A Solution to the Master Page Switching Problem

[Dan Emory <danemory@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 02:46 PM 7/26/99 -0700, Snavely, Deborah wrote on the subject ofhow to
make a table in 2 columns?:
>-----------------------Snip
>The problem is that if you use master pages, then you either have to assign
>the master pages manually (and thus you have all sorts of other problems and
>maintenance), OR your entire document/chapter must use the 2-column master
>format.  If your other text is otherwise full-page-width, you can use a
>2-column master page and set the paragraph properties of all other tags to
>be
>"across all columns".
>--------------------Snip
>HOWEVER, if any aspect of this is not possible for you, then your only
>option
>is to manually create anchored frames which contain 2-column text frames
>where your tables are needed. Note, however, that there is ZERO ABILITY to
>flow from one anchored frame to another.>>
>
>VENTING: THIS IS A MAJOR FAILING OF FRAMEMAKER.  <snip>
>Again, this a major failing of FrameMaker.  We do a lot of books that
>require
>this kind of switching back and forth and have a terrible time with this
>problem.  It is almost (but not quite) enough to cause me to consider using
>another program.
============================================================================
I believe a FrameScript could solve this problem by applying the correct
master page of a left/right pair, based on the insertion of a particular
marker type in each page that specifies the "stemname" of the desired
left/right pair. 
The presence of a marker on a page in which the marker text is "Default"
would indicate that the default Left/Right pair is to be used. The absence
of any marker on a page would indicate that it is to use the left/right pair
specified in the most recent marker occurring on a previous page. In other
words, markers are only required on pages where there is a transition to a
different left/right master page pair.

Let's say, for instance, I have a left/right master page pair named:
        Landscape-Left and Landscape-Right
where the "stemname" is "Landscape", and the master page naming convention
requires that the suffix be "-Left" or "-Right".

Now, I insert a marker having the marker text "Landscape" in the page I want
to make landscape, and initially apply (manually) the Landscape-Right master
page to it.

Whenever required, the script would be executed that finds each occurrence
of the marker, checks whether the current page number is even or odd, and
applies the appropriate one of the marker-specified left/right pair, just
like FrameMaker does for the default Left/Right pair.

Also, when the last page of a document file is blank, the script would apply
a master page named Blank without the necessity to specify that in a marker
(since the book generation produces the blank page).

Such a script could produce real productivity gains, particularly in
database publishing applications requiring different master pages for
different data types. UniMerge, for example, could embed a marker at each
master page transition. Then, upon opening the merged FrameMaker output
produced by UniMerge, the script would be run to apply the marker-specified
master pages to each page in the document.

Actually, it would be better if the script did not require the most recent
marker to physically appear on the page where the next master page
transition begins. That is, suppose there are two markers on the same page.
The first one on the page specifies the left/right pair to be used on that
page. The second one specifies the left/right pair to be used on subsequent
pages that do not have markers.

I talked to Rick Quattro about developing such a script. He said it was
doable, but wasn't interested in developing it unless there was an assured
market for it. Maybe if enough of us would tell him we'd buy it, he'll
develop it.
     ====================
     | 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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