Re: Automatic TOC tab stop before page number

[Dan Emory <danemory@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 04:14 PM 10/25/00 -0700, Debbi Fortney wrote:
>Hi, Dan,
>Have I missed something? I NEVER add the TOC reference page to all files in
>my book ... NEVER (I'm not screaming, just making a point <G>). I have a
>TOC template that may or may not have been made based on the chapter
>templates. I have the appropriate paragraph tags (Heading1TOC, etc.), with
>all formatting done in the designers, plus the tab character or \t inserted
>in the appropriate place on the reference page ONLY in my TOC, and it works
>beautifully.
>
>I'm just wondering if the info you passed on is carried over from older
>versions of Frame, and is based more on superstition (it is nearly
>Halloween after all!). I've only worked with FM since version 5.
==============================================
I don't think you understand. She has a TOC template, but that template
is not the target of the TOC generation (i.e., the TOC is being
generated in a new file that did not previously exist (don't ask me why
she's doing it that way, I don't know). Then, after she generates the
TOC, she imports the TOC template into it. Of course, the tab stops
in the TOC template have ho effect, since the TOC was generated without
the prior existence of a TOC reference page in which the tab stops
were inserted.

I still maintain that reference pages for generated lists and indexes
should be included in the master template used to create new chapter
files, and those chapter files should be updated by importing the
formats (including the reference pages) from the latest version of the
master template. That way, you can generate properly formatted
generated lists from individual files as well as from books without the prior
existence of a list or index file having the correct formatting information.

If chapter files are created from such a master template that
includes the applicable generated list reference pages, then when
you generate a TOC, for instance, the correct paragraph tags are
pre-selected in the Set Up Table of Contents dialog. This eliminates
a very likely source of human error, namely a user who fails to
select all the paragraph tags that should be included, or includes
paragraph tags that ought not to be included.

It's a big advantage to have all your chapter files contain all
the information needed to produce a properly formatted
generated file. That way, you can have a generic TOC template
whose sole purpose is to import the correct left/right and first
master pages into the already produced generated file.
All other formatting is determined by the generated list reference
pages and the paragraph tag formatting information contained
in the chapter files.
====================
| Nullius in Verba |
====================
Dan Emory, Dan Emory & Associates
FrameMaker/FrameMaker+SGML Document Design & Database Publishing
Voice/Fax: 949-722-8971 E-Mail: danemory@primenet.com
10044 Adams Ave. #208, Huntington Beach, CA 92646
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