Specifying alphabetic sort order for other languages.

[Guest]

The alphabetic sort order differs slightly for other languages then the English one. I rewrite the alphabetics in the special text flow of the Reference Page of the index file, regenerate the index file, but the result is wrong. The special Group Title characters for greek, hungarian, czech, russian etc. languages are combined among latin Group Title characters.

We work in FM 8 to create 3000 pages technical documentation in 14 languages. The output will be pdf file and help system. Our main problem now the index Group Titles sort order. Could you help me to solve this problem?

Thank you so much

Eva

[Michael_Müller-Hillebrand]

Eva,

FrameMaker can fulfill every sorting wish I ever encountered. You have to edit the SortOrder in sync with the GroupTitles, the description in the document is quite accurate I seem to remember.

You say you have 3000 pages in 14 languages: Is that in each language or combined. If combined, are you trying to create a combined alphabetical Index?

- Michael

[Guest]

Michael,

We combine the index entries of current language with some English index entries. For example, please take a look at, how I edited the Group Titles line in the Reference page of the index file, that is not working for me:

Symbols[\ ];Numerics[0];A;B;C;Č;D;E;F;G;H;I;J;K;L;M;N;O;P;Q;R;S;T;U;V;W;X;Y;Z

<$symbols><$numerics><$alphabetics>

In this case the C and the Č should be sort the index entries separately, but see the result of the generated index on the picture below (the picture is too large, so you have to scroll down to see the letter C and Č):

What I do wrong?

[Michael_Müller-Hillebrand]

Eva,

Think of it this way: FrameMaker first sorts the entries, then decides which group titles to use. You changed only the group titles but not the sort order. <$alphabetics> is a shortcut for the Western/English sort order which treats C and Č a like. The same is true for A and Ä, O and Ö. In Scandinavian languages you need to have Ä and sometimes Ö after Z.

The online help is somewhat precise about this:

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/framemaker/using/WSd817046a44e105e21e63e3d11ab7f7960b-7ed4.html

(This is for FM10, but the facts have not changed since FM6 or earlier)

In the SortOrder paragraph you have to specify something like this (spaces separate letters sorted together) with a separated "Čč":

<$symbols><$numerics>AÁÀÂÄÃÅaáàâäãåª Bb CÇcç Čč  Dd EÉÈÊËeéèêë Ffƒ Gg Hh IÍÌÎÏiìíîï Jj Kk Ll Mm NÑnñ  OÓÒÔÖÕØoóòôöõøº  Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt UÚÙÛÜuúùûü  Vv Ww Xx YŸyÿ  Zz

This should sort Čč behind all other letters starting with CÇcç, and then your GrouptTitles setting will apply.

HTH,

- Michael

[Guest]

Michael,

Thank you so much for your answer. It works great. I have a promlem only one letter, which is in the Czech alphabetics: "Ch". This letter would be after the "H". I have edited the sort order like this:

Symbols[\ ];Numerics[0];A;B;C;Č;D;E;F;G;H;Chch;I;J;K;L;M;N;O;P;Q;R;Ř;S;Š;T;U;Ú;V;W;X;Y;Z

<$symbols><$numerics>Aa Bb Cc *Čč* Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Chch Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Řř Ss Šš Tt Uu Úú Vv Ww Xx Zz

The result in the generated index is, that the index entries beginning with Ch comes on below "C" and the GroupTitle "Ch" is disappearing. Take a look at the result in the generated index file, what I am talking about:

[Michael_Müller-Hillebrand · Accepted solution]

Eva,

Please take your time and read that online help page. It reads:

> To indicate that a letter pair should be sorted as a single character, specify the letter pair between angle brackets (< >)—for example, CÇ cç<CH><Ch><ch>.

It is almost your example, isn’t it?

First fix the sort order (…Gg Hh <CH><Ch><ch> Ii…), next think about group titles.

It is true, the online help pages aren’t perfect, but the very powerful features of FrameMaker regarding sorting are described quite well.

- Michael

[Guest]

Dear Michael,

It works!!!

Thank you so much!!!

Eva