• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

Any guesses why Chapter Numbered Headings that increment OK in FM11 don’t after conversion to FM12?

Explorer ,
Jan 26, 2016 Jan 26, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Any guesses why Chapter Numbered Headings that increment OK in FM11 don’t after conversion to FM12?

I’m running both FrameMaker 12 unstructured and FrameMaker 11 (for use with legacy project files only) on a Win7 PC. The chapters in my FM11-formatted book file for a new product user’s guide increment normally in FM11, but something’s amiss after the FM 11 formatted project files are saved in FM 12.
The Book file includes:
- Product Guide Cover.fm
- Product GuideTOC.fm
- Product GuideLOF.fm (List of Figures)
- Product GuideLOT.fm (List of Tables)
- Product GuideContent.fm (Chapters 1-10) – Book File Numbering Properties: Chapter 1 (Numeric)
- Product GuideIX.fm (Index) (Chapter 11) – Book File Numbering Properties: Chapter 2 (Numeric)

Note: Chapter Headings (e.g., 1 - Introduction, 2 - Specifications, and so on) in both the Product GuideContent.fm and Product GuideIX.fm files are formatted in Paragraph Designer as: (Autonumber Format enabled) H:<n+>\t
However, when I update the book, the Index appears formatted as Chapter 1 instead of Chapter 11. It appears that the conversion to FM 12 messed up Autonumbering in the Product GuideIX.fm file, so that the only way to increment the value would be to manually update the building blocks in the IX.fm file from H:<n+>\t to H:<n=11>\t (which I won’t do). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thank You - Randall Bassin

Views

538

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines

correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Jan 27, 2016 Jan 27, 2016

Hi Ran,

This is for anyone finding the topic, since you and I just finished discussing this with a screen share...

After looking at your files, the "Chapter numbers" are really only section numbers, with all 10 of them in the same .fm file. That means you really can't use the <$chapnum> to number them and the index.

In most cases, you'd still be able to use the Fm 5.0 technique of manually counting the title paragraphs with a series indicator and counter (ex. H:<n+>), but you also have a number of

...

Votes

Translate

Translate
Community Expert ,
Jan 26, 2016 Jan 26, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

How are the numbering properties set at the Book level?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Jan 26, 2016 Jan 26, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

The Numbering Properties are set at the Book level identically to those set in the original FM11 source files, i.e.:

- Product GuideContent.fm (Chapters 1-10) – Book File Numbering Properties: Chapter#: 1 Format: Numeric (14)
- Product GuideIX.fm (Index) (Chapter 11) – Book File Numbering Properties: Chapter#: 2 Format: Numeric (14)

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 26, 2016 Jan 26, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Have you tried renaming the existing index & creating a new one to see if it behaves?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Jan 26, 2016 Jan 26, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Yes, I regenerated new TOC. LOF, LOT & IX files after editing content in the guide - that's how I discovered the issue. 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 26, 2016 Jan 26, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Why would you have created completely new files after updating content? Normally you would just do an Update to refresh the existing TOC, IX, etc. files in the book. I’m talking about removing the IX from the book, renaming it in Explorer, the telling the book to create a brand new standard IX – it will look terrible, but then you can do the trick of substitution to get it looking like it should. If you did that, are you still seeing the issue? If so, then you’ve got something defined wrong on your reference pages I suspect.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Jan 26, 2016 Jan 26, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

The FM11 source files for Product A were used as a template for a new (different) Product B Guide created in FM12. The process you described sounds similar to the method I used. The issue only affects the IX.fm generated file in FM12, and since no settings were changed in the files (the FM11 files were simply opened and saved in FM12, then edited for content), I'm not sure what might have changed on the reference pages. If you can provide a little more detail re: what to look for, that would be very helpful. Thank you!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Jan 26, 2016 Jan 26, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

The counter used in the H: series is being reset. Check your book file Numbering definition for the IX chapter Paragraph tags and ensure that it is set to Continue Numbering.

Note: using the <n+> counter for chapter numbering in the H: series is problematic. You really should be using the <$chapnum> building block for this in your autonumber sequences. Then you can control the chapter numbering behaviour explicitly at the book level and not have to worry about series resets.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Jan 26, 2016 Jan 26, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Arnis, I tried modifying the IX.fm Chapter Numbering Properties setting to use Continue Numbering from Previous Chapter in Book, but after I saved and updated the Book file (regenerating the IX.fm file), nothing changed. I also tried replacing <n+> with the <$chapnum> building block, saved and updated the book file, but the IX.fm generated file chapter number incremented from 1 to 2.   

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
LEGEND ,
Jan 26, 2016 Jan 26, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

If the paragraph numbering is set to Continue in the book for the IX, then something in the chapter prior to the IX or the very start of the IX chapter has reset the H: numbering sequence back to zero.

If you are using the <$chapnum> building block, then you need to check that the Chapter Numbering property tab is set to Continue for all Chapters/files in the book following the first one.

FM's autonumbering is extremely robust and will always do what you have explicitly told it do (but that may not always be what you want it to do... )

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Advisor ,
Jan 26, 2016 Jan 26, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

FM's autonumbering is extremely robust and will always do what you have explicitly told it do (but that may not always be what you want it to do... )

So true :-}

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jan 27, 2016 Jan 27, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi Ran,

This is for anyone finding the topic, since you and I just finished discussing this with a screen share...

After looking at your files, the "Chapter numbers" are really only section numbers, with all 10 of them in the same .fm file. That means you really can't use the <$chapnum> to number them and the index.

In most cases, you'd still be able to use the Fm 5.0 technique of manually counting the title paragraphs with a series indicator and counter (ex. H:<n+>), but you also have a number of your headings in text frames not included in the flow.

This seems to be keeping your book from updating the index heading properly.

Thus, the only way to get the proper index number is to control it manually. You have at least 3 choices:

  1. Type it in manually
  2. Enter it manually in the autonumber box for the index
  3. Enter it manually in the Chapter numbering tab of the Numbering Properties.

However, all of these things are additional bandages on top of your existing bandages, and I'd rather see the underlying problems resolved instead of the 3 "kludges" I've provided.

For sake of closure, please mark the question if this seems to be accurate to you.

Sorry for the bad(ish) news!

-Matt

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Jan 27, 2016 Jan 27, 2016

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

My thanks and appreciation to Arnis and Jeff for taking the time to review and offer suggestions, and to Matt Sullivan for his expertise in getting to the bottom of it.         

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines