Re: Figure numbering out of sequence with floating anchored frames

[Dan Emory <danemory@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Frankly, I've never understood the need for any of these unnecessarily 
convoluted schemes for associating figure numbers with graphics in anchored 
frames, and the grief described here by Ezra confirms my belief that the 
simplest method is always the best. I oppose the use of text frames within 
anchored frames unless they are actually part of the graphic (e.g., lengthy 
text callouts with leader lines, or a legend.). Figure titles ought not to 
be put in text frames within anchored frames, and rarely is this approach 
justified. As described below, there is a simple way to assure that figure 
titles appearing outside of and below anchored frames can always be kept on 
the same page as the associated anchored frame.

ANCHORING ANCHORED FRAMES TO PARAGRAPHS
Anchoring anchored frames to the end of paragraphs containing text is 
almost guaranteed to cause grief, and there is no reason to do so. Almost 
always, it is best to anchor an anchored frame to an empty paragraph that 
is specially designed for that purpose (I call the paragraph tag used for 
this purpose FrameAnchor). The space above and below settings for the 
FrameAnchor paragraph format establishes the amount of white space above 
and below the anchored frame. If you use multi-column page layouts, you may 
need two different versions of the FrameAnchor tag, where the only 
difference between the two is in the Pagination properties, (i.e., one 
version is set to In Column, and the other version is set to Across All 
Columns).

DON'T APPLY AD-HOC PAGE/COLUMN BREAKS TO FrameAnchor PARAGRAPHS
Using Special > Page Break to apply an ad-hoc page or column break override 
to the FrameAnchor paragraph format is bad practice, and it is unnecessary. 
Instead, I use a special paragraph format called PageBreak for this 
purpose. This paragraph format has a very large Space Below setting. It is 
inserted as an empty paragraph immediately before the paragraph where you 
want the page break to occur. PageBreak's large Space Below setting 
guarantees that the page or column break will be produced at that point. 
Subsequently, if page/column break positions change, you simply delete the 
superfluous empty PageBreak paragraphs, and then insert new empty PageBreak 
paragraphs as required..

SELECTING THE ANCHORING POSITION TYPE FOR ANCHORED FRAMES
The Anchoring Position for anchored frames should normally be set to At 
Insertion Point. This selection guarantees that the anchored frame will 
float. Also, this selection forces the position of the empty FrameAnchor 
paragraph to always be below the top of the anchored frame, thus 
FrameAnchor's font size never contributes to the amount of white space 
above the top edge of the anchored frame (i.e., the amount of white space 
is solely determined by FrameAnchor's Space Above setting), thus, if the 
anchored frame appears at the top of a page, the white space gap is 0, 
otherwise the gap is FrameAnchor's Space Above setting.. Using the At 
Insertion Point anchoring position setting also assures that the empty 
FrameAnchor  paragraph always appears on the same page as its associated 
anchored frame.

Anchored frames which have their Anchoring Position set to At Insertion 
Point cannot be centered. Consequently, the width of the anchored frame 
should normally be the full width of the column(s) it spans. If the width 
of the graphic is less than the width of its containing anchored frame, the 
graphic should be centered in the anchored frame by choosing Graphic > 
Align, and turning on L/R Centers. One minor problem arises as a result of 
this approach, namely, with the Anchoring Position set to At Insertion 
Point and the anchored frame set to the same width as the text column(s) it 
spans, the empty FrameAnchor paragraph is not visible, even with Text 
Symbols turned on. However, you can use Find/Change to search for all 
instances of FrameAnchor. As each instance if found, its associated 
anchored frame is highlighted.

THE FigureTitle PARAGRAPH TAG
The FigureTitle paragraph tag (again, you may need two versions of it if 
you use multi-column page layouts) has Keep With in the Pagination 
Properties set to Previous. This assures that it will always appear on the 
same page as the Anchored Frame. The white space gap between the bottom of 
the anchored frame and the top of FigureTitle's text is determined by the 
Space Below setting in the FrameAnchor paragraph format. The white space 
gap below FigureTitle is determined by Figure Title's Space Below setting. 
Normally, FigureTitle's Alignment setting is set to Center.

CREATING GRAPHICAL ARRAYS USING TABLES
When creating arrays of graphics (e.g., two or more graphics of the same or 
different  sizes arranged horizontally across the page, you should use 
special tables in which each anchored frame and its associated figure 
title, if any, are placed in a table cell. Normally, the same FrameAnchor 
and FigureTtile paragraph tags can  be used without modification to create 
graphics within tables. It's sometimes helpful to use tables which contain 
large numbers of small, equal-width columns. That way, when graphics of 
different sizes appear in a table, you use table straddles to create column 
widths that that are customized to match each graphic's width. Also, the 
Numbering property in the Table Designer allows you to create the sequence 
(Rows First or Columns First) in which table autonumbers are generated.

At 09:56 PM 11/17/01 -0800, Ezra Steinberg wrote:
>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
>--
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>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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====================
| 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
177 Riverside Ave., STE F, #1151, Newport Beach, CA 92663
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