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Are you able to Save cell formats in Framemaker?

Community Beginner ,
Dec 27, 2017 Dec 27, 2017

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Are there "cell styles" in Framemaker 2017 (as in InDesign)?

I have figured out the Table formats but can't find a way to save a row format as a style.

For example I have a very length table where I would like to create a row format where the text is bold and keep with the next row is on.
So this rows acts as a "subhead" if you will.
When the table gets edited I don't want the row with the bold text to be separated from the row that follows it

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Community Expert , Dec 27, 2017 Dec 27, 2017

No way to set multiple standards within the same table, but the paragraph tag pattern for header, footer, and body rows are stored in the table tag, so if you set your body row cells with the desired tags and save the table format in Table Designer you should get new rows that have the proper pattern.

However, if you have a series of patterns, you can copy/paste full rows to create new rows with unique patterns.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 27, 2017 Dec 27, 2017

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No way to set multiple standards within the same table, but the paragraph tag pattern for header, footer, and body rows are stored in the table tag, so if you set your body row cells with the desired tags and save the table format in Table Designer you should get new rows that have the proper pattern.

However, if you have a series of patterns, you can copy/paste full rows to create new rows with unique patterns.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 27, 2017 Dec 27, 2017

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My table is almost 200 pages long - was hoping to tag these rows with a style so that if I wanted to change the font, or colour or the background shading of that "subheading row" I could do it by editing that cell style without altering the rest of the body rows.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 27, 2017 Dec 27, 2017

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Yes, I can identify with your experience moving from (DTP) toward Fm.

FrameMaker is a more specific tool than InDesign, so the trick is to identify what Fm does well, and work within those parameters.

Both are great tools, but I think of Id as allowing me the freedom to customize formatting, and Fm as allowing me to separate formatting from content.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 27, 2017 Dec 27, 2017

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In my attempt to accept FM I am trying not to "compared" it to InD because I know they are different animals and serve different purposes. But I've been typesetting for over 35 years and this transition is proving difficult to break my old habits and expectations! .... and breathe

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Community Expert ,
Dec 27, 2017 Dec 27, 2017

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Hi Kim:

As you know, InDesign uses nested styles: you can nest a cell styles in a table style, paragraph styles in cell styles, GREP and character styles in paragraph styles. Set up thoughtfully, you can format an entire table with a single click, which is pretty amazing. The only nesting FrameMaker offers is in auto-numbers: you can nest a character style in a paragraph tag to format the auto-number differently from the rest of the paragraph.

I agree with Matt's statement: "the trick is to identify what Fm does well, and work within those parameters". So,

...was hoping to tag these rows with a style so that if I wanted to change the font, or colour or the background shading of that "subheading row" I could do it by editing that cell style without altering the rest of the body rows.

You can certainly edit a subheading row paragraph tag to edit the font and color through Paragraph Designer, along anything else about the look of the text. It's the shading request where you want to tread carefully. I teach my Fm students to redesign their tables to take advantage of the shading (and ruling) patterns available via Table Designer—shade every other row, or every third row—and to avoid Custom Ruling and Shading whenever possible. For docs with lots of tables, or very long tables, it's just too tedious to use, and for many new users, feels impossible to remove later. (It's not, but it's not intuitive.)

The trick in both applications is to get to know all of the features, and then design around their strengths, while actively avoiding their weaknesses.

~Barb

P.S. You can request the addition of new Fm features here (like more nested styles and cell styles!): Tracker​.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 27, 2017 Dec 27, 2017

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Use Table > Format > Row Format to keep the bold subhead together with the row following it.

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 27, 2017 Dec 27, 2017

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Thanks anyways Matt - I did manage to figure that part out.
I must admit I am frustrated with the transition from InDesign to FM.
FM can do ridiculously complicated things - but the simple little things I want it to do - are simply not available.
Everything ends up being an override and even then you can't even tell what's an override and what's not!

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