RE: Master page problem importing a book from XML

["Lynne A. Price" <lprice@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 09:11 AM 1/20/03 +0100, Theun Fleer wrote:
>In my experience, if formatting depends on attribute values of (high-level)
>book elements, FM can only apply this formatting correctly by updating the
>book. Not only the application of master pages, but every type of
>formatting. Especially easy to see if you're working with languages like
>Russian and Greek: updating the book is needed for showing the correct glyps
>(ie: assign the correct font), depending on the "lang" attribute of the book
>element :-)

Theun,
  Changing the structure of the book (e.g., by wrapping new elements
around the book components, setting attribute values, or changing
element names) can effect formatting of book components. However, 
information from the book is not moved into the book components until
you update the book. 
  When it imports an XML (or SGML) document, my guess is that FM formats
each book component as it is completed, applies master pages to it, and
then moves on to the next book component. At the end, it does update the
book. Thus, while formatting inherited from the book is done, context
labels dependent on book structure are not set until master pages are
applied. Any master page assignment based on the context labels is 
therefore not done.
  You say you've found it necessary to update books to get the
correct formatting. Do you mean when you set the lang attribute
on an existing book, or when you import from XML or SGML?
  
>by the way, thanks for a new EDD-template! I've always wanted to have a
>simple way of commenting out parts of the EDD-structure.

You are quite welcome. I haven't yet provided a method of commenting
out an entire element definition--wrapping Comments or a new element
around it does not prevent FM from processing it. This processing makes
sense, since the structure parallels a new kind of Section element, 
and FM should ignore such. I just did a quick test, and if I define
a new element called CommentedOutElement that's otherwise identical
to Element, FM does ignore it. So my next metatemplate might provide
this element. Then, if I want to comment out an entire Section of
an EDD, I can select the Section and do a global change of Element
to CommentedOutElement within the selection. Won't be quite as convenient
as simply wrapping CommentedOut around the section, but still could be
useful. Anyway, that's not available yet.

> One little thing
>remains a problem: I like to use another font in my EDD's. Can I create a
>"elemcat"-file of my own, (how?) or should I just use the way I'm using now
>(by exporting the element catalog of the EDD?)

Sure, it's just a template. The meta-EDD bases all formatting on paragraph
format Body. To change the font, just take the metatemplate you like (the
one that comes with FM, mine, or anyother) and change the default paragraph
font of Body to your favorite font. Save the result, make a backup of
the template that comes with FM (just because it's not good practice to
destroy a product's configuration files), and then copy your modified template
over the original one. To quote from a slightly corrected comment at the 
beginning of my meta-EDD (MetaEDD7.0.edd):

On Windows, simply copy the template to $FMHOME\fminit\fmstruct\elemcat 
where $FMHOME is the directory in which FrameMaker 7.0 is installed. 
You are advised to make a backup copy of the original elemcat before 
copying edd7.tpl. On UNIX, the file is 
fminit/<uilanguage>/CustomDocs/ElemCatalogDef where <uilanguage> is 
a language-specific directory, and fminit can be in $FMHOME, the 
directory from which FrameMaker 7.0 is started, or the user’s 
home directory). Finally, on a Macintosh, the file is 
$FMHOME:Modules:ElemCatalogDef.


	--Lynne

Lynne A. Price
Text Structure Consulting, Inc.
Specializing in FrameMaker+SGML consulting and training
lprice@txstruct.com
http://www.txstruct.com
voice/fax: (510) 583-1505
cell phone: (510) 421-2284


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