Figure numbering out of sequence with floating anchored frames

[Ezra Steinberg <ezra@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Software: FM 6.0 (FCS, no updates) on Solaris 2.7 on Sun Ultra 5.

I have my figure numbering working properly in my book. However, I have
an anomaly that appears at the beginning of a document.

The first figure is a screen shot in an anchored frame that takes up
most of the page; I have a text frame near the bottom of the anchored
frame with Figure n as the autonumber for my Figure paragraph tag. The
second screen shot is in an anchored frame, too, also with a text frame
near the bottom using the Figure paragraph tag, but this screen shot
takes up only about a quarter of a page.

With the anchored frames set NOT to float (the default), the figure
numbering works out right in the sense that the figure number for the
large screen shot is 1, the figure number for the small screen shot is
2, and figure 1 appears on one page and figure 2 on the following page.

However, since the text where I need to put the anchored frame for the
first screen shot appears near the top of page that it falls on, the
large screen shot has to go to the next page, leaving a lot of ugly
white space on the previous page (where the anchored frame is). However,
if I set both anchored frames (for both screen shots) to float, the
second (smaller) screen shot gets placed on the page preceding the large
screen shot, since the text with the anchor for the second screen shot
comes (logically) right after the text with the anchor for the first
screen shot.

So, with both anchored frames floating, the text following the large
screen shot is pulled onto the page that precedes the page the large
screen shot to fill up the white space there, which is good. However, 
the smaller screen shot comes along with it, since its anchored from
comes in the very next sentence and the small screen shot can also fit
on that preceding page. But since the smaller screen shot has a higher
figure number (by one) than the large screen shot, the figure numbering
looks (to the reader) like its out of order.

Of course, I'm assuming the numbering is "correct" according to
FrameMaker which is simply following my directive to float the anchored
frames and therefore flow the text (and any anchored frames in that text
that will fit on the page) that comes after the large screen shot onto
the page preceding that screen shot to fill in the white space that's
available there.

Anyone familiar with a workaround to this so that I can avoid getting a
big chunk of white space on a page and yet still have figure number
always look like its in the proper sequence (and without manually
fiddling with the ordering of sections, etc., since major edits to that
chapter can change where things fall on the page anyway and I'd like
this problem to be solved automatically, like a good computer should?
;-)

Ezra
-- 
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Ezra Steinberg				Resonate, Inc.
Senior Technical Writer			385 Moffett Park Drive, Suite 205
mailto:ezra@resonate.com		Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1208      USA
Voice: 408.548.5529			FAX: 408.548.5679

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