Re: going with (or against) the flow

["Becky Swanson" <becky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree that most tech docs can be done in one flow, and even with one frame per
page. One exception to the one-frame rule is when you may have either a one- or
two-line chapter title, and you always want the body text to start a set
distance from the top of the page. But then you still use the same flow, just
split the text frame and have the para that follows the Chapter title set to
Start at Top of Column. That takes care of that problem.

Multiple flows (auto-connected) can be used when you are laying out a document
that has different languages in two columns. For instance, I did some technical
marketing materials that had English in the left column, and another language in
the right-hand column. Because they were marketing materials (brochures), we
stuck the graphics on the page (not anchored) in the middle of the 2 columns
with both languages for the callouts.

Newsletters, magazines, and the like will often have multiple flows. Templates
for these need to be set up with individual text frames for columns, and the
frames are generally set with Autoconnect turned off. BTW, flows do not have to
be a letter or number, they can be a word. You can use things like "picnic" or
"policy" to designate the story that is in the flow.

Cheers,
Becky Swanson
Benchmark Publications Group, Inc.
www.benchmarkpubs.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Combs" <richard.combs@voyanttech.com>
To: "Free Framers (E-mail)" <framers@omsys.com>
Cc: "Framers List (E-mail)" <framers@FrameUsers.com>
Sent: Friday, April 19, 2002 5:01 PM
Subject: RE: going with (or against) the flow


David Foster [mailto:dfoster@Brixnet.com] wrote:

> I have a master page with this (unfortunate) flow, from top to bottom:
>
> Flow B -- a chapter number
> Flow C -- a chapter title
> Flow A -- the chapter body
<snip>
> 3. If not, what's the easiest way out of this mess? To create
> a new master
> page with the frames in their proper order?

David, take heart in the fact that you're not alone. It seems to me that this
topic came up more than once recently (on one list or the other), and without a
satisfying answer. Various people opined that the creation order of the frames
mattered, or that their "front to back" layering order on the page mattered. But
it seems to me that each such suggestion was met with "I tried that, and it
didn't work."

To me, the easiest solution is to _put all the frames into the same flow, and
connect them_. Why not? I've never understood what people gain by setting up
title pages with multiple flows.

For that matter, I suspect most title page layouts can be accomplished with only
one _frame_. I assume the paragraph tags for the chapter number and title are
used only for those items, so why not define them (and the title page frame
itself) to position them where they belong?

I've never used more than one flow for anything except a newsletter. Am I just
missing something?

Richard

------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Voyant Technologies, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT voyanttechDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT freeDASHmarketDOTnet
303-777-0436
------





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