Is there a workaround for the hypertext character style formatting rule

Report · Nov 04, 2021

I've found out that the hypertext formatting of "Lists" are forcing us to use a single character style format for each row on the list (for each paragraph). Add hypertext commands to documents

The "Define an active area for a paragraph" section on this page says that "Ensure that the same character format is applied to the entire paragraph.". What I understand from this statement is that a hypertext marker does only create the actual clickable link on the first character style in a paragraph.

I'm changing the style of the "paranum" part of my list row reference definition to "emphasis" (bold) and the actual "paratext" parts back to "body" (normal). This cuses my list texts to only be clickable on the "paranum" parts and not on their "paratext" parts. My reference definitions are :

<Emphasis><$paranum> <Body><$paratext> ⭾....<$pagenum>

"Emphasis" is the character style for "bold" text and "Body" is the character style which changes it back to normal.

The resulting lists do look like this :

My question is if there is a workaround to this? Can I both have different character styles in a paragraph and also mark/format the complete paragraph as hypertext?

Report · Nov 04, 2021

Hi,

You could split the paragraphs into two paragraphs and use the Run-in Head property in the Pagination tab of the Paragraph Designer.

Then both paragraphs would be displayed as if they were a single paragraph.

Both paragraphs can be formatted differently and be active areas for hyperlinks.

Best regards

Winfried

Report · Nov 04, 2021

Yes, this could be a solution but I'm utilizing the "Insert - List of" feature to create these lists. I would lose the automatic updating functionality if I would go for a custom solution.

Report · Nov 04, 2021

Two solutions I have used in the past:

1). A script that will duplicate the Hypertext marker in each paragraph whereever there is a character property change. A script like this can be automatically triggered when you update the TOC (or list).

2) An Acrobat JavaScript script that will extend the link boxes in the resulting PDF.

The first solution is usually preferable because it doesn't require any post processing.

Report · Nov 04, 2021

re: Two solutions I have used in the past:

Speaking of solutions (and frank hacks), one I've used for this ChFmt-ends-hypertext-region issue is a Unicode dodge. Instead of using a ChFmt, use Unicode characters that have the actual glyph(s) or presentation needed.

Unicode now has an extensive set of Latin letters, and Arabic numerals, that are natively bolded (if your font populates them). But trying to use those in the present case runs into two FM-specific problems:

These code points are all in the SMP range (U+1D323…U+1D7F5), and FM rendering does not yet support any SMP code points.
The choices in Paragraph AN formats do not include arbitrary incrementing sequences of code points (Footnote Numbering, oddly, does).

Posted in case anyone has a bright idea.

There's a TRACKER report (FRMAKER-10976) already filed on the SMP issue. I don't think there's even been a feature request on user-defined AN enhancement (it's not FRMAKER-6379 or FRMAKER-10999), and simply doing a mimic of the Format»Document»Numbering»/Footnote\»Format:Custom feature would not be sufficiently comprehensive, as the positional notation roll-over at list end has no concept of base & zero digit.