Introduction to Adobe FrameMaker - Text Format and Table Placement
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Text Formatting
Text formatting in FrameMaker is accomplished at two levels. Formatting is first set for entire paragraphs and then for select words or phrases within the paragraph. This is how you make words and phrases stand out in bold, for example. When you bring your XML into FrameMaker, you will be able to design some elements to create paragraphs, while other elements become text ranges inside those paragraphs.
Paragraph formats are created using the Paragraph Designer. This Designer is shown in Figure 2–1.
There are six sheets of properties that may be set for each paragraph format (seen on the tabs at the top of the Paragraph Designer). Only one of these properties sheets is shown in Figure 2–1. The other sheets control appearance, page position, autonumbering, advanced text adjustments, and behavior within tables.
Character formats are set in the Character Designer. Similar to the Paragraph Designer, the Character Designer controls text properties. The Character Designer—much simpler than the Paragraph Designer—only has one properties sheet, which is shown in Figure 2–2.
Table Placement and Formatting FrameMaker allows you to create pages and pages of tables easily. Tables can spread across many pages—even 50 pages or more. FrameMaker includes a Table Designer for creating table formats. These formats include settings for properties such as rules, shading, and indents. These stored formats can be used to create many, many tables, and the formats may be invoked by elements in your XML round trip. This allows you to turn different types of XML data into tables with different appearances.
Figure 2–1. The Paragraph Designer is used to create and manage paragraph formats.
Figure 2–2. The Character Designer is used to create and manage character formats.
There are three sheets of properties in the Table Designer, one of which is shown in Figure 2–3. If you create sample tables in a FrameMaker template, and use the Table Designer to Update All, additional data will be stored with the table format. These include column width settings and paragraph formats used in cells. Even though these are not listed within the table format’s properties in the Designer, they are stored with the format.
FrameMaker’s table management is very stable. There are certain FrameMaker-specific rules about table construction that must be followed, and these should be taken into account when you design your XML elements. If a table has a title, for example, it must be the first element inside the table structure (the first child of the table-start element). This rule and others are explored further in Chapter 10.
Figure 2–3. The Table Designer is used to create and manage table formats.
 This chapter is from XML and FrameMaker, by Kay Ethier (Apress, 2004, ISBN: 159059276X). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now.
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