Conditional text and table numbers

[Lance_Moore_00]

I have a source doc from which I am going to generate two user guides (I am new at this). I have two conditional tags set, which I plan to show/hide as required to generate the final PDFs.

First snag: I have a products specification table, which is different for each guide. Using auto numbers, I have created the first table (1-1).

Then I add the second table (prod specs for the other product). It of course shows up as table 1-2 (and all sequential tables will be misnumbered). Using the Show/Hide command, I see the correct table.

How do I get correct sequential table numbers for each end document?

Thanks very much.

[Arnis_Gubins]

How is the numbering being applied to the tables? Are you using a sequence identifier jn the autonumber to keep the table numbering series separate? If so, then FM should reconcile the numbering when you hide a table.

[Lance_Moore_00]

No, I don't know about sequence identifiers. I just have auto-numbering turned on; I use a section/number parameter (that is probably the sequence identifier.?): C:Table <$sectionnum>–< >< ><n+>\t

The vast majority of the tables belong in both outputs; there are just a few which are separate. Though, now that I think of it, there are maybe two more tables in one of the docs than the other, and that messes up the numbering too.

Can I apply two separate numbering identifiers.sequences to a table? What would that look like?

Thank you.

[Bob_Niland]

C:Table <$sectionnum>–< >< ><n+>\t

The Sequence Number is that "C:".

If any other paragraph format is using that same sequence, it's apt to screw up your table numbering.

You might want to change it to "T:", of course, you'll have to check that for conflicts as well.

[Mike Wickham]

Just to help clarify a little, FrameMaker help refers to these as

"series labels." So searching for "series label" in help will get you

more info.

[Bob_Niland]

>  ... FrameMaker help refers to these as "series labels."

Thanks for the further clarification, Mike.

Just poking around on this, it's unclear exactly how many different series labels one can have. Some sources say we're limited to 53:

default(no letter), A: to Z:, a: to z:

Some sources say it's 63:

default(no letter), A: to Z:, a: to z:, 0: to 9:

which also seems to work.

Curiously enough some other single characters appear to work as well. I just tried @:, #:, non-breaking hyphen (\x15) and generic currency symbol (\xdb) for example (this is in FM7.1, entered as \x hex codes). I suspect most basic Frame roman single "standard" characters might work, which would imply a possible 255 or so counters. Two-letter labels just get treated as literal text, as would any multi-byte Unicode I suspect.

Adobe has no published "best practices" for series labels, but if one searches around the web, a common theme develops on conventions. Any shop would be well advised to pick a convention, and (note to self) write it down, for example:

B: body (ordinary paragraphs)
C: call-outs
F: figures
H: headings (volume, chapter, section, etc.)
O: outline
S: steps
T: tables

[Mike Wickham]

I took a look in help and it says any "printable" character can be used

as a series label. So letters, numbers, and punctuation should all work.

I've done not testing on this. So I'm not sure if it's limited to ASCII

characters or the full Unicode range.

[Bob_Niland]

> ...  it says any "printable" character can be used as a series label.

I tried two non-printing characters (\x08 tab and \x7f reserved) and they both worked. Using many of the standard 255 FM character codes would be unwise, of course, because they are not visible, are ambiguous or might have odd results in dialogs (like \x09 forced return).

> ... not sure if it's limited to ASCII characters or the full Unicode range.

I also tried \u2135 (alef) and, surprisingly, that seemed to work as well (in FM9 - I'm sure it wouldn't work in FM7 or earlier). It even converted the \u notation to the aleph glyph in the dialog box and pull-down menus. Whether it's wise to use Unicode characters as series labels is left as an exercise for the student.

So for modern versions of FM, there is no practical limit to the number of counter series.