FM8 XML Cookbook problem with StructureView window

[Moxamoll]

I'm trying to follow the introductory lessons in the cookbook and on page 14, it says to open the Structure View page.  I can open the page, but it's blank!  The structapps.fm file is open, has text and I can view the Element Boundaries, but there is nothing in the Structure View window.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Do I have some other setting wrong?  Any help would be appreciated

[Van Kurtz]

The Structure View displays the element structure of a structured document, but the insertion point has to be somewhere inside the structure. Therefore, in your document, click inside the text flow.

[Russ Ward]

And with that, if you click in the flow and the Structure View is still blank, that means the flow is not structured. If you see elements in the element catalog but nothing in the Structure View, the document has an EDD imported and you have the capability to structure any flow, but your current flow is unstructured.

[Moxamoll]

Ah - I knew it was something silly!  I was clicking in the first paragraph, but didn't try lower down - I guess I know now to check more carefully where the element markers start.

And the follow up answer is good too, I'll probably run into that as well, and now I'll think to look at that first.

Thanks, both of you!

[Van Kurtz]

But the first paragraph should be structured also. A document cannot be mixed structured and unstructured, or at least should not be. If an unstructured document is converted to structure, there may be content that is still outside elements; but once that is cleared up, FrameMaker does not allow you enter text outside the root element.

[Russ Ward]

Van is correct, let me add some clarification... a FrameMaker document contains many flows. Often, we only really use the main flow (A) on the body pages, but you can have flows all over the place (text box callouts, reference page stuff, etc.). In structured FM, any given flow is either structured or not... that is, all of the text is either wrapped completely by at least one element or not. So, it is not possible to click in one paragraph of a flow and see no structure, but see structure for the next one. It is possible, though, if you have clicked from one flow into another.

Russ

[Moxamoll]

Well, I'm looking at the structapps.fm file that is used to work with the cookbook.  At the top is a header which says "Structured Application Definition Document" and under that is a paragraph that starts: "Note: The variable DocBookPath..."  I cannot insert a cursor anywhere in that part of the page. There is nothing in the Structure View and the area indicating which path it is, is blank.

Under that, it says "Application Definition Version 8.0..." and I can click anywhere after that.  When I do, there is a dotted line around the text (surrounding Flow A, it indicates below) and I can choose to view the Element Boundaries.  These show up starting around the "Application Definition" sentence, but not around the text above.

I haven't finished working through the Cookbook exercises, so I all can think is that maybe I will get to part of the exercise to bring all of the text into the structured framework?

[Van Kurtz]

When I open the file structapps.fm, the structure displays in the structure view. But that is neither here nor there.

The NOTE is not part of the structure of the document. The structure is in the text flow, as you have discovered. The NOTE is part of the master page. It is FrameMaker's way of putting the note in the document for you to see when and if you decide to edit this file. It is just information to the user opening the file. So, don't worry about the fact that you cannot put an insertion point into this note; you were not meant to be able to do that.