Lesson 2. Defining Paragraph Formats

The templates that come with FrameMaker 7.0 include paragraph formats for changing the appearance of entire paragraphs of text. When you’re setting up your own templates or creating custom documents, you’ll modify these formats and create some of your own.

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to do the following:

• Create a custom document.

• Set ruler and grid spacing.

• Set up a side-head area.

• Create and modify paragraph formats for headings, body text, and bulleted and numbered lists.

• Delete formats from the Paragraph Catalog.

Creating a custom document

In this lesson, you’ll set up the paragraph formats for the chapters of a small book. You’ll start by creating a custom document.

1. If necessary, copy the Lesson02 folder and start FrameMaker 7.0.

2. If FrameMaker 7.0 is not in standard mode, choose File > Preferences > General, and then select FrameMaker from the Product Interface pop-up menu.

3. If you want to see how your document will look at the end of this lesson, open Finished.fm in the Lesson02 folder. When you’re ready to continue, close Finished.fm.

4. Do one of the following:

• (Windows and Mac OS) Choose File > New > Document.

• (UNIX) In the main FrameMaker 7.0 window, click New.

5. Click Custom.

Notice that the values in the text boxes are in inches (for the U.S. Edition) or centimeters (for the International Edition). You’ll change the default units for the document, so that measurements in dialog boxes will appear in points.

6. Choose Point from the Units pop-up menu at the lower right. The values in the text boxes are converted to points.

7. In the Pagination area, select Double-Sided. Notice that in the Margins area, the text boxes formerly labeled Left and Right are now labeled Inside and Outside.

8. In the Page Size area, change the Width to 460 points and the Height to 560 points.

9. The Top and Bottom margins remain at 72 points, but change the Inside and Outside margins to 64 points.

10. Click Create.

An untitled, blank document appears. Because borders and text symbols are on, you see a dotted text frame border with an end-of-flow symbol (§) in the upper left corner. This is the only text symbol you see because the document doesn’t contain any text yet.

If borders and text symbols are not visible, choose View > Borders and View > Text Symbols to see them.

11. Choose File > Save, make sure you are in the Lesson02 folder, and then enter the filename Formats.fm and click Save.

Next, you’ll turn on a typing aid that will help you work more efficiently.

12. Choose Format > Document > Text Options.

In the Text Options dialog box, Smart Quotes is already selected. This tells FrameMaker 7.0 to insert the appropriate left or right curved quotation mark (“or”) when you type a quotation mark.

13. Select Smart Spaces and click Apply.

Smart Spaces prevents you from typing more than one standard (proportional) space in a row. This helps you keep spacing between words and sentences consistent. (Smart Spaces does not affect special fixed-width spaces, such as em spaces.)

Finally, you’ll look at the Paragraph Catalog for the document.

14. Click the Paragraph Catalog button (¶) at the top right side of the document window. Notice that even new custom documents contain a basic set of predefined paragraph formats for headings, body text, numbered and bulleted lists, and other items.

Paragraph Catalog for a new custom document

Later, you’ll change these formats for your document.

15. Close the Paragraph Catalog.

Copying text

It’s easier to see whether text formats look the way you want when you have text in a document, so you’ll paste some text into your blank document.

1. Choose File > Open.

2. Select Text.fm in the Lesson 02 folder and click Open. The text in this document already uses the paragraph tags that appear in the blank document.

3. Click anywhere in the text and then choose Edit > Select All in Flow to select all the text in Text.fm.

4. Choose Edit > Copy.

5. Choose File > Close to close Text.fm.

6. In Formats.fm, click inside the text frame and choose Edit > Paste. The text from Text.fm is pasted into Formats.fm, and the last page of text appears in the document window.

7. Shift-click the Previous Page button () in the status bar to display the first page of the document.

8. Choose File > Save.

Setting up rulers and the grid

Later in this lesson, you’ll use the formatting bar and the top ruler to set indents and tabs for the text. To make your work easier, you’ll now change the ruler units to picas—the appropriate setting for a document that uses points as display units (each pica contains 12 points).

You’ll also set up the invisible snap grid. Items in the top ruler (such as controls for tabs and indents) and objects on a page snap to this grid as you move them. This helps you place tabs, indents, and objects at regular intervals.

Now, you’ll set up the rulers.

Top ruler

1. If the formatting bar doesn’t appear under the menu bar in Windows, choose View > Formatting Bar. (The formatting bar will already appear below the document’s title bar on the Mac OS and on UNIX systems.)

2. Choose View > Options.

3. Choose Pica from the Rulers pop-up menu to change the ruler markings.

4. Enter 6 (for 6 points) in the Grid Spacing text box in the Snap area of the View Options dialog box and click Set.

5. Click the Graphics menu. If a check mark or filled in box appears next to the Snap menu item, it indicates that the Snap command is on. If there is no check mark or filled in box, then the Snap command is not on.

6. If Snap is not on, choose Graphics > Snap.

Creating a side-head area

The formats you create for your document will place second-level headings at the left edge of the text frame (indicated by the dotted border); other text will appear to the right of these headings. To achieve this effect, you’ll set up a side-head area—an area on one side of the text frame that will contain headings.

