Conditional Text in Headers

[_Michael_Carlisle_]

I am using FrameMaker 7.2 and trying to insert conditional text into page headers. According to FrameMaker Help, the <$condtag> building block should find and apply conditional text in a page header. However, FrameMaker 7.2 seems unable to find the text with the conditional tag ("2nd edition") that I want in the header. FrameMaker IS able to find the "2nd edition" conditional tag when I use the Find/Change utility.

This is the the definition of the page header in my document:

<$paratext[Head2,Head3]><$condtag[2nd edition,\ ]>

The header that is generated shows a second level or third level heading followed by the text "2nd edition," for example:

2.1-Storing Files2nd edition

. . . which is NOT what I want. I want the 2.1 text that I've conditionally tagged "2nd edition" to appear in the header, for example:

2.1-Storing Customer Files

Is the syntax that I've used incorrect or is this problem a software bug?

[Arnis Gubins]

The <$condtag[hitag,...,lotag,nomatch]> building block displays only
the *name* of the first matching condition tag found on a page (it
doesn't search other pages as for paratags or markers).

This would tell you if there any 2nd edition conditions on the page or
not.

It does not display the *contents* of the tagged material. You would
have to use some variant of the <$paratext> or <$marker1 / 2> building
blocks to get at the contents.

[_Michael_Carlisle_]

Arnis,

Thank you for your prompt and helpful reply. I tried <$marker1> and <$marker2> in the page header definition, and I am now able to see the content of the tagged headings in page headers. However, I'll have to figure out a way to get conditional text (that changes from page to page, for different editions) in headers.

I guess that the <$condtag> building block is useful. But the reason for of seeing found conditional tags (and not tagged content) in page headers escapes me. I would not want the conditional tag to appear in my final, printed document.

Again, thank you for your much appreciated knowledge and expertise!

[Arnis Gubins]

Michael,

Regarding the usage, let's say that one had items in editions 1
through 4 tagged (1st edition, 2nd edition, etc.) and one wanted to
indicate if there were any new/changed items from the various editions
on the pages, then using the following condtag:

<$condtag[4th edition,3rd edition,2nd edition, (unchanged)]>

would add in order of priority the tag names from 4th to 2nd editions
or if no conditional tags were found, the text "(unchanged)" to the
header.

This is sort of a page-level change bar indicator, except it hits on
the presence of the condition tags.

[_Michael_Carlisle_]

"This is sort of a page-level change bar indicator . . ."<br /><br />Aha! I get it, and again thank you for your extremely appreciated knowledge.<br /><br />Is there a way to get the content of conditional text in headers?<br /><br />My problem is that I've got a regulatory document that has two different numbering schemes, one scheme for a second edition and another for a third edition. For example, numbered second-level and third-level headings look like:<br /><br />2.1-System Administration (second-level, second edition)<br />201.1-System Administration (second-level, third edition)<br />2.1.1-System Administration Tools (third-level, second edition)<br />201.1.1-System Adminstration Tools (third-level, third edition)<br /><br />To complicate matters, second edition and third edition numbers are on the same line, for example:<br /><br />2.1201.1-System Administration<br />2.1.1201.1.1-System Administration Tools<br /><br />In the previous example, 2.1 and 2.1.1 are conditionally tagged "2nd edition." 201.1 and 201.1.1 are conditionally tagged "3rd edition". The characters "-System Administration" and "-System Administration Tools" are unconditional text.<br /><br />Thanks to your invaluable assistance, I am now using the <$marker1> and <$marker2> building blocks in conjunction with the <Header/Footer $1> and <Header/Footer $2> markers to generate page headers based on second-level and third-level headings.<br /><br />But is there a way to specify that a page header contains ONLY the text of a heading that is conditionally tagged "2nd edition"?<br /><br />For example, I want a second edition page header that looks like:<br /><br />2.1-System Administration (generated from a second-level heading)<br />or<br />201.1-System Administration (generated from a third-level heading)<br /><br />NOT:<br /><br />2.1201.1-System Administration<br />or <br />2.1-System Administration201.1-System Administration

[Arnis Gubins]

Michael,

How are you doing two different numbering schemes on one line?

How exactly are you tagging the conditional entries, e.g. show an
expanded example using some visible delimiters (such as a bar |) as
the tag boundaries? Do your conditions overlap? In FM prior to v.8,
condition tags are usually applied to what one wants to hide (not
show) and the logic is a boolean OR for multiple conditions.

