How Do I Insert Multiple, Captioned Figure Numbers in FM9 (PC)?

Report · Dec 10, 2009

Greetings,

I am a technical writer of 18 years who hasn't touched FrameMaker since version 6.02 (about 10 years ago) and I don't remember much about it save for its overwhelming complexity. Now I find myself in a new job where I occasionally have cause to use FM9 on a Dell Laptop. Most of our docs are produced using Adobe ID, but if a customer sends us something in FM, we have to send it back to them in that format if they request it. So, to the matter at hand...

I am converting a third-party technical manual from "their" FM version to fit our corporate layout. Copying the graphics-frames from their manual to ours presented, surprisingly, few problems. But now I have to add captions to the graphics. Here's how I've tried to do it thus far.

I'm using the Text Frame icon from the toolbar to create a text frame under each graphic. I enter my text (for example, "Widget X"), center my text in the frame using Paragraph Designer, highlight it, and select Caption from the Paragraph Tag dropdown menu. Then I click "Apply". OK. The format does know that I'm in Chapter 2, because the first caption came out as "Figure 2-1: Widget X". So far, so good.

But now, when I attempt to add a caption for the next figure, Widget Y, I still get "Figure 2-1". This is auto-text and of course I cannot manually change it. I cannot even highlight it. What I want the auto-text to say is "Figure 2-2". And I want the next caption to read "Figure 2-3". And so on.

I am open to completely changing my approach from scratch if need be.

Help me, forum folks, you're my only hope!

- Shade

Report · Dec 10, 2009

The autonumbers are not incrementing, because placing the graphics in a Text frame like that is removing those from the current flow (i.e. each text frame acts as a separate entity).

There are several different ways that you can accomplish what you want. I'm assuming that the graphics are in anchored frames and are meant to flow along with the rest of the content (if not, then you're whole approach is in question).

1. Insert the caption text frames into the anchored frame holding the graphic. You'll need to adjust the size of the Aframe to accommodate the caption text.

2. Use a two-row table construct. The graphic is placed in the first cell and the caption in the second cell.

3. Simply insert the figure caption into a properly crafted caption paratag after the paragraph holding the anchored frame for the graphic. No need for another text frame.

Report · Dec 10, 2009

Success! Success! I went with Arnis' Option 1.

Fortunately for me, the graphics were already within anchored frames. So all I did was expand the frame by dragging the bottom down a little, insert my Text Frame, and voila! When I changed the text to the paratag "Caption", it naturally followed with "2-1", "2-2", etc. I guess anything outside the anchored frame represents being outside "the current flow", as Arnis says.

Thank you, Arnis, for your helpful reply. And thank you, one and all, for your assistance! Geniuses!

- Shade

Report · Dec 10, 2009

My favorite option is to create a one-cell table format with titles turned

on. Place the graphic in the table cell and place the caption in the table

title. This has the advantage that inserting the table style sets up the

paragraph styles for both caption and graphic automatically each time.

Report · Dec 10, 2009

Shade,

Actually, placing the text frame within the anchored frame brought it into the "flow", as the anchored frame is hooked into a paragraph within a flow (a container within a container). Prior to that, the caption text frame was just sitting on the page frame along with the main body text frame and was independent..

Report · Dec 10, 2009

Shadekur wrote:
Greetings,
I am a technical writer of 18 years who hasn't touched FrameMaker since version 6.02 (about 10 years ago) and I don't remember much about it save for its overwhelming complexity. Now I find myself in a new job where I occasionally have cause to use FM9 on a Dell Laptop. Most of our docs are produced using Adobe ID, but if a customer sends us something in FM, we have to send it back to them in that format if they request it. So, to the matter at hand...
I am converting a third-party technical manual from "their" FM version to fit our corporate layout. Copying the graphics-frames from their manual to ours presented, surprisingly, few problems. But now I have to add captions to the graphics. Here's how I've tried to do it thus far.
I'm using the Text Frame icon from the toolbar to create a text frame under each graphic.

If "under each graphic" means that the text frame lies beneath the graphic in the stacking order, this would explain why you can't select the text frame after you exit from it. You can change the stacking order by selecting the graphic, the top object in the stack, and choosing Graphics > Send to Back. (Search for Change the stacking order of objects" in Help)

I enter my text (for example, "Widget X"), center my text in the frame using Paragraph Designer, highlight it, and select Caption from the Paragraph Tag dropdown menu. Then I click "Apply". OK. The format does know that I'm in Chapter 2, because the first caption came out as "Figure 2-1: Widget X". So far, so good.
But now, when I attempt to add a caption for the next figure, Widget Y, I still get "Figure 2-1". This is auto-text and of course I cannot manually change it. I cannot even highlight it. What I want the auto-text to say is "Figure 2-2". And I want the next caption to read "Figure 2-3". And so on.
I am open to completely changing my approach from scratch if need be.
Help me, forum folks, you're my only hope!
- Shade

As Arnis notes, if the auto-numbered paragraphs aren't incrementing, the problem may be that the graphics and their text frames aren't inside anchored frames.

Another possibility is that your paragraph's auto-numbering property is hard-coded to 1, to begin the sequence, using the building block <n=1>. If so, you need a second paragraph format that increments the sequence with the building block <n+>, or you need to study up on the use of multiple-counter autonumbers.

See these topics in Help:

* Use multiple counters in an autonumber format

* Reset a series

HTH

Regards,

Peter
_______________________
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices

Report · Dec 10, 2009

Another approach is to create a figure paragraph style and set its autonumbering to give you the form you want, e.g., Figure 3-5. Type the caption text into the paragraph. At the end of the text, that is, at the end of the paragraph, insert the graphic (that is, the anchored frame with graphic inside it but NO text frame inside it). Set the anchored frame to below the paragraph. Of course, this puts the caption ABOVE the graphic instead of below, but maybe this is acceptable. If you need the caption below, then the two-row table may be the best bet.

Van