Simple question relating to Cross Reference Formats

Report · Jul 03, 2013

Sorry if this is a dim question, but I'm a FrameMaker novice and I'm not sure how to go about the following:

My document makes lots of use of cross-references and I've always created these with the source type as 'Paragraphs' and a format that uses <$paratext>

For example, a cross ref displayed as:

How do I perform task A?

takes the user to a pargraph titled:

How do I perform task A?

I'd like to change this a bit by editing the text displayed in the link to be:

task A

but have it still take the user to same paragraph as before:

How do I perform task A?

I just can't figure out a way to have different text displayed without having to set up a new format for every cross reference that I create (which can't be the right way to do it).

Report · Jul 03, 2013

See:

How can I link to a marker (and display the marker content)?

Basically, what you are asking for is that Cross Reference formats support a building block of:

$markertext

It's been on the FM wishlist forever.

No sign it will appear in a release anytime soon.

Report · Jul 03, 2013

Thanks very much for the reply.
I previously thought I was mis-understanding the program when I couldn't find a simple way to do it.

Shame it's not possible, but at least I can move on now.

Report · Jul 03, 2013

Add your voice to the $markertext wishlist at https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform&product=63

Report · Jul 03, 2013

If the short form (Task A) is at the start or end of the paragraph/heading, you could use a run-in paragraph. A run-in is a true paragraph, except it remains on the same line as the first line of the paragraph that follows it, so the run-in blends smoothly into the follower. You need two paragraph paragraphs to simulate the heading - one is the run-in that begins the heading, one is a normal in-column paragraph for the remainder.

For example:

"How do I perform " is the run-in, and "task A?" is the normal.

or:

"Task A: " is the run-in, and "Getting rich beyone belief!" is the normal.

You'd point the cross-reference to the normal paragraph that follows the run in.

To include this two-paragraph heading in a TOC, you'd extract both paragraph formats that comprise it, and define a run-in and a normal format in the TOC, for each, to recreate a one-line appearance. The format for the run-in in the TOC would have no <$pagenum> building block.

Search Google for terms like "FrameMaker run-in paragraph format" without quotes, for details.

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

pr_csc wrote:
Sorry if this is a dim question, but I'm a FrameMaker novice and I'm not sure how to go about the following:
My document makes lots of use of cross-references and I've always created these with the source type as 'Paragraphs' and a format that uses <$paratext>

For example, a cross ref displayed as:
How do I perform task A?
takes the user to a pargraph titled:
How do I perform task A?
I'd like to change this a bit by editing the text displayed in the link to be:
task A
but have it still take the user to same paragraph as before:
How do I perform task A?

I just can't figure out a way to have different text displayed without having to set up a new format for every cross reference that I create (which can't be the right way to do it).