What happens in your headers when the Hide conditions are set and
you're not using marker building blocks, i.e. using <$paratext> and
<$paranum> blocks?

[_Michael_Carlisle_]

Arnis,<br /><br />Thank you for your patience and assistance.<br /><br />GOAL<br /><br />From a second edition and third edition document that is one document with conditional tags:<br /><br />* Generate second edition page headers (based on Head2 and Head3 paragraphs) for the second edition document or generate third edition page headers (based on Head2 and Head3 paragraphs) for the third edition document.<br /><br />* Hide second edition page headers on the third edition document. Hide third edition page headers on the second edition document.<br /><br />DEFINITION<br /><br />2nd edition number: 2.1<br /><br />3rd edition number: 201.1<br /><br /><$marker1> building block is for 2nd edition header.<br /><br /><$marker2> building block is for 3rd edition header.<br /><br />Header/Footer $1 marker is for 2nd edition header.<br /><br />Header/Footer $2 marker is for 3rd edition header.<br /><br />I am putting the 2nd edition and 3rd edition section numbers on the same line with the section title, for example (with visible delimiter):<br /><br />2: 2.1 | 201.1-System Administration<br /><br />In the previous example, the tagged heading looks like:<br /><br />(Conditional text tags) <2nd edition>2.1 | <3rd edition> 201.1 |-System Administration<br /><br />(Marker tags) <Header/Footer $1>2.1 |<Header/Footer $2>201.1 |-System Administration<br /><br />Here are the page headers that are generated after Running H/F 5 headers are defined with <$marker1> and <$marker2> building blocks:<br /><br /><$marker1>: 2.1-System Administration<br /><br /><$marker2>: 201.1-System Administration<br /><br />Here is the Running H/F 5 header that is generated after conditional text is hidden:<br /><br />(2nd edition hidden) 201.1-System Administration<br /><br />(3rd edition hidden) 2.1-System Administration<br /><br />Here is the Running H/F 5 header that is generated when the header is defined with:<br /><br /><paratext[Head2,Head3]>: 2.1201.1-System Administration<br /><br /><paranum[Head2,Head3]>: blank<br /><br /><paranumonly[Head2,Head3]>: blank<br /><br /><paratag[Head2,Head3]>: Head2 (or Head3)<br /><br />Right now when I define the Running H/F 5 header with the <$marker1> building block, only second edition headers show on pages. When I want third edition page headers to show, I must edit the Running H/F 5 header by defining it with the <$marker2> building block. Those are the results that I want!<br /><br />But I am wondering if there is a simple way to hide second edition or third edition headers without having to constantly edit (redefine) the Running H/F 5 header.

[Arnis Gubins]

Michael,

I think you're over-analyzing this and making it more complicated than
it should be.

Simple question, what happens when you use the Show/Hide conditional
settings, say for the 2nd edition?

If you are using the simple <$paratext[Head2]> building block in your
running header variable, then in the line:

(Conditional text tags) <2nd edition>2.1 | <3rd edition> 201.1
|-System Administration

assuming that everything is properly tagged, the "201.1" should
disappear and your running header should just show:

2.1-System Administration

Likewise, if you toggle settings to show the "3rd edition" and hide
the "2nd edition", the "2.1" should disappear leaving:

201.1-System Administration

The only time it will look strange is when you have both condition set
to show (or hide).

From your earlier response indicating that you get nothing (blank)
with the <$paranum(only)> blocks, I'm assuming that you aren't using
FM's autonumbering.

Q: why are you manually numbering? If the numbering sequences are
disjoint, then I can understand, but if it's because you couldn't get
two sets of numbers to visually appear on the same line, then there
are other ways around that.

You could use the run-in paragraph feature and set two separate
paratags for the edition autonumbers. Then run those into the actual
Head2 or Head3 paratags and conditionalize the complete paragraph
containing just the autonumber, e.g.

[Head2_2nd]2.1[Head2_3rd]201.1{RunIn separator= -}[Head2]System
Administration

where the [...] indicate paratags used.

