Is there a way to populate running h/f variables in headers without the text actually appearing on the body page of the document?

[ppa_chris]

I'm creating a directory-type document in 6 languages, that has multiple sections. The headers of each section need to display the section title in all 6 languages, so I've created 6 Running H/F variables that pick up the section title in each language, on the first body page of each section. However, I don't really want the 6 different language versions to appear in the main text of the document, I only want those text values to be picked up by the Running h/f variables and displayed in the page headers.

My work around at the moment is to make the section titles on the body pages tiny and white (2 point text on 2 point line space, font colour white) so that they are not visible in the printed output, but are still visible to the Running H/F variables, but this creates a large space on the first page of each section where these 6 "invisible" lines of text appear.

Does anyone know of a smarter way of doing this please?

[Arnis Gubins]

Use markers for the running h/f content. Insert markers for each required language at the end of the section title and then you dont' have to worry about trying to "hide" superfluous text. You'll have to include each marker as a separate h/f variable on your master page.

[ppa_chris]

Thanks Arnis - but surely that still requires the section title to appear in the main text, which I don't want. I should also have mentioned that I'm using the Apply Master Pages macro to apply the correct master pages for each page of the doc. The tags used for these "invisible" paragraphs are also the triggers for the Apply Master Pages macro.

[Bob_Niland]

re: ...but surely that still requires the section title to appear in the main text...

Nope. The RH/F marker can be in any text on the page.

[Arnis Gubins · Accepted solution]

See: Adobe FrameMaker (2017 release)   help entry for running h/f markers.

You can still insert "empty" paratags as the triggers and set these as run-ins so that they don't take up any space.

[Bob_Niland]

You can also use an Anchored Frame (perhaps outside of column) with metatext, such as in this hack.

[ppa_chris]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. Because of the way the data is fetched on this one I've had to go with a low-tech solution using run-in paras, but I appreciate the time taken to respond, as always.