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doug1120
doug1120
Known Participant
November 2, 2018
Answered

Auto-numbered figures in the Side Head

  • November 2, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 3634 views

My A flow uses a side head column to add white space to the left.  Text and figures display in the main column on the right.  However, some of my images are vertical and narrow, so they would be well-suited for placing in the side head section.  I can place them there easy enough, but I run into problems when I try to put the figure's caption beneath it in the side head.  Text wants to flow from the main A column, to the caption's text frame, and back again to the main frame.  This is bad for a number of reasons.

Is there a best practice for doing this?  One that accommodates auto-numbering?

Thanks!

Doug

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer __AG__

Doug,

Alternatively, when you insert an anchored frame in the flow and want it in the sidehead area, you should specify the placement to be outside of the column or text frame (depending upon how your entire page layout looks) and then use negative values for the top and left to position the AFrame as desired. Including a text frame inside and at the bottom of the AFrame will give you the desired caption placement.

2 replies

Barb Binder
Community Expert
Barb BinderCommunity Expert
Community Expert
November 5, 2018

Hi Doug:

How are you moving the images into the side head column? One option would be to anchor the image below the current line, add a line break after the anchor and type in the caption.

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
doug1120
doug1120Author
Known Participant
November 5, 2018

I insert the image, and it displays in the main text frame, not in the side head.  It displays inside an anchored frame.  If I set the anchored frame to Below Current Line, it remains in the text frame; it does not move to the side head.  Likewise, I do not see way to add a line break.

The way I've been doing it is to drag the image out of the anchored frame and drop it into the side head.  Then I use the Place A Text Frame button on the Graphics > Tools toolbar to add a text frame in the side head, below the image, which is where I place my auto-numbered caption.  I then set this text frame to use Tag A and Autoconnect it to the main text frame, which used Tag A to begin with.  This is to ensure the caption autonumbers correctly.

Arnis Gubins
Arnis Gubins
Inspiring
November 5, 2018

I personally don't like having to add a separate text frame within an anchored frame to hold the caption, so what I do is use paired tags, one for the caption (with autonumbering) and one for the anchor. For me, the caption tag is set up to automatically apply the anchor tag to the next paragraph when you press return, and then I insert the image and wrap the anchored graphic. For you, you would apply the anchor tag, insert the image, wrap the anchored graphic, then press return to get the caption.

I wasn't certain this would work with sideheads, so I've done a little experimentation. It is possible, but I don't know if this would work better for you than Arnis' solution.

To create the caption without needing a text frame, you have to edit the Pagination tab for both the anchor and caption tags, setting Format > Side Head. You would then (as Arnis showed) have to edit the anchored frame properties to Outside Column and adjust the Distance From Text Column offset to shove the graphic over so it looks like it's in the sidehead.

I used the Adobe-provided "Report with Sidehead" format to test this, and the offset worked out to about -0.7". Note that there's a bit of a gap at the moment in the text where the FigAnchor tag was inserted. That can (probably) be adjusted by playing with the above and below formats. A little gnarly to set up, but once it is it's all pretty automatic.

NB: If the graphic is wider than the sidehead, it will overlap into the text frame and you'll wind up with a gap in the text that is big enough to fit the graphic.


Lin,

I usually set up the required AFrame on a Reference page so that it already contains the Text Frame, so it's simply a matter of a copy&paste to place it. But whatever works for a particular situation... there are so many different ways to accomplish the same visual output in FM.

    Arnis Gubins
    Arnis Gubins
    Inspiring
    November 2, 2018

    Place a Text Frame inside of the Anchored Frame to hold the autonumbering figure captions.

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