Re: Conditional text pagination control

[Thomas Neuburger <thomasn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Cathy,

Good question. It's best to think in terms of groups of tags, not tags 
themselves. If your tags are properly named, the names will be 
self-documenting and the tags will form natural, easily spotted groups in 
the Paragraph Designer.

Thus, the user will see perhaps six Body variants, but they will appear in 
the Designer together, as a "Body" group. In the same way, Heading tags, 
TableTitle tags, TableCell tags, graphics tags, bullet tags -- all can be 
grouped in the Designer with good and consistent spelling conventions. The 
"indented" (subordinate) tags should be grouped with the tag they indent -- 
thus Body and Body-Indent, not Body and Indented. And so on.

Seen that way, most catalogs don't have more than about six to ten groups 
with self-documenting variants, plus a few strays (Header, Footer, etc.); 
and most properly organized catalogs aren't confusing.

(The naming convention in Hedley's post below follows a slightly different 
convention, one that facilitates the use of keystrokes to quickly move 
through the catalogs and select tags -- thus, the unique two-letter 
prefixes as in his example "pb_PageBreak". Nevertheless, the principles are 
much the same.)


At that point, I'll add my argument that template design is an art that 
should be approached seriously, not something to be done on the fly or 
something to be gotten out of the way as quickly as possible.

Especially in large departments, a properly designed template facilitates 
easy coordination and minimizes training, while a badly designed template 
can waste writer-time for years on end and foster work-arounds that 
eventually make every doc sui generis -- a one of a kind piece that only 
its maker can modify.

Hope this helps,

Tom Neuburger

The Masters Series: FrameMaker 6
ISBN 1-930597-01-0
20% discount at http://www.bn.com



At 10:23 AM 4/29/2002, Cathy Outlaw wrote:

>Framers,
>
>I've got to ask -- just how many tags do you have in your documents? If I
>created tags just for top of page commands or any other minor overrides,
>my list of tags would be so long as to be unusable and very confusing. I
>just counted -- I have 43 tags in a typical chapter. What is the average
>out there?
>
>Cathy Outlaw
>Technical Publications
>Paradyne Corporation
>
>
> > Linda:
> >
> > You can control page breaks conditionally by creating a special
> > pb_PageBreak para tag.  This should have a space below of slighty greater
> > than the biggest text frame depth on your master pages, e.g. if the depth
> > of the main text frame on the Left page is 180mm, make the space below of
> > the pb_PageBreak para tag equal to 185mm.
> >
> > NOTE:  Leave the pagination Start drop-list set to Anywhere and do NOT set
> > it to Top Of Page, etc.  The page break is forced entirely by the space
> > below.
> >
> > Set up all the conditions in your book to reveal the appropriate content.
> > Then go through and paginate the book by inserting an empty pb_PageBreak
> > para wherever you want a break (type Ctrl-9, pb, Enter).  Apply appropriate
> > conditions so that this pb_PageBreak para is only revealed when you again
> > have to produce this deliverable with the same condition settings.  When
> > you set condition visibility differently for other deliverables, the page
> > break para will be hidden.
> >
> > This way, you can have multiple DIFFERENT conditional page breaks in a
> > book.  But, I agree with Thomas, you should always do a final pagination
> > check, even with conditional page breaks, before generating the final TOC
> > and IX, and handing over the deliverable.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Hedley
> >
> >
> > Hi Linda,
> >
> > I'm not sure what others do, but I control page breaks in all documents
> > with tags -- a set of "top of page" tags variants (like Head1, Head1-Break,
> >
> > etc.); and a set of "keep with next" tags (like Body, Body-Next;
> > Body-Indent, Body-Indent-Next; etc.).
> >
> > This eliminates overrides (a feature in a doc, especially a shared doc) and
> >
> > automates as far as possible the page-break process.
> >
> > That said, there's no substitute for a final page-turn on every doc prior
> > to release just to check for awkward breaks -- conditional text or not --
> > just to avoid those surprises that make your work seem much less
> > professional than it is.
> >
> > Hope this helps,
> >
> > Tom Neuburger
> >
> > The Masters Series: FrameMaker 6
> > ISBN 1-930597-01-0
> > 20% discount at http://www.bn.com
> >
> >
> > Linda G. Gallagher wrote:
> >
> > >Framers,
> > >
> > >I'm wondering how you control your pagination when you use conditional
> > text.
> > >Do most of you create a unique paragraph tag that is set to new page and
> > >conditionalize that tag or do you manually apply page breaks to paragraphs
> > >(override to existing paras)?
> > >
> > >With as often as the text I'm working with changes and the number of
> > >conditions I have (don't ask!), I'm not sure one method is better than the
> > >other, but I'd love to hear about your experience.
> > >
> > >Thanks in advance!
> > >
> > >Linda G. Gallagher
> > >TechCom Plus
> > >lindag@techcomplus.com
> > >www.techcomplus.com
> >
> >
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