How to put space above?

[Michael314]

Hi,

I am creating a format for a part page, you know, one that precedes a collection of chapters.

I told Frame to start it at top of page and put 144 pt above the paragraph, but it displays at the very top of the page. If I change the pagination to Anywhere, the 144 pt spacing is evident.

What is the problem?

Yours,

Michael F.

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[Bob_Niland]

Top of page behaviour has ever been thus.

One solution is to use an Advanced > Frame Above for your notional paragraph type "Heading144"

1. View > Reference Pages > Reference
2. Use the Graphic Frame tool to create an empty frame 144 pt high (and any width less than your column width).
3. Give it a name "Empty 144pt high" (and you can only name such frames on Reference Pages).
4. Use the Graphic Text tool to memorialize the name nearby (As Adobe did for the defaults provided).
5. Format > Paragraph Designer [ Heading144 ]
6. Advanced
   Frame Above Pfg: [ Empty 144pt high ]

[peter_minneapolis]

Sometimes something triggers another way to look at things. These ideas just popped into my mind after years as an FM user. I'm sure there are some sensible reasons not to do what I suggest here, but in addition to error's suggestion, which seems to have always been the most-common FrameMaker method of adding space above a paragraph, you could try one of these tricks:

* Create a paragraph format for the purpose, and create a character format that applies a tall character point size, then insert the paragraph above the title paragraph, insert an em- or en-space or other non-printing character, and apply the character format to it. 144pt might not be exactly right to achieve the 144pt above that you want, depending upon the characteristics of the title paragraph format. The large point size will widen the character's width, but you can specify a character width, usually not the best idea for a visible character, but probably OK for an invisible one.

* If the title paragraph will always be one line, you could insert the tall space on that line, though it might cause the line to wrap to the next line, even if the character format sets the character width to a narrow size.

* Create a single-cell single-row table, of the appropriate width and row height. Set the title paragraph's Table Properties vertical justification to Bottom. Apply the paragraph format to the paragraph in the cell/row.

* I don't have FM handy, but I believe that space above table is honored at the top of the page, so you could use the built-in table title. In earlier FM versions, table titles were extracted for TOCs out of the order of normal heading paragraphs extracted to TOCs. I don't know if this is true in more recent releases.

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

Michael314 wrote:

Hi,

I am creating a format for a part page, you know, one that precedes a collection of chapters.

I told Frame to start it at top of page and put 144 pt above the paragraph, but it displays at the very top of the page. If I change the pagination to Anywhere, the 144 pt spacing is evident.

What is the problem?

Yours,

Michael F.

========

[Michael314]

Error and Peter,

Thanks for the ideas. I also looked at the sample manuals in the Frame install folder to see if they had a layout like I was looking for. I was able to find a simple way to make the part page heading appear lower on the page:

I shrank the text box on a new master page called Part Page.

Instead of a master page whose text area starts 3/4 inch from the top, I made it start 2 3/4 inches from the top and removed any header and footer variables. I then made sure that  the Part Page tag had 0.0" space before. Finally, I applied the None master page to the backing page and voila I had the effect I needed.

So I guess those sample documents are good for something!

Yours,

Michael F.

========

[peter_minneapolis]

You're welcome, Michael!

Since you're looking at a master page solution, check out the FM sample Report templates for an example of using connected text frames, which might trigger some additional techniques you might want to employ. Working from my memory, not from FM in front of me, I believe they're in File > New > Explore Standard Templates; report numeric, report sidehead, and report, are the ones I'm thinking of. Also, the chapter template in the book example. Click Show Sample to see a populated example; Create opens a seemingly-blank example which has all the same format definitions as the populated example.

Search Google for terms like "FrameMaker connect text frames," without quotes, for details.

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

Michael314 wrote:

Error and Peter,

Thanks for the ideas. I also looked at the sample manuals in the Frame install folder to see if they had a layout like I was looking for. I was able to find a simple way to make the part page heading appear lower on the page:

I shrank the text box on a new master page called Part Page.

Instead of a master page whose text area starts 3/4 inch from the top, I made it start 2 3/4 inches from the top and removed any header and footer variables. I then made sure that  the Part Page tag had 0.0" space before. Finally, I applied the None master page to the backing page and voila I had the effect I needed.

So I guess those sample documents are good for something!

Yours,

Michael F.

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