How would you use FM to make a "stamp album"

[Jay Smith <jay@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(FM 556, Win95)

Greetings,

We have need to make a "stamp album".  An arrangement of various sized
boxes/squares (typically in rows or groups of rows), some of which contain
images, along with various titles/text above, below, and inside the
boxes/squares.

This is normally thought of as a "PageMaker" or "Visio" type application.  In
fact, I have used both for it in the past; Visio is *extremely* productive (if
you make a set of shapes for the purpose) with it's drag & drop shape and text
frame locate, triple-click text editing, drag & select object selection, and
possible numeric control of shape sizes. (Unfortunately, Visio's handling of
EPS [non-vector] image files is TERRIBLE and their handling of TIFFs is
extremely poor if the size is large.  For reuse in many different applications
we have standardized on EPS image files.) PageMaker is also very useful
because of the 'floating toolbar' (or whatever it is) that allows for numeric
size control of objects.  

All well and good, but none of those really allow or are good at **FLOWING**. 
A layout like a stamp album is not the kind of thing that you normally add
objects to and reflow for the whole book/album.  One usually redesigns a page
or two (or adds a page) to put in a new item.  In other words, a stamp album
is a good use for Page Layout software.

HOWEVER, the process of developing a completely new album is an exhausting
process with constant reformatting & additions over a couple-year period --
thus constant REFLOWING.

So, how would you approach this using FrameMaker?   The thought of using FM is
that it is great at FLOWING (if not the other aspects).

- The "rows" of squares need to both stay intact as rows, or sometimes groups
of rows, but flow over page breaks when new items are put in.

- The text above and below any given row has to stay attached to it.

- Page header text (dates) need to get picked up (and change) dictionary-style
from INVISIBLE date values that accompany the individual squares or perhaps
rows.  However, what is really needed is the first date (lowest value) that
appears anywhere on the page and the last date (highest value) that appears
anywhere on the page. [This type of logic may not be possible in FM?]

I have thought about using anchored frames with the various objects and text
frames inside them.  I have thought about using tables.  While any of these
methods can be made to work, my feeling is that each has its limitations and
all are "stiff".

Has anybody tried something like this?  

Lastly, I can see the writing on the wall that within a couple years we will
be doing a number of these project with the initial data feed coming from a
big relational/sql database. There will have to be subsequent tweaking (the
process/data only moves in one direction, thank goodness -- otherwise Visio
would be the ONLY option of which I am aware) of course, but how to do the
database -> FM transfer?  Write reporting out to MIF?  How nasty is it to set
up reporting to MIF format?  (Note that I don't have to worry about paragraph
tagging the text because we can report that out with para-tag-text-codes
embedded in the para text and use FrameScript to do the tagging based on those
codes and then delete the codes -- FS is handy!)  What I am concerned about is
the anchored frames, text frames, boxes/squares, aligning/centering, etc.

Sounds like fun??

-- 
Jay Smith

e-mail: jay@jaysmith.com

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