PDF bookmarks out of order, can't connect text frames

Question

Using FrameMaker 10 at work, our books keep getting their bookmarks shuffled around when we convert to PDF. Each chapter's headings get bumped into the previous chapter, and the first chapter's headings just get dumped into level 1 with the chapter titles.

What our chapters contain	Resulting PDF bookmarks
Chapter 1 Ch1, Heading 1 Ch1, Heading 2 Chapter 2 Ch2, Heading 1 Ch2, Heading 2 Chapter 3 Ch3, Heading 1 Ch3, Heading 2	Ch1, Heading 1 Ch1, Heading 2 Chapter 1 Ch2, Heading 1 Ch2, Heading 2 Chapter 2 Ch3, Heading 1 Ch3, Heading 2 Chapter 3

I did some searching, and the above issue is usually due to there being separate text flows for the chapter title and the body text. This is true. Our chapter template has a left & right page, and a title page. The title page just has a "Chapter Title" text flow.

I've attempted to fix this, but immediately ran into a new problem. If I attempt to connect the Chapter Title text frame to the body text frame on either the left or right page, I get the following error message:

"This connection is not possible.

You may be trying to connect two text frames that would result in a circular text flow, or you may be trying to connect to a PostScript Code text flow."

I looked, and Chapter Title isn't connected to anything as far as I can tell. Its text doesn't run to anywhere else, and trying to go to Page Layout -> Disconnect Next/Previous/Both just tells me it isn't connected to anything. If I look at Object Properties for any of these text frames, none of them are marked as PostScript Code. I'm at a loss here.

Any ideas on how to get the bookmarks coming out in the right order? We can fix the bookmarks afterwards in Acrobat, but it's a tedious extra step that we sometimes forget. As far as I'm aware, our template was made before the time of any of our current team. (none of us are really "experts" on FrameMaker)

Arnis Gubins · Accepted Answer

FM processes flows in the order that they are created. Default FM documents already have a flow in place, so adding the Chapter Title flow would place this after the first default one. So you are trying to connect the end to the beginning, i.e. creating a circular flow

Create a new first Master page with the required text boxes all in one flow. Use the default text box that is on the page when FM adds the new master page (usually you use the Right page as your template for the First page) and shrink it down to be the Chapter title section, then add a new text frame to the page for the rest of the content [you are now adding this text frame/flow after the first one]. After you add the headings and footers check against the old master page to verify that the layout is now visually the same. Delete the old first Master page as a last step.

You will probably have to delete the Chapter Title text frames in the other documents before importing the new layouts as FM will just leave these in place and the new & old frames would end up lying on top of each other. Also copy&paste the chapter titles into the mainflow before updating so you don't lose the content.

[Note: whomever created the the template was probably less of an "expert" than you are now ]

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded