Table in Framemaker

[Xavier2112]

I write technical manuals with Framaker 2019 and I face an issue. Inside a manual I have to enter programming code examples. To highlight them from the rest of the standard text, I put a grey background and to so I simply copy the code inside a on cell table to put a grey background. However, I now have long examples, longer than one A4 page, and with framemaker it is not possible to split one cell table over more than one page (as MS Word does it). How can I then still manage this grey background area over several pages?

Best regards

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

What's your output format(s)? Do you need the code sample to be selectable? I've heard of people using different paragraph and character tags to set code sample blocks off from regular text and I've also heard of just embedding the code sample as a PDF or image in FM content.

[Winfried Reng]

Hi Xavier,

Can't you just add another table cell and move some of your code to this table cell?

Or when you do not know where your table must be split, you can put each line of your code into a separate table cell. When you remove any ruling between your rows and adjust the space between the rows, this should work.

Best regards

Winfried

[Xavier2112]

Dear Wnfried,

Of course I could do this but it is a waste of time as I never know where my tablr starts and ends. On top of this it is not simple to copy a line of code (or more) per table row

[frameexpert]

There is a simple trick that avoids the clipboard. This assumes that each line of code is a separate paragraph. (Make sure you have your Table Format set up ahead of time.) Select all of the lines and choose Table > Convert to Table.

[Xavier2112]

Dear Frameexpert,

Yes it that case it work but you completely loose the layout of the code style in that case and everything goes back the same alignement and I do not want this: I want to keep the same as the source code like for example:

// Close the file
if (f) {
          dsa_host_file_close(mst, f);
          f = NULL;
         }

}

[frameexpert]

If you are using a single paragraph format for all of your lines and using spaces for indents, you can set up your table format to use that paragraph format by default. But I agree that there are tradeoffs to each approach.

[LinSims]

If I understand what you're doing, I don't think you need to use a table cell for this. As long as you have a separate paragraph tag for the code samples, you can use the Pgf. Box option on the Advanced tab in the Paragraph Designer to give it a grey background.

[Xavier2112]

Dear Linsims,

Thank you it is getting closer. I didn't know the pgf. Thanks to this I can now have my grey background on the code lines but between each line there is a light with area that I cannot remove. Do you have an idea how to remove this?

When I make "Enter" it inserts a thin white line between two code lines and if I make "Shift + Enter" it does not do it. However I already have the code example  and i wouild like to be able to make a copy past without retouching everything

[LinSims]

Unfortunately, that thin white line is a bug, but they're working to fix it. See FRMAKER-7420. The good news is that it's already been moved to In Development, so I expect a fix in either the next update for FM2019 (if there is one) or in the new FM-2020 (which is much more likely).

[LinSims · Accepted solution]

Ah. I have a workaround. On the Basic tab, change the Line Space value to about half the single-line value.

I have an 11-point font with 6 points below the paragraph and a 13-point line spacing. Change the line spacing to 7 points gave me no white line between the paragraphs and just enough leading that the letters don't run into each other. You may have to experiment with it a bit, but I think that will do what you need until Adobe gets a fix in.

[Xavier2112]

Dear Linsims,

Perfect: By simply reducing the line spacing by 1 point, the white lines dissappear. Thank you very much for your help.

[frameexpert]

I would split the content over multiple table rows so the overflow is not a problem; maybe 10 lines per row or something like that. Set up your table format with cell margins that will visually hide that you are using multiple rows.

If you have tons of code and want to automate this, please let me know off list. Thanks.