How do I put a cross reference on a text line added to an illustration?

[jimlight]

Hiya everybody, I'm pretty new to FrameMaker 2017 (and FrameMaker in general) and I have a small problem I'm trying to work out.

I'm editing a manual made by someone else, and I have an illustration that has several "call-out" numbers on it referring to components of the widget referred to with this manual.  What I'm trying to do is to add a cross-reference from each of these text line callouts to the particular section of the book that would allow the reader to click on the number of the component in the PDF and get linked to that section of the manual.  No matter what I try, I cannot get a cross-reference to attach to the text line.

What's the best course of action here?

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

Hi Jimlight,

Use your Hypertext pod to insert a Cross-Ref marker in the text line and use the marker text as a label for when you insert the xref.

Then you can insert a spot cross-reference via the Cross-Reference pod. You'll see your label when you set Source Type to Cross-Reference Markers.

You can read more about the process in the Creating spot cross-references section of my book, FrameMaker - Working with Content.

-Matt

[jimlight]

Thank you Matt!

How would I go about this if I didn't want the number itself to change at all?  As if I wanted to make it for the user to be able to click on that number, and be whisked away to the paragrah cross-reference?

Here's a little clip of what I want it to look like, but when I try to add a cross reference, it gives me error warnings about insertion points...

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

It should simply be a marker (looks like a bolded T) that sits next to the 1.

Can you post a shot of the message you're getting?

-Matt

[Bob_Niland]

Unless FM has changed in later versions, the text added to the image needs to be in a text frame, and not just Graphic Text. There's lots of things you can't do with graphic text. So, draw a little text frame over the image.

[jimlight]

If I have the cross referenced paragraph heading in another document, which is also open, shouldn't that spot reference work?

It keeps telling me that I cannot insert into a text line, only a frame. 

I'm going to try Bob Niland's idea of adding a frame over top of the number, but I don't want any of the cross referenced text to show up IN the frame, which is what keeps happening.  I have to figure out how to make a "blank" reference format!  Oh dear...

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

Bob's on the right track...I'd deleted a blurb about my preference of a text frame in lieu of a text line previously.

But instead of placing a frame above the text line, in the anchored frame replace the text line with a 1 with a text frame containing a 1. Then insert your cross-reference next to the number. You can create a format that doesn't have text, but still links.

[Winfried Reng]

Hi Jimlight,

It’s not clear to me what you want.

I guess that you want to click in the PDF on the call-out to jump to the explanation elsewhere.

You do not want to change the label text.

I also have cross-references from small text frames in an anchored frame with a figure to the corresponding explanation elsewhere.

The only difference is that my explanations are numbered as well, so that I can use regular cross-references. Much easier, and useful for the reader.

This works very well. Very good for screenshots with 20 controls.

In the FrameMaker user guide your requirement is not called spot cross-references.

Spot cross-references are cross-references to a cross-reference marker which you had entered manually.

However, you can still only use the cross-reference building blocks, e.g. <$paratext[paratag]> or <$paranumonly[paratag]>.

This will display the text of the target paragraph or its autonumbering.

You need hypertext commands.

This means:

Create a hypertext marker before your explanation text with “Specify Named Destination”.

Then before the label (1) insert a hypertext command “Jump to Named Destination”.

References to hypertext markers with a certain text are explained in the user manual:

https://help.adobe.com/en_US/framemaker/2017/using/index.html#t=using-framemaker-2017%2Ffrm_text_tx%...

This works only in text frames as Bob has mentioned before.

Best regards

Winfried

[Barb Binder]

I have an illustration that has several "call-out" numbers on it referring to components of the widget referred to with this manual

Hi Jim:

Another option is to use the hot spot tool. This allows you to designate parts of a single image as links to various locations.

FrameMaker 11: Linking hotspots from graphics to text - YouTube

~Barb

[DavidCFrye-pjq4jV]

Just to add another option, though one you probably wouldn't prefer, you can also use a legend (text or table) below the pic and cross ref from there.

[jimlight]

I got it to work thanks to several of you here!

Here's what I did:

I deleted the original line text numbers and replaced each with a text frame.  Once I did that, I was able to create a cross-reference marker with the number of the call-out as the text:

Then, I created a reference format that was renamed as the name I wanted to use as my own reference internally and used just the number of that part as the reference format, with my Character Style applied.

Then I cross-referenced to the section that needed referencing, and it worked!

Thank you for all of your help!!