RE: variables for a product name

[lsmalley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Lester C. Smalley)]

Sorry - I deleted the original message, but here is some useful info
regarding the "small caps" property and digits:

DIGITS in a font are a single size -- there is not a 'lowercase' and
'uppercase' 9.  Thus unfortunately, the "small caps" property won't
have any effect on their display.  Or, to quote Tom. the changes won't
"take."  There may be some specialty fonts available that do offer
multiply sized digits, but that is certainly not the norm, nor would
it be easy to enter the appropriately sized digits in the variable
definition dialog.

What the MarComm group is requesting simply cannot be done in FrameMaker
by trying to format the digits of the product name as small caps. 

However, there may be a work-around, if the base locations of the product
name are a know fixed size (i.e., the product name is ise in the body copy
and not in the heads, or anywhere else font size changes come into play):

1. Define a character tag (UC) to set type into small full caps
   (Uppercase in the CASE popup of the character designer window)

2. Define a second character tag (SC) to set type in a specific smaller
   point size, approx. 75-85 percent of the body copy size (e.g., use
   9 or 10 points if the body size is 12 points.)

Then you will able to define the ProductName variable something like:

    <UC>widget <SC>2000<Default Para Font>

where the <xx> items are picked from the character format list in the
edit variable dialog window.

If teh product name can occur in many different sized instances in the
document, this would require you to define multiple "smaller" character
tags and multiple variables to use the specific sizes in the right 
contexts.

This is not only inefficient, but difficult to maintain (requiring
updating the multiple 'smaller' character tags if you change the font
sizes for the related paragraphs) and lacks the desired 'portability'
of the use of a (single) variable.

| Tom Regner asked:
| 
| Marketing Communications (MarComm) has laid down the edict that the product
| name will have the alpha portion (WIDGET) in full caps, and the numeric
| portion (2000) is to appear smaller (smallcaps size).  The product name is
| entered as a variable in Frame, but we can't find any way to produce the
| desired result using the variable dialog box, nor will the changes "take"
| any other way we go about it.  I was hoping that this limitation would be
| fixed in version 6.0, but apparently it is not.
| 
| Possibilities that I can think of:
| 
| 1  use two variables with no space between, one upper case and one small caps
| 
| 2  use a text inset from a tiny file instead of a variable (you can update
|    once to fix all instances without even importing variables!)
| 
| 3  use an x-ref to a file parked at the end of the book file (useful trick
|    for stashing various book-building FM files such as LORs to graphics and
|    fonts, keeping text-inset files associated with the project, etc.)
| 
| 4  create a text example on a reference page and copy and paste
|    (non-automated but portable)
| 
| Deborah Snavely, Senior Technical Writer, Aurigin Systems, Inc.

-- Lester
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 Information Consultants, Inc.   |  phone: (302) 239-2942
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