How to copy one para format into another para format

[larryw26586906]

I have three auto-generated paragraph styles for the Mini-TOC feature

H1HeadingMTOC

H1HeadingNoSplitMTOC

H1HeadingNoTOCMTOC

I want them to use the same style as an existing style: LTTopicList

How can I update the first three formats with the format existing in LTTopicList – without manually writing down all format values and manually updating the other three, style by style and setting by setting.

[Winfried Reng]

Hi,

You can just copy and paste the three paragraph formats. You have full control and you do not have to think what you might overwrite. That's probably the easiest here:

In your file with the correct formats:

Select the paragraph with the correct format. Right-click to open the context menu. Click on Copy Special and then Copy Paragraph Format.

In your file with the incorrect format:

Click in the paragraph with the incorrect format. Press CTRL+V to paste the paragraph format. Then open the paragraph designer and click Update Style, so that not only the selected paragraph has the correct format, but that all paragraphs with this format are updated.

Repeat this for the other two paragraph formats.

Best regards

Winfried

[larryw26586906]

Winfried, thank you for the suggestion. One problem with this method is that you can not select a single paragraph of a set of MTOC paragraphs - since they are auto-generated by the Mini-TOC feature - they are generated and selected as a group - much like text from an inset file. 

In my files, I have 3 H1's - a standard H1, one without TOC entry, and another that does not break pages into separate HTML files for HTML-based publicatons.

However, I don't always use NoTOC and NoSplits - so those don't get updated, since they are not in the selected paragraph set.

I also see that my source MTOC Para format copy did NOT have pages - but when I updated the target MTOC set

I ended up with pages -wierd - have to figure out if thats a bug or a user error.

Thoughts?

[frameexpert]

Here is the process I generally use:

1) Format my styles as desired and save the document.

2) Save a temporary copy of the document.

3) Delete all of the paragraph formats in the temporary document except for the three (or however many).

4) Open your target document or book. If it is a book, select the components you want to target.

5) Choose File > Import > Formats. Choose the temporary document, uncheck everything except Paragraph Formats, and click Import.

[larryw26586906]

Thanks frameexpert - yes, I believe this method will work, but it is alot of labor.

ljw

[Be.eM]

The existing answers all talk about moving paragraph formats between files, which is not what you're trying to do. You want to apply parameters of one paragraph format to another format. This is how I do it:

1. Write down the names of the three formats you'd like to update.
2. Delete these three formats from the format catalog. Existing paragraphs using these formats now become irregular (*).
3. Open the paragraph designer and display the source format of which you want to take the parameters (LTTopicList).
4. While displaying this format in paragraph designer, enter the name of the first target format in the paragraph designer and click Apply.

This creates a new paragraph format, using the parameters from the source format. Now repeat this action twice, each time entering the next one of the three target format names. In the end you've got four copies of the same format, with the required names. Afterwards you can update them all to take over the new parameter sets.

Bernd

[larryw26586906]

Bernd,

I appreciate the simplicity / process of this method - 

When you create a Min-TOC - esp. when you have multiple MTOC headings - reformatting the MTOC para tags is a requirement, and the intersection/dependency on para formatting in general as applied to auto-generated, multiple para formats - that are NOT selectable on an individual basis easily - is not well thought out.

I still end up with page numbers from the xrefs - which I can't figure out how to get rid of - but not a major issue.

[larryw26586906]

Framemaker 2019 - I believe I have discovered at least one bug in the MINI-TOC feature.

If you delete the auto-generated Mini-TOC - and then, manually delete the MTOC paragraphs from the Paragraph Catalog - and save everything - then Refresh the Para Catlog. The ~MTOC paragraphs STILL display in the Paragraph Catalog and are checked - as if they are being used - even though I deleted the MTOC. If you search for them, they are reported as Not Found.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Did you delete the MTOC reference page too?

[larryw26586906]

No I did not 🙂  Didn't even think of that.

This comment just revealed where the unwanted page numbers are coming from - THanks.

[larryw26586906]

The existence of the MTOC para tags on the ref pages DOES PROVIDE the user with access to each individual ~MTOC para when updating their format - MUCH easier than attempting to update their format in the Body page view - where you can't access them w/o creating fake ones.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Styles are not officially deleted from a Frame document until they are deleted from the catalog, and they are not used anywhere in the document.