I want the headers in all my books to reflect the guide of which they are part, ie to automatically pick up the "ManualTitle" style used in the first file in the book.
Is there any way to do this?
For example, I have running footers which pick up Heading1 styles - but these are all within the same file.
I'm using Frame 12 btw. I'm assuming it'll be a case of a user variable or some such, but can't quite get my head around it.
picking up the formatting (which is what I assume you mean by style)
For the text:
You can define a Variable for the first file of the book, then (from the book menu) do a batch File > Import > Formats to propagate it to the other component files. This is what we do.
You can make the title a paragraph somwhere in the first file, and replicate it by Cross-Reference in all the other files. The clone instances become hypetext links to the defining instance, which you may or may not want.
You can put the title in an external plaintext file kept in the document directory, say "title.txt" and import it as a text inset (File > Import > File) in all files. We do this for some legal boilerplate used in all manuals, but not for titles.
For the formatting:
Whether the text is a Variable, Xref or inset, if its on a Master Page, once a format applied in a file, you can import formats to propagate that MP definition to any other files desired.
If you make the external inset file a formatted "title.fm", you can import the formats as well as the text. This has the advantage that you can use this book file set as a template for any other later book, and need only touch the title.fm file contents to change the title everywhere.
One trick, if you're not using FM's volume numbering building block already, is to place the title text in the $volnum building block using "Text" option for the numbering. This behaves as a global variable for the entire book.
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