In the header you can edit the running h/f variable to contain:

<$paranumonly[Head2_2nd,Head2_3rd]>-<$paratext[Head2]>

Then depending upon the condition applied to each paratag, FM will
search backward from the current page to find the first match in the
multiple variables indicated for the <$paranumonly>. Since one of
those will be hidden by the conditional Hide, you should see things
correctly in both the body and header.

For the TOC (or any other generated file), you just have to remember
this same trick of making things run-in and select all three Head2
paratags for generating the TOC.

I don't think you need to use markers at all, unless there are other
aspects of this that yo haven't shown.

[_Michael_Carlisle_]

Arnis,

Again, thank you for your time, patience, and knowledge.

Yes, I am not using autonumbering. I am editing a document that selectively references federal regulations. So the numbers in my document are not sequential. Your run-in paragraph suggestion seems like it would be an ideal solution to my problem if I were using autonumbering.

Following your suggestion, I created run-in headings and tagged headings as follows:

[Head2_2ndEdition]2.1[Head2_3rdEdition]201.1[Head2]-System
Administration

I deliberately excluded the separator in run-in paragraph definitons, and instead put the separator at the beginning of Head2 text.

After I hide text that is conditionally tagged "2nd edition" and "Head2_2ndEdition," only unconditional text, "3rd edition," and "Head2_3rdEdition" text is visible. Page headers look like this:

201.1-System Administration

Likewise, after I hide "3rd edition" and "Head2_3rdEdition" conditional text, only unconditional text, "2nd edition," and "Head2_2ndEdition" text is visible. Page headers look like this:

2.1-System Administration

So far, so good.

Unfortunately, after I show all conditional text, the FIRST page with a heading that looks like this (tags shown)

[Head2_2ndEdition]2.1[Head2_3rdEdition]201.1[Head2]-System
Administration

shows the 2nd edition number in its header: 2.1-System Administration.

The FOLLOWING pages show the 3rd edition number in the headers: 201.1-System Administration.

My problem . . . which is probably a special case beyond the scope of FrameMaker design.

Again, thank you for your extremely appreciated and very helpful knowledge and guidance, Arnis.

[_Michael_Carlisle_]

Arnis,

Incidentally, in case you are wondering why I want to simultaneously show second edition and third edition text, I want to do so for document reviews. To date, a decision has not been made on which edition of our document will be presented to the regulatory department. For now, reviewers want all conditional text to be visible.

Document reviewers were being distracted by seeing both the second edition and third edition numbers in page headers. I was trying to address that distraction.

I think my only solution is to tell reviewers to ignore the double numbering in headers, and that the problem will disappear when a final decision about the document edition is made.

[Arnis Gubins]

Michael,

If you use the colouring and text styling attributes for the
conditional text, then seeing both in different colours and/or
underlined, etc. might be easier for readers/reviewers to deal with.

[_Van_Kurtz_]

If colors is too distracting, you could make one condition underlined and the other overlined. Side by side, the two conditions might be clearly discerned without the distraction of colors.

Maybe the reviewers just have to bear with it during the review.

[_Michael_Carlisle_]

Arnis and Van Kurtz,

Thank you for your splendid suggestions.

Water under the bridge, alas. The reviewers decided to entirely eliminate the page headers, but thank you anyway.

In FrameMaker, the Table Continuation variable generates (Continued) in table titles, headers, and footers. Is there a comparable variable for page headers?

In my document, Head2 or Head3 section titles sometimes appear in the middle, or near the bottom, of a page. When a second-level or third-level heading is the first heading on a page, a new page header is, of course, automatically generated for that page. Continued information, belonging to the previous section, appears below the new page header. Reviewers of my document were confused by what they thought were incorrect headers, for example:

Page 12 starts with section 2.1-System Administration. The section continues to the next page.

Subsection 2.1.1-Tools, starts in the middle of page 13, and the header for page 13 becomes 2.1.1-Tools. Consequently, the continued 2.1 information on page 13 appears below the new page header.

Reviewers mistakenly perceived the 2.1.1-Tools header as introducing the continued 2.1-System Administration information. I explained the "problem" to them, and they suggested that I put (Continued) in the page header: 2.1-System Administration (Continued). They wanted to clarify that the "System Administration" information that was continued on page 13 did not belong to 2.1.1-Tools. After I told them that I did not think that their suggestion was possible unless I manually added "(Continued)" to page headers, they decided to eliminate page headers.

. . . a utility for FrameMaker developers to consider, if it does not already exist. ;)