Understanding and Creating FrameMaker Templates

Understanding and Creating FrameMaker Templates
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This chapter is designed to give you a better understanding of the parts of FrameMaker templates. It is designed for those who have come to FrameMaker from an XML background, although it can serve as a review for FrameMaker users who have not recently created a template.

Reviewing a FrameMaker Document and Its Formats

Before walking you through creating a template, this chapter will review some of the components that make up a FrameMaker template such as paragraph formats, character formats, master page layouts, and cross-reference formats. The following sections provide background data on these and other template parts.

In the real world, planning and upfront design is needed before you create a template. We will not walk you through that process here, but we will point out the following two paths to the template:

• If you are coming at XML from the publishing side, you must first examine the documents you want to make. Determine what text styles you will have, what page layouts you need, and so forth. Also think about the structure (elements) that you will need
  
• If you are coming at publishing from the XML side, you will need to determine your text styles, page layouts, and so on, and will need to sort out how these fit with your existing XML elements

As you determine what you need to have in your template, formulate the naming conventions that you will use. The following are a few things you should keep in mind regarding the naming of your FrameMaker formats:

• Avoid including special characters in the format names

• FrameMaker is case sensitive—as is XML. Standardize your naming to make it easier to manage and troubleshoot

• Avoid using spaces in element names. While FrameMaker does not mind spaces in format names or element names, XML does not like spaces and you might have to remove them from your elements later

• Use logical names

These tips are emphasized in the following sections, which provide you with an overview of several important template parts.

NOTE A FrameMaker template is not a different format from other FrameMaker documents. This means that, in a pinch, any FrameMaker document may be used as a template.

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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