Selectively "Flowing" Lists into Two Columns on a Single-Column Layout

[Mykimus]

I am a one-man Tech Writing department using Structured FrameMaker with a collection of home-brewed EDD's. I create technical documentation for a software product. My documents are currently all single-flow, single-column documents. In the last few releases of our software, some of our feature sets have created the need for long bulleted lists. When it gets to the point where a single bulleted list takes up more than a page (ugly!), it's time to start looking for another way to get the job done. 

I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction here. What I'd ideally like to be able to do is set up my "List" element in my EDD with an attribute that will allow me to specify whether or not the list should "wrap" (which I would set manually based on the final length of the list itself.)  I will try to include an example here...hopefully the formatting comes out OK.

For example, the following page with this attribute OFF:

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut a sapien. Aliquam aliquet purus molestie dolor. Integer quis eros ut erat posuere dictum. Curabitur dignissim.

* Item 1

* Item 2

* Item 3

* Item 4

* Item 5

* Item 6

Integer orci. Fusce vulputate lacus at ipsum. Quisque in libero nec mi laoreet volutpat. Aliquam eros pede, scelerisque quis, tristique cursus, placerat convallis, velit. Nam condimentum. Nulla ut mauris.

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would become the following once that "re-flow" attribute was turned ON:

================

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Ut a sapien. Aliquam aliquet purus molestie dolor. Integer quis eros ut erat posuere dictum. Curabitur dignissim.

* Item 1              * Item 4

* Item 2              * Item 5

* Item 3              * Item 6

Integer orci. Fusce vulputate lacus at ipsum. Quisque in libero nec mi laoreet volutpat. Aliquam eros pede, scelerisque quis, tristique cursus, placerat convallis, velit. Nam condimentum. Nulla ut mauris.

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Does anyone know of a way to do this in FrameMaker that doesn't require a bunch of manual fiddling every time you need to add one of these "wrapped" lists? Of course, it doesn't make sense that a shorter list with only a few items would be wrapped in this way...so I need to be able to turn it on and off (even manually) as the list gets longer (although I'm not opposed to using two different element tags for this purpose.)

The best idea I've come up with so far is to use a table without borders, but that feels like a formatting nightmare waiting to happen.

Thanks a million for any and all suggestions -

Brandon Wright

Technical Writer

Management Information Tools, Inc.

[Arnis Gubins]

Use an "invisible (i.e. no rulings or shadings)" 2-col table for the required two-column section.

[David_Crowe · Accepted solution]

Leaving out the XML aspects for the moment, the obvious way to achieve this using just paragraph formats is to set up your pages with two (or more) columns, and set all paragraphs as “Across All Columns” except the bulleted list items that you want to appear in 2+ columns.

You may need two different elements for “long lists” and “short lists”. But perhaps someone better versed than I in Structured FrameMaker can advise how to distinguish them using context rules.

[Russ Ward]

Brandon,

The short answer is that you won't be able to automate this with attribute values. It will require that manual fiddling, such as the table and two-column suggestions mentioned previously. You could automate it with the FDK or FrameScript, but aside from that, this is way to complex for basic EDD functionality.

Russ

[Mykimus]

Thanks, David - that is exactly what I was looking for. Granted, it will require changing all of my layout formats, but it will be well worth it in the end. Thanks again!

[Michael_Müller-Hillebrand]

Brandon,

Independent from how clever your list formatting will be: IMO a bulleted list as long as you describe it is not comprehensible by any reader. It may be the desire of the product manager to see a long list of all product features, but that should be part of the marketing papers, not the technical documentation.

In quite a few situations if something seems to be odd and not easily solvable with a proven XML structure, it is a good idea to step back and look at the bigger picture.

When changing a list into a two-column table you give up all list features, e.g. being able to easily re-arrange items or to use attributes to hide individual items. But of course, if it must be done, this is the way to do it, manually - ugh!

Just some food for thought,

- Michael

[Mykimus]

Michael,

Thanks for taking the time to respond & give me something to think about. I guess if I think about it, I have noticed a lot more marketing-type information coming my way for inclusion in the technical documentation since we hit a money crunch last year and laid off our marketing department.    I'll have to push back on the PM a bit and try to get to the bottom of this.

Thanks again,

Mykimus