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charissaf75933291
Participant
February 12, 2017
Answered

How to ALWAYS display element boundaries in structured framemaker

  • February 12, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 1394 views

I'm new to structured framemaker (v15) and am working in a rather large dita map. I'm going in and out of topics and prefer to work with the element tags visible. Every time I open a new topic I have to go back to the View > Element Boundaries (as tags) setting. But with 150+ topics this is getting very tiresome. Is there any way to configure this in options or settings? Maybe in one of the ini files? Help!

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Correct answer Lynne A. Price

Charissa,

   The view option is set in the template, by default called topic.template.fm, not in the application definitions in structapps.fm. If you have write permission, you can modify the existing topic.template.fm by changing the setting there. That's all you need to do if you are willing to modify the distributed file.

   If you would rather not edit the application files that come with FrameMaker, you can make a copy of topic.template.fm (changing the name if you like, perhaps to something like topic.template.modified.fm). If you decide to do so, you'll need to tell FrameMaker to use the new file. That's where editing the application definitions becomes necessary. Application definitions specify a few options, primarily identifying various files that are used to open and save XML documents. Whenever you start FM, it reads two application files, both called structapps.fm. The global application file is in the FrameMaker directory, probably in Program Files. You also have a personal structapps.fm, which is in C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\FrameMaker\13. You can put modifications of the global application file in your personal file. You can also define additional applications if needed for your own projects. FM reads the global file before reading your personal file, and the definitions in your personal file override and add to those in the global file.

   If you decide not to change the distributed template, you probably won't want to change the distributed global application definition file either. That's when you can copy the definition of the DITA topic application from the global structapps.fm to your personal structapps.fm and change the name of the template file there.

  Note that changes to either structapps.fm won't take effect until you either restart FM or use the StructureTools > Read Application Definitions command. This command must be issued when the structapps.fm file you want to process is the current file.

        

           --Lynne

1 reply

L
Lynne A. Price
Inspiring
February 12, 2017

Charissa,

    There are two different answers to your question:

1. Through FrameMaker 2015, view options such as whether to indicate element boundaries were document properties, initialized each time you opened an XML document in WYSIWYG view or created a new FrameMaker binary document. In the new FrameMaker 2017 (released less than two weeks ago), view options apply to all your documents. Thus, if you can upgrade to the new version, you only need make the setting once. It even survives from one session to the next.

2. While you are using the older version, you can still set your preference. Every new WYSIWYG document is derived from a template. Since a template is just a FrameMaker document that serves as a base for new FrameMaker files, you can change settings within it. Thus, if you turn on element boundaries as tags in the topic template, then each time you open a topic they will be on. The initial topic template is stored within the FrameMaker home directory (in Program Files by default), in AdobeFrameMaker2015\Structure\xml\DITA_1.2\app\technicalContent\template\topic.template.fm (or in ...DITA_1.3...). You will need appropriate permissions to edit that file if you want to leave it there (if so, you should make a backup in case you ever want to restore the original). Alternatively, you can copy that file (or the entire DITA directory) to a directory of your choice and edit that copy. You can then use StructureTools > Edit Application Definitions to modify your personal structapps.fm file to refer to the new location. You can copy the initial application definitions by opening the global definitions with StructureTools > Edit Global Application Definitions.

     --Lynne

C
charissaf75933291Author
Participant
February 12, 2017

Thank you, Lynn! This is very helpful. I was able to find the template files and open them to edit the global app definitions. One thing I am still unsure of is where in the global application definitions I would change the setting. I searched for element and boundaries and didn't see anything that seemed related. Do I manually enter the setting somewhere?

L
Lynne A. PriceCorrect answer
Inspiring
February 13, 2017

Charissa,

   The view option is set in the template, by default called topic.template.fm, not in the application definitions in structapps.fm. If you have write permission, you can modify the existing topic.template.fm by changing the setting there. That's all you need to do if you are willing to modify the distributed file.

   If you would rather not edit the application files that come with FrameMaker, you can make a copy of topic.template.fm (changing the name if you like, perhaps to something like topic.template.modified.fm). If you decide to do so, you'll need to tell FrameMaker to use the new file. That's where editing the application definitions becomes necessary. Application definitions specify a few options, primarily identifying various files that are used to open and save XML documents. Whenever you start FM, it reads two application files, both called structapps.fm. The global application file is in the FrameMaker directory, probably in Program Files. You also have a personal structapps.fm, which is in C:\Users\<your user name>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\FrameMaker\13. You can put modifications of the global application file in your personal file. You can also define additional applications if needed for your own projects. FM reads the global file before reading your personal file, and the definitions in your personal file override and add to those in the global file.

   If you decide not to change the distributed template, you probably won't want to change the distributed global application definition file either. That's when you can copy the definition of the DITA topic application from the global structapps.fm to your personal structapps.fm and change the name of the template file there.

  Note that changes to either structapps.fm won't take effect until you either restart FM or use the StructureTools > Read Application Definitions command. This command must be issued when the structapps.fm file you want to process is the current file.

        

           --Lynne

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