RE: framers-digest V1 #478

[Deborah Snavely <dsnavely@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michele:
| > of chapters.  I have the chapter auto-numbering set for n+.  Chapters 1,
2,
| > and 3 display the correct chapter numbers, but chapter 4 shows as
Chapter 3
| > as well.  My colleague and I have isolated the problem to the real
chapter 3
| > by moving the chapters around.  Apparently something exists in the real
| > chapter 3 to tell future chapters to ignore it in the chapter numbering
| > scheme.
| > 
| > Any suggestions on how to resolve this problem?  Any ideas on what is
| > happening or why?

Lester:
>Check the "autoconnect" property of the last text frame of the "bad
>chapter" ( bad chapter; bad, BAD chapter! :-} )

Two other possibilities in my experience:

1) corrupted book file
Try saving the BOOK file to MIF. Then open the Book.MIF file, regenerate the
book, and see whether the problem resolves. If it does, Save As and
overwrite the old book file.

2) Microsoft OLE
Adobe stopped supporting OLE but it's still in a lot of older files. If you
have OLE linked graphics in a file, it may at its WHIM choose to start
disconnecting healthy autoconnected flows.

3) duplicate text frames on a page
Last resort...if none of the above works...
Display the page on which the problematic chapter number appears, click in
the margin to get a graphics cursor, and type command-A (control-A) to
"Select All on Page" as objects. If you only get the one text frame object,
(or more if your layout uses plural text frames per page), AND *you can see
the handles of that object (those objects) after selecting it*, then you're
probably OK. 
To double-check, simply move the selected object a couple of grid spaces
offset and see whether any ghosts are hiding behind it. 

The problem this method can diagnose is one caused by keyboard speedsters
with a fat-finger moment (like me), or inexperienced writers working in a
new interface or Frame/platform combo, accidentally performing a
control-click-and-drag operation...which is a graphics shortcut for
duplicating any FrameMaker graphic object. I've seen two or even three
copies of the same identical text frame INCLUDING all its content overlaid
on each other on one page. And if you get such a duplication, the newly
created text frame may be unlabeled and is definitely not autoconnected to
anything, but it's the frame residing on the top layer of that page. If your
template uses white backgrounds in text frames, this can even hide a
correctly working copy of your text frame behind it.

I'm not saying this one in short form, in fact I'm babbling (trying to
finish the message "tomorrow morning" from when I started it), so I'll quit
here in the hopes that all this is useful to someone.

Deborah Snavely, Document Architect, Aurigin Systems, Inc.
dsnavely@aurigin.com     (408) 517-7414

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