balance column bug gone in 6.0?

["Peter Ring" <pri@xxxxxx>]

There was a bug in FrameMaker 5.5.6 and previous versions that
would sometimes make text disappear in a multi-column layout.

I'd like to know if it's gone in FrameMaker 6.0. If so, we'd
probably take the hassle and upgrade. I've included
(I believe) enough information to reproduce the problem.

Here are two ways to provoke the problem:

"Subject: BUG - text running under
From: Dave Smith <daves@statenet.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 15:48:12 -0800 (PST)


A few people have pointed out that I wasn't being too clear in my
description.  I sent out some MIFs, but last night I duplicated the
problem in a fresh document:

1. Create a new document
2. Import in any old text you have lying around
3. Make it a 4 column document (doesn't matter if it's on master page
   or if you balance columns)
4. Change Heading1 to straddle columns
5. Pick a line about half-way down and make it a Heading1
6. Try to balance the text above it using column breaks

The 3rd & 4th columns combine and disappear under Heading1 instead of
pushing the text down the page.  You can make column breaks behave by
adding a lot of returns to the end of column 4, but the spacing is
kind of wonky."

Try to make an up-side-down staircase of columns 2, 3, and 4, so that
column 4 gets more text than column 1. Rather than pushing the
straddling Heading 1 down, text from the bottom of column 4 is just not
displayed.

And my own minimal example:

1. Create a new document
2. Format -> Page Layout -> Column Layout...
   Columns:
     Number: 2
     Balance Columns
3. Format -> Page Layout -> Line Layout...
   Baseline Synchronization:
   Synchronize Pgf’s with Line Spacing Of: 12.0 pt
   First-Line Synchronization Limit: 12.0 pt
4. Enter several, say ten, paragraphs of Body mumble
   text so that about half flows to second column.
5. For the paragraph at beginning of the text flow,
   change Pagination Format to Across All Columns.
6. Apply a column break override to the paragraph
   now next to the top of the second column.

The last few lines in column 2 is no longer displayed. You may have
to press Ctrl+L (to redisplay) to see this. Again, adding an empty
paragraph to the end of the document will make the problem go away.


Kind regards

Peter Ring
Magnus Informatik A/S
A Wolters Kluwer Company


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