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Inspiring
May 26, 2026
Question

Conditional Tag Expressions: "And Not" operator does not hide content with multiple tags

  • May 26, 2026
  • 5 replies
  • 53 views

I am using FM version 17.0.5.725 and Windows 11. I cannot easily update to a new version of FM, as each version has to be vetted by cybersecurity before we can install it.

I have a complex series of text insets with tagged content for different platforms and customers. Up to now, I have avoided using any overlapping tags. However, as we incorporate more platforms into the documents, I’m at a point where overlapping the tags seem inevitable.

The following situation is repeated multiple times throughout my documents:

I have multiple versions of a graphic, with tags that look like this:

Graphic 1 tags = platformA + customerA

Graphic 2 tags = platformA + customerB

Graphic 3 tags = platformB

Graphic 4 tags = platformC

 

So when I export a manual for Platform A + customer B, I build an expression that looks like this to show only Graphic 2: “platformA” or “customerB” and not “customerA”

Two weeks ago this was working as intended, and only Graphic 2 appeared. Now the same expression is showing both Graphic 1 and Graphic 2. What’s going on?

5 replies

Inspiring
May 29, 2026

Since you work with structured FM, this plugin may be of interest:

AXCM Plugin - West Street Consulting

/Mats

Matt-Tech Comm Tools
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 28, 2026

Bringing something that ​@Winfried Reng mentioned to the fore…

Since you’re working with structure, you are likely to have more success with the show/hide attribute options.

 

-Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant
Bob_Niland
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 27, 2026

Can you clarify “overlapping”?

And how are the Conditions being applied to the graphics? Typically it would be on the ⊥ anchoring the Anchored Frame, but other approaches are possible.

Inspiring
May 27, 2026

I’m using structured FM, so I select either my Figure element, or its graphic child element, in the structure view, then apply tags. Overlapping means I have more than one tag applied to a graphic element. This may apply the tag to the anchor - I’m not sure.

Community Expert
May 27, 2026

Hi,

Don’t you have more options in structured FrameMaker to show/hide attributes? Why do you not use these?

Best regards, Winfried

Inspiring
May 26, 2026

Update: It seems to work depending on the placement of the “and not” statement.  

For example, this works:

“customerB” or “platformA” and not “customerA”

But this doesn’t:

“platformA” or “customerB”  and not “customerA”

 

I’m guessing that when I want to exclude a graphic with overlapping tags, I have to keep the overlapping tags next to each other in the expression.

Community Expert
May 27, 2026

Hi,

I just created a dummy file with 3 conditions and applied all combinations. And I got different views, when I exchanged the conditions before/after the or.

The same as what you describe.

Possibly FrameMaker connects the conditions before/after the and not. Then one condition would be different, when you exchange. I have to check this.

Best regards, Winfried

Jeff_Coatsworth
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 26, 2026

Do a search, but I believe that one of the recent incremental updates of FM messed up the conditional build expressions. You might be able to roll-back an update to a prior version OR just plow ahead with an update to the latest build.

Inspiring
May 26, 2026

Thanks for the quick response, but I haven’t updated FM in the last two weeks, and I don’t think I’m getting the updates automatically - see the above statement about cybersecurity.

Jeff_Coatsworth
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 27, 2026

Sorry, I was interpreting your statement, “Two weeks ago this was working as intended...” to imply that you hadn’t changed anything in your content with respect to these conditional tags and expressions and now they were acting up; so something had to have changed.
Now it sounds like these are new conditional expressions if the order of the tags has an impact.