forum|Forum|21 days ago
August 6, 2026
21 replies
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My company is using established templates for service manuals created by someone well before my time and I am trying to resolve an undesirable pagination issue that occurs regardless (seemingly) of the constraints/rules set in the paragraph designer. I have no formal FrameMaker, training so I hope I’m able to provide enough detail for you all.

We use a 2-column layout for the text but also allow for full page width image frames and tables. This problem only occurs with text following a page width image or table near the bottom of the page. In this case, I have an image frame with fig number and description

followed by a level 3 heading that is set to Keep With: Next Paragraph. Then the text following the heading has Widow/Orphan Lines set to 2.

Given the rules applied to the heading and text, they should both push to the next page in my mind. Is there some setting I am missing that is preventing that from happening?

Thank you.

Matt-Tech Comm Tools

Community Expert

You can easily fix this.

Because the statement that follows 3.7.2 is a description of a process, duplicate the current paragraph tag and name it Process Intro, or something similar. Set the pagination of Process Intro to Keep with Next Paragraph.

Now, assuming you don’t have something preventing Fig 1-12 and section 3.72 from separating, it should work as you wish.

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

J

jeff_2298Author

Participating Frequently

Your suggestion makes sense for his specific scenario. The problem is that this is one example. It also happens with a large paragraph of text that is not a procedure lead in. It happens with warnings, cautions, notes and several other paragraph styles as well.

Using keep with next for these can create undesirable results in other ways, like pushing the last 2 lines of text onto the next page leaving significant white space on the current page to meet that rule. So, I would need multiple new paragraph styles to use as exceptions, which would still need to be found manually.

Thank you for the suggestion but I don’t think this would actually help me overall unfortunately.

Matt-Tech Comm Tools

Community Expert

Perhaps fix this one, mark it as correct so it helps others, then post the next one until a pattern appears. The issue is likely more in the definition of existing tags managed by your template than a lack of “band-aid” tags like the one I shared with you.

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

W

Winfried Reng

Community Expert

Hi,

I had exactly your layout and got the same issues.

Additionally sometimes text was hidden below the main text frame boundary. Or text was moved from the end of column 2 to the end of column 1.

Very annoying! Luckily I was allowed to change the layout to a one column layout with a side head area.

What helped in my case:

Apply a paragraph format to such a problem paragraph again.
Write an ExtendScript script which identifies your problem paragraphs and then do some tweaking (manually or with script). When you have such long manuals and publish so often, this definitely pays off!
Do a MIF wash: Save as MIF and then save back to FM.
Go to the master page view and back to the body page view.
Update to the latest FrameMaker version. In my experience newer FrameMaker versions are more stable, also for such bugs.

You could also create a bug report in the Adobe Tracker and hope that Adobe will fix this. When you post the link of your bug report, I will definitely vote for it.

Other issues which I had noticed in a two-column layout (I did not test, if these bugs are still exist):

https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/FRMAKER-6007

https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/FRMAKER-9096

Best regards, Winfried

J

jeff_2298Author

Participating Frequently

Ah yes, I have also seen the issue of text moved from the end of column 2 to the end of column 1, and it is very annoying and difficult to spot at a glance!

Thank you for your detailed (and very relatable) response. I will have to take some time and investigate a couple of these options further, ExtendScript in particular.

W

Winfried Reng

Community Expert

Especially the text moved from column 2 to column 1 can be fixed with a MIF wash or a short visit of the master pages.

Good luck!

frameexpert

Community Expert

Sometimes when there is a combination of pagination scenarios that can occur in a particular situation, you get odd results like you are getting. You may have to do some tweaking to get the desired result. In this case, I would consider adding a H3_top paragraph format that is exactly like the H3 format, except that it starts at the top of the page. Apply any special paragraph formats like this as late in the editing process as possible. Make sure you include your H3_top format in any TOCs or lists where you have included H3 paragraphs.

www.frameexpert.com

J

jeff_2298Author

Participating Frequently

Our service manuals are approx 1500 pages long and we output 2 or 3 per week (build specific), amongst all of our other deliverables that go with them, so I was hoping to avoid having to do this but it’s definitely an option for the short term at minimum. I appreciate the advice.

frameexpert

Community Expert

Doing page layout of long manuals with some complexity usually requires some “hand work” unless you can live with anomalies like you are seeing. I agree, though, that based on your settings, you should have gotten an automatic page break there.

www.frameexpert.com

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

You might want to have a look at this older thread -

for some w/o guidance.

J

jeff_2298Author

Participating Frequently

I read this, but I’m still not understanding how this would be allowed to happen.

If I change it to keep with next paragraph, it creates undesirable results in other areas.

I apologize if I’m just not understanding. As I said previously, I am a novice user.

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

What does it do if you set it to a higher number? (I ask because I don’t set these W/O settings at all in my projects since I’m 99.9% HTML5 output).

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

So the “Inspection” paragraph is your H3 one, right? Looks like it’s doing what it’s told - keep with the next paragraph tag - the “Inspect the wheel hub...” one.

J

jeff_2298Author

Participating Frequently

Correct, the heading is doing what it’s told, but the text (Inspect the wheel hub...) has widow/orphan set to 2, and it’s allowing 1 line in this case. So in my mind the text should be forced to next page, and in turn drag the heading with it?

Jeff_Coatsworth

Community Expert

Does that text paragraph have a Keep With: Next Pgf set also?

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