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A
Anonymous
July 15, 2009
Answered

Is there a capability for COMMENTS in FM7?

  • July 15, 2009
  • 3 replies
  • 1804 views

Hi, everyone:

Sorry if this is super-basic, but I'm returning to FrameMaker for the first time in something like three years.

Is there a way to add Word-like "Comments" to an FM7 document, for the author's own use in reviewing, for reminders of issues to question, etc.?

I've identified the option Special > Marker > Comment, and have used the Comment dropdown selection, and entered the text of my question/reminder to myself. I'm guessing I may have succeeded in adding something to the document.

But for the life of me, I can't see the thing, the way you would with Comments turned on via Review > Comments (Markup and all that) in Word.

About the only options I could think of were turning on Text Symbols, and viewing the Master and Reference pages. I knew these were all likely not to be it, and apparently, they're not.

Am I thinking about this Marker > Comment feature all wrong? Is it merely something that can be made to appear in a list produced upon publishing?

If Marker > Comment isn't what I want it to be, then back to my original question:

Is there a way to add Word-like "Comments" to a FM7 document, for the author's own use in reviewing, for reminders of issues to question, etc.?

Thanks,

Lew Yedwab

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Russ Ward

    While other suggestions are valid, I'd contend that your best option is to use structured FM and assign special elements for comments. You can then comment to your heart's content and never worry about conditional text assignment, using a plugin like ABCM (disclaimer, my software) or native Frame tools to filter them out before publication.

    I would be helpless without the ability to comment my files. I bet 10 - 20% of the text in my files is actually for internal use only.

    Russ

    3 replies

    Arnis Gubins
    Arnis Gubins
    Inspiring
    July 16, 2009

    Lew,

    Another way to insert comments throughout your document, in a manner that you can toggle on or off, is to use Frame's Color View facility, i.e. FM's pseudo-layers. FM has 6 views that you can toggle amongst that allows specific colours to be made invisible, i.e. any object with the selected colours simply disappears from view, but there is no reflow in your document.

    If you create anchored frames that hang outside the main flow text frame or outside the column and insert a text frame into the anchored frame, you can then make independent notes to yourself all over the place. Create a paratag for these notes and use a colour (best to create a custom colour that you wouldn't normally use in the document) as an attribute for the paratag. You can then also make a LOR of the comments paratag to give you a hypertext listing to quickly jump to all of your comments in the document/book.

    Set the default View (1) to have the custom colour in the Invisible column and then set the last View (6) to have the custom colour visible. Using the keyboard shortcut, you can quickly toggle between seeing your notes and hiding them without the bother of having FM reflow content using conditional text.

    <esc> v 1 switches to View 1 (hiding your notes)

    <esc> v 6 switches to View 2 (showing your notes)

    I've attached a v7 MIF that shows how this works.

    A
    Anonymous
    March 3, 2010

    Hi, Arnis:

    I get the uneasy feeling I never saw your answer, much less replied and expressed thanks. I apologize. I remember getting another suggestion, that I don't think was yours. I felt like I was too harried at the time to experiment, and am simililarly harried now. However, my need to use some sort of commenting capabilty has grown, and I'm going to try this.

    I find myself collaborating with determined non-users of Framemaker, and so FM9's capability for import of PDF Comments may come into play, IF I can sell FM9 to my bosses.

    In any event, I am working with FM7 for the time being, and thank you once again for your suggestion.

    Best regards,
    Lew Yedwab.

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 15, 2009

    If your comments refer to the entire document and are short, then you can always use the File > File Info screen. I personally use the conditional text because I'm leaving notes to myself all over my current work in progress.

    Jeff ;>)

    A
    Art Campbell
    Inspiring
    July 15, 2009

    The short answer to your question is "No," but you have some work-arounds.

    I've always used a really obvious Para tag called Comment and just put notes in the text. I usually make the type red and run it across the sidehead area, and usually number them so it's really obvious. One nice by-product is that you can include them in draft copy's TOCs too, to track them.

    I think you could generate a list of Comment Markers, but I've never messed with that capability just because they're less than obvious.

    One other place you can make notes to yourself or other writers is on the Reference pages, too.

    Art

    P
    peter minneapolis
    Participating Frequently
    July 15, 2009

    Other options to use independently or in combination with Art's suggestions are footnotes and conditional text. Hiding conditionalized comments restores the un-annotated text flow. Conditionalizing footnote reference (the footnote's number in the main text) is sufficient to show or hide both the reference and the footnote at the bottom of the text column as well.

    Reference Pages store material that FM uses for various purposes. For example, named graphic frames that are designated in the Paragraph Designer > Advanced > Frame Above and Frame Below, to be pulled in above or below paragraphs. Art's suggestion is to create a text frame on a reference page in which you type your notes. Another disadvantage, in addition to Art's point that it's not obvious to a user, is that these notes don't relate to a specific page.

    Another approach is to create text frames on Master Pages and conditionalize the comments. As with Reference Pages, these are not page-specific. However, one great use of this method is to identify which Master Page is applied to each body page. This may be more useful to template designers than to users, but by using a dedicated condition, such as "MasterPageName," you can show/hide these identifiers separately from other comment conditions.

    HTH

    Regards,

    Peter Gold

    KnowHow ProServices

    R
    Russ WardCorrect answer
    Legend
    July 15, 2009

    While other suggestions are valid, I'd contend that your best option is to use structured FM and assign special elements for comments. You can then comment to your heart's content and never worry about conditional text assignment, using a plugin like ABCM (disclaimer, my software) or native Frame tools to filter them out before publication.

    I would be helpless without the ability to comment my files. I bet 10 - 20% of the text in my files is actually for internal use only.

    Russ

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