Structured formatting and contitional text.

[deevaa]

Hi all,

I'm working on a Structured FM9 Document.

My problem is a little complicated to explain, so I hope I can be clear.

My document has some text added as an 'Element', the formating for which is in the EDD.

The instructions for formatting is(basically) if 'Element' is last, use format Key1Last.Otherwise use Key1.

The difference between Key1 (the regular format) and Key1Last is that Key1Last adds a line break after the element.

This year we are doing a USA version of the catalogue as well, which for regulatory reasons requires some of the text in the 'Element' tag to be made hidden. I have done this using Show/Hide conditions. The only problem is that when I 'hide' the elements I lose the assosicated formatting of a line break.

My co-worker has suggested that I add a 'blank' Element which I turn on as conditional text when I turn the other conditions off, but I'm hesitent to do this as I feel like it's 'string and sticky tape' approch, just fixing it for a short time, rather than creating a working solution.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Russ Ward]

Hi deevaa,

I'm not sure I understand why you are losing the formatting. If you hide the last element in the branch, then whatever element becomes the "new" last element should adopt the EDD formatting rules for last elements. Is this not what you want? Or, is this not what you are seeing? If it is the latter, perhaps you need to refresh the EDD formatting rules by selecting File > Import > Element Definitions, select Current, select the option to remove format overrides, then click Import. It is always a good idea to refresh formatting definitions after any major operation (like messing with conditional text) and always before publishing.

Russ

[Van Kurtz]

Another approach, which is equivalent to Russ's....

If the EDD is changing the format based upon the element's being the last element, then that element must be the last element INSIDE some other element, say Container. So, change the EDD to format the Container element to apply the line break after itself, instead of the last element inside it.

Van

[deevaa]

Thanks guys,

Russ, I think the problem is that I'm making all of the elements in that line hidden, so there is nothing left to be the 'last'.

Van, I think your solution sounds good, I'll give it a try.

Thanks for your help,

Davena