Three images in a row and auto-resizable callouts

[Doe Johns]

Hi. I'm novice with FM and need some help

First, I need to understand, is there a way to place tree images in one row, as shown in the picture below:

Second, I need to understand how to create automatically-resized callouts (it should resize only vertically, of course). For example, here is callout which have only one sentence inside it:

But here - it have more text inside it:

It there way to create it in FM?

[Ian Proudfoot · Accepted solution]

Hello John,

I would suggest that tables are the best way to go for both requirements.

A simple three-column by two row table will work. I'll assume that you are using FM 2017 for the following instructions.

1. Insert a new table at the chosen position in your document.
2. Select Table > Insert Table... (Esc ti)
3. Set the new table to have three columns and two body rows. No heading or footing rows and the Table Format = images*
   
4. Insert the table. It should look like this:
   
5. You now have a table ready to accept your three images and captions.
6. Select the entire table and drag to resize the table to fill the page column width.
7. Add the images and caption text to each cell and it will look like this in FrameMaker:
   

The call out is done in the same way,but this time use a single cell table. Set the cell shading to a suitable grey and set the left border to a thick darker grey.

The table cells always expand to fit the number of lines of text or size of the image.

* Instructions for creating Table Styles can be found in the FrameMaker online help.

I hope that all works for you?

Ian

[Doe Johns]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Ian+Proudfoot  wrote

I hope that all works for you?

Hello Ian. Yes, it works, thank you very much.

The only problem is that nested tables are not very convenient to create (described here: How to Create a Table in a Table​). That's mean, if I want to insert normal table inside callout, it will not be very easy. Probably, it could be somehow automated (a script?). Anyway, I marked your answer as useful and correct

[Ian Proudfoot]

Yes John,

Tables in tables are not easy with FrameMaker. A script would make it easier. Maybe there's already something that does that?

I don't have anything in my collection of scripts, but maybe one of the other FM scripting experts has just what you need.

Regards

Ian

[Doe Johns]

I know, it's very old thread, but as I discovered table rows can't be splitted between pages. For that reason, it's not convenient to use tables for callouts. Probably there is another workaround for it?

Cheers, John.

[Ian Proudfoot]

Hello again John,

What would you expect the layout to look like when the callouts are very long and run over to the next page?

Maybe the table cell could be split automatically using a script? The problem would be defining the rules and repairing the split if the pagination changes. Manual cell splitting isn't worthwhile as it takes to much time to manage.

Ian

[Doe Johns]

Well, it seems to be hard task, but thanks 🙂

[Ian Proudfoot]

The one thing that would make this easy is real boxed paragraph formatting. Then we wouldn't have to fake it with a table cell.

Perhaps you could add a request for this as an enhanced feature in Tracker: https://tracker.adobe.com/#/home

Currently the option to add a background colour to a paragraph format is very limited.

Ian