Cross-reference to Illustrations

[drbotkin]

Hi, colleagues

I have problem with using references to illustrations in FM, and thus in PDF documents (I use TCS 5, and therefore FrameMaker 12.02.389 is active). Still the same problem exists for FrameMaker 11 from TCS 4.

Steps:

1. I’ve created a Paragraph Style to apply for figure’s captions. Let us assume it is called “Figure_Caption”.
2. I apply this style for every caption of illustration.
3. I place every illustration’s caption UNDER an illustration.
4. Then, I create cross-references to the required illustrations using that existing “Figure_Caption” paragraph style.
5. Create a PDF file.

Problem: The reference works almost. However, in PDF file it shows the “caption” on the top of the referred page. In other words, even the referred illustration is located in the middle of page, a caption appears at the top. So reader needs to scroll up a page in order to see the referred illustration itself. This annoys our customers and me to.

Expected results:

I would expect that clicking a reference to a specific illustration (like “See Figure 4.1 ….”) opens the illustration, not a caption.

Additional info:

1. I know that placing a caption ABOVE an illustration will solve the issue, but it is not a result our customer expects.
2. The same problem occurs when I convert such FM document to RH and then generate WebHelp or WebHelp Pro.

Has anybody faced this problem? Are there any “default” solutions You know from Adobe or Your own experience?

Thanks in advance

[Bob_Niland]

> I place every illustration’s caption UNDER an illustration.

How?
(given that FM does not have the obvious desired ability to anchor a frame ABOVE the anchoring para).

We use a text frame (containing the caption) inside an anchored frame for this, and the see-figure Xrefs from the Flow_A narrative work as expected*

_____

* when they work at all, which is a separate problem, perhaps isolated to the FM7.1 we use.

[drbotkin]

First, I import an image. Then apply the "At insertion point" attribute for the Anchored Frame. Finally, I apply a caption Paragraph style, for the following paragraph, where a caption is should be placed.

[Arnis Gubins]

If you want the hypertext link (i.e. the cross-ref) in the PDF to jump to the graphic instead of the caption, then you need to make the anchor paragraph for the anchored frame the target of the cross-ref. In order to get some text for the cross-ref, you can use Invisible text (i.e. apply a color set to be Invisible in the Color Views panel) in the anchoring paratag.

I'm assuming that you're using a specific paratag to hold the anchored frame and not just dropping in the framed graphic within any convenient paragraph. With a specific anchoring paratag, use the Below Current Line position to ensure that any links to this in the PDF have the graphic sitting at the top of the window when a hypertext jump is made.

[drbotkin]

Yes, I was trying to do so. It did work. However, it costs additional "clicks" and time in case I need to edit a caption and therefore the anchor paragraph. You can imagine time required to update more than 100 illustrations. I do not consider this trick as a solution, but rather a "workaround". I wonder if there is any other solution I have no clue about.

[Bob_Niland · Accepted solution]

> I wonder if there is any other solution I have no clue about.

Not really. FM can't Xref to anything but Xref markers, which can only be placed in text flows (not even in graphics text).

When people want to hyperlink to a graphic, they use text frames, either in front of or behind the graphic (and behind usually implies some confidence that the graphic is opaque in both preview and final rendering).

If I wanted the target of a caption Xref to be the graphic, I'd put the caption (or a clone of it) on top of the graphic using a color set to invisible by Color Views at render time. Give it a unique para tag, such as Caption.Invisible

The graphic's invisible text frame could contain just:

• a cross-reference, by paragraph text, to the real caption below the art
• an Xref Marker, auto-created when you create the See/Refer-to reference to the Caption.Invisible in the adjoining narrative

Any changes to the real caption are made to the always-visible text below, and are picked up automatically by the invisible clone.

Extra work to set up. Trivial to maintain. Which is to say, typical FM.

[drbotkin]

Yes you are totally right. I think I'll follow your advise. Thank you very much.

[Bob_Niland]

Since you already have the cross-references setup, when you create the hidden clone paragraphs, merely select the Marker symbols in the real Captions, cut & paste into the clones. No need to re-do the Xrefs in the body flow.

[drbotkin]

Thanks! I'll try doing that!