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_Enrico_Savazzi_
Participant
April 24, 2008
Question

How to format characters with border and background color?

  • April 24, 2008
  • 7 replies
  • 620 views
I need to format a word or group of words in a paragraph by displaying a solid rectangle around the word(s), and preferably also a colored background inside the rectangle. I need to do this a lot, so I cannot draw a rectangle by hand every time I need this format, and the rectangle/background should stay with the selected word when editing/reflowing.

This is easy to do in HTML/CSS and editors like Word, but have not found a way in FrameMaker (I am new to it, though). When I import from Word text formatted as above, characters lose the border and background, so I cannot do this to study how to format these attributes.
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    7 replies

    F
    FieryPantone
    Legend
    May 9, 2008
    > Word's exceptional table formatting features<br /><br />such as spontaneous, different-width rows in the same table <rofl>
    A
    Anonymous
    May 8, 2008
    Ron Newsham commented: "most of the time FM wins hands down, but just occasionally (such as background colour for paragraphs) Word wins."

    I agree, and would add that Word also wins in the table arena. I love FM, but I do miss Word's exceptional table formatting features and functionality.
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    _Ron_Newsham_
    Participant
    May 7, 2008
    Quite annoying that you cannot specify a background colour for a paragraph - especially as you can specify a frames above and below a paragraph.

    For historic reasons, some of our documents are written using Microsoft Word, and some are authored in FrameMaker(*) - and it is a PITA to make templates in the two applications to look similar - most of the time FM wins hands down, but just occasionally (such as background colour for paragraphs) Word wins.

    (*) We have a migration plan - most of the Word documents need to be re-written
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    _Enrico_Savazzi_Author
    Participant
    May 6, 2008
    Thanks to all for the suggestions. Unfortunately, none of them seems to be practical for my situation. I need to apply the formatting quite frequently, perhaps a dozen times per page, and to single words - not characters - located within normal text paragraphs that must reflow freely during editing.

    Because of this and other limitations, it seems to me that FrameMaker is largely a legacy product. I am now begining to evaluate InDesign instead. The latter seems to allow essentially everything that could be formatted with CSS, which is much closer to my goal.
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    _Chris_Nahr_
    Participating Frequently
    May 7, 2008
    On Tue, 6 May 2008 07:54:20 -0700, Enrico_Savazzi@adobeforums.com
    wrote:

    >Because of this and other limitations, it seems to me that FrameMaker is largely a legacy product. I am now begining to evaluate InDesign instead. The latter seems to allow essentially everything that could be formatted with CSS, which is much closer to my goal.

    Well, InDesign can't do things that FrameMaker can, so it's not like
    the one is unconditionally more powerful than the other. But the lack
    of any decent way to shade words or paragraphs is definitely a serious
    defect. Is Adobe aware that some Frame users want this feature?
    A
    Anonymous
    April 24, 2008
    There are some fonts that appear as if they're inside a rectangle, often they're called "keycap fonts", such as this one:

    http://www.elfring.com/keycaps.htm

    http://www.myfonts.com/browse/synonym/keycap/
    A
    Anonymous
    April 24, 2008
    Enrico:

    I would create a single-cell, headingless / titleless table style and use that...

    Cheers & hope this helps,
    Riley
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    _Kenneth_Benson_
    Participating Frequently
    April 24, 2008
    Only way I know to do this in Frame is with an anchored frame positioned
    At Insertion Point. Big PITA. Rethink your design, or consider a
    different app. This is pretty easy in Indesign, with a custom underline
    or strikethrough.

    --
    Kenneth Benson
    Pegasus Type, Inc.
    www.pegtype.com
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