Slash Breaking

[_Bill_Dauphin_]

This came up in a thread in the main FrameMaker forum: I'd like to be able to allow line breaks at slashes in some instances and suppress them in other instances within the same document. This could be by including a nonbreaking slash special character, similar to nonbreaking hyphens and spaces, or perhaps a simpler and more comprehensive solutiion would be a tool to suppress line breaks within a selected string, regardless of what characters it includes.

[_MIF_Masters_]

can you define the instances of each...I think this is possible by post-processing the file...to 'fix' the slashes - if the cases are element or paragraph style related. It is a simple case of MIF manipulation.
Let me know more details on exactly what you want and perhaps I can provide a solution
David@mifmasaters.com - www.mifmasters.com

[_Linda_McMahon_]

I notice that this is old thread, but I, too, would find a non-breaking slash character handy, along with a non-breaking period/full-stop/dot/whatever you want to call it.

These would be very helpful when including code samples, as well as in other instances. I often find I have to spend a lot of time reformatting code just to avoid awkward line breaks. Being able to update some of it with non-breaking slashes and dots would really help with this.

[Bob_Niland]

I notice that this is old thread, but I, too, would find a non-breaking  slash character handy, along with a non-breaking  period/full-stop/dot/whatever you want to call it.

The non-breaking period seems to be an easier case. If the problem is a leading and/or trailing space, use non-breaking spaces (Ctrl-Space).

Slash is tougher, and I solved my one instance of it by using a completely different presentation, requiring no slashes.

But in experimenting, I found that an italicized or oblqued "|" would not break, nor would a math "fraction" (\xda). If I were using either hack, I'd be tempted to put the whole mess in a variable, say char.sym.slash.NB.

Another approach might be to find a comparable glyph in some non-Latin region of Unicode space. I need to stay 7.1-compatible, and didn't explore this.

It appears that the normal slash character is being special-cased for line breaks, and is always used if needed for line breaks, even if surrounded by non-breaking stuff, and even if Hyphenation is turned off.

[Arnis Gubins]

One has always been able to turn off the line-breaking at a slash character by removing it from the Text Options panel "Allow Line Breaks After" item.

[Bob_Niland]

One has always been able to turn off the line-breaking at a slash  character by removing it from the Text Options panel "Allow Line Breaks  After" item.

A feature I'd totally forgotten about. Thanks for the reminder.

However, that TO setting turns it off for the entire document, and the basenote did say "I'd like to be able to allow line breaks at slashes in some instances and suppress them in other instances".

It would be nice to have the equivalent of the non-breaking space and non-breaking hyphen, or more generically, a non-breaking tag that could be applied to any run of text.

[Dragonfire67]

What and where is the "Text Options" -panel?

and "Allow Line Breaks After" item?

Never seen this "Allow Line Breaks After" item anywhere.

Not even Google search give any hits.

[frameexpert]

Format > Document > Text Options

[Bob_Niland]

re (circa 2011): Another approach might be to find a comparable glyph in some non-Latin region of Unicode space. I need to stay 7.1-compatible, and didn't explore this.

If I had a need to have slash-like characters behave differently, I'd today be tempted to make the normal:
U+002F SOLIDUS, visually [/]
be the non-breaking instance, as controlled by Format » Document » Text Options…, and have the minority instances be based on an FM Variable employing a selected Unicode visual slash mimic (font support permitting). It appears, by the way, that FM itself does not honor U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER for rendering.

The choices for the Variable might include:

Vis: [⁄]
Name: U+2044 FRACTION SLASH
Def: \u2044

Vis: [∕]
Name: U+2215 DIVISION SLASH
Def: \u2215

Vis: [／]
Name: U+FF0F FULLWIDTH SOLIDUS
Def: \uff0f

Notes:

If the body font doesn't populate the desired glyph (often the case with U+FF0F), it might be necessary to find a font that has it (such as Microsoft JhengHei), define a Character Format to invoke it:
Style: Half+FullWidth
Family: Microsoft JhengHei
{all else}: As-Is
Then the Variable definition would be:
Name: U+FF0F FULLWIDTH SOLIDUS
Def: <Half+FullWidth>\uff0f

With Fraction & Division Slashed, rendering agents may have a tendency to kern with adjacent characters, esp. numbers. This could be blocked by having the Var Def be framed by zero-width characters (such as U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER). Presuming, as above, that this slash is the breaking one:
Name: U+2044 FRACTION SLASH
Def: \u200c\u2044\u200c

How any of this exports to HTML or XML, I have not tested.

[Bob_Niland]

I've since also tried:

• Remove / from the text options (so default / use is non-breaking).
• Create a variable for the {hopefully} breaking instances:
  Name: U+002F SOLIDUS (breaking)
  Def: \u200c/\u200c
  (U+200c being ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER)

Doesn't work.
FM doesn't honor the semantics of \u200c.

[Orly5E82 · Accepted solution]

You steered me in the right direction. 

I made a variable of my RX/TX so that an end-of-line doesn't break at the slash. 

Placing a \ in front of the slash prevents it from breaking. 

Using Variable def = RX\/TX 

thanks!