How can I control spacing after images?

[Guest]

I linked a FrameMaker book with many GIFs into RoboHelp (using TCS 3). When I generated the WebHelp file, there was a lot of space between each image and the line of text after it. I checked my images and none of them had any borders or margins applied to them. I manually changed the spacing before each line (Format>Paragraph> Spacing Before) so that it would be 0 pt. When I previewed the topic, everything looked okay. However, after I generated the CHM file, the spacing was the same as it had been before. Is there a setting that overrides the manual changes I make to paragraph formatting? I only need to change the line spacing for the paragraphs that are right after images, not the line spacing for all paragraphs. Is there a way to control spacing after images?

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

HI Bianca,

It sounds like your anchored frames have anchors on their own paragraph. Try setting the anchor in the line above, and set the Anchored Frame properties to Below Current Line. RH will recognize the alignment within RH, so make sure to set the FM properties accordingly.

-Matt

[Guest]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the quick response! I think my anchored frames are already formatted that way in FrameMaker--I have a paragraph tag for anchors (with zero indentation and spacing) and the Anchoring Position is set to Below Current Line. However, I do leave some space between the image and bottom part of the frame. This does add a little bit of extra padding, but it doesn't seem like it should create as much as it does in RoboHelp. Could the space between the image and the frame be the scoundrel, or are there any other settings I can change?

Thanks,

Blanca

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools · Accepted solution]

RH sees the Anchored Frame as the object, so try removing the space between the graphic and frame first. If you still have space, you likely will need to edit the CSS to allow for the graphic (could be an <IMG> tag, not sure without checking) spacing.  BTW, you'll probably need to use something besides RH's CSS editor to accomplish any advanced customization of the CSS. I use Dreamweaver or Notepad.

[Guest]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the advice!

I first tried removing the space between the image and frame in FrameMaker. While this did solve the problem in RoboHelp, I knew it would mess up any subsequent PDFs of the document. Therefore, I created an Anchor paragraph tag in the CSS (I had previously been converting it to the [Source] RoboHelp Style), setting all spacing attributes to zero. The new paragraph conversion cut down the white space to an expected size.

Thanks again!

-Blanca

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

Good to hear!

If you'd like a little noteriety, feel free to write up what you did with screen shots & I'll post on blog.roundpeg.com as a guest contributor.

-Matt

@mattrsullivan