1. Click anywhere in the first paragraph on page 1 to place an insertion point in the text.

2. Choose Format > Page Layout > Column Layout.

3. Select Room for Side Heads.

4. In the Room for Side Heads area, change Width to 92 and Gap to 14.

5. Click Update Entire Flow. All the text moves into the right side of the text frame. The side-head area appears to the left, but it’s empty. Next, you’ll change the format of the headings so that they extend across or move into the side-head area.

Displaying the Paragraph Designer

You use the Paragraph Designer to create and change the paragraph formats in your document. You’ll display the designer and look at the properties it contains.

1. Choose Format > Paragraphs > Designer. The Paragraph Designer appears.

A. Paragraph Tag pop-up menu B. Properties pop-up menu C. Controls for applying and updating properties D. Commands pop-up menu E. Current group of properties

On the left are the Paragraph Tag pop-up menu, showing the tag of the paragraph containing the insertion point, and the Properties pop-up menu, showing the name of the current group of properties (initially, these are the Basic properties). The properties themselves appear on the right side of the Paragraph Designer.

Below the Properties pop-up menu are controls for applying the properties to a selection (or to the paragraph containing the insertion point) and for updating a paragraph format and all the paragraphs that use it.

2. Choose Default Font from the Properties pop-up menu. (In Windows, you can just click the Default Font tab at the top of the designer.) The Default Font properties appear at the right side of the designer.

3. If you like, display any of the other groups of properties.

Formatting headings

Now you’ll use the Paragraph Designer to redefine the formats for two levels of headings.

Formatting first-level headings

The first-level headings in the document are all tagged Heading1. You’ll modify their paragraph format next.

1. Click anywhere in the heading Planning and evaluation.

You’ll make first-level headings span the side-head area and the body-text area.

2. In the Paragraph Designer, choose Pagination from the Properties pop-up menu. (In Windows, you can just click the Pagination tab.)

On the right side of the Paragraph Designer, Next Pgf is selected in the Keep With area. This forces the heading to stay on the same page as the first lines of the paragraph that follows the heading.

3. In the Format area, select Across All Columns and Side Heads. This allows first-level headings to span both areas of the text frame.

4. On the left side of the Paragraph Designer, click Update All. (If FrameMaker 7.0 notifies you that some paragraphs use format overrides, click Remove Overrides.) This changes all paragraphs tagged Heading1 and also changes the Heading1 format in the Paragraph Catalog.

Heading moves to the left edge of the text frame.

Next you’ll change the font properties of Heading1 paragraphs.

5. In the Paragraph Designer, choose Default Font from the Properties pop-up menu.

6. Change the Size to 20. Make sure the Weight is Regular. The value 20 does not appear in the pop-up menu, so you must enter it in the Size text box.

7. Click Update All.

Finally, you’ll change the paragraph spacing and line spacing to reduce the space between the heading and the body text that follows it.

8. Choose Basic from the Properties pop-up menu.

9. Change the Space Below to 0 and the Line Spacing to 20, and click Update All.

Formatting second-level headings

The second-level headings in the document are all tagged Heading2. You’ll modify their paragraph format.

1. Click the Next Page button () in the status bar twice to display page 3.

2. Click in the second-level heading Define project and quality requirements.

3. In the Paragraph Designer, display the Pagination properties.

4. In the Format area, select Side Head Alignment and click Update All. (If FrameMaker 7.0 notifies you that some paragraphs use format overrides, click Remove Overrides.)

Heading2 paragraphs move into the side-head area.

5. Display the Default Font properties.

6. Change the Family to Myriad-Roman (Windows) or Myriad (Mac OS and UNIX) and the Size to 10, and click Update All.

Finally, you’ll add some space between the Heading2 paragraphs and the preceding body text.

7. Display the Basic properties.

8. Change the Space Above to 20 and the Space Below to 0, and click Update All.

9. If you need to update your display or refresh your screen view, press Control+l (lowercase L).

Formatting body text

Next you’ll change the format of ordinary paragraphs in the document, which are tagged Body. You’ll change the font, make the body text smaller, and add space between the lines.

1. Click in a paragraph of body text on page 3.

2. In the Paragraph Designer, display the Default Font properties.

3. Change the Family to Myriad-Roman (Windows) or Myriad (Mac OS and UNIX), the Size to 9, and the Spread to 5. Spread (sometimes called tracking) adds or subtracts space between characters for a looser or tighter look.

4. Click Update All. (If FrameMaker 7.0 notifies you that some paragraphs use format overrides, click Remove Overrides.)

Next you’ll change the paragraph and line spacing.

5. Display the Basic properties.

6. Change the Space Above to 5 and the Line Spacing to 13, and then click Update All.

Finally, you’ll indent the first line of the paragraph. The indent symbols appear in the top ruler.

A. First-line indent B. Left indent

7. Drag the first-line indent symbol to the right, to the next ruler marking. Because you turned on Snap earlier in this lesson, the indent symbol snaps to the next ruler marking.

The First Indent setting in the Paragraph Designer changes to 10.0 pt. (In a paragraph format, indents and tabs are measured from the edge of the text frame margin, not the edge of the page.)

Notice that the indent changed only in the paragraph that contains the insertion point. You need to apply the change to all the Body paragraphs.

8. In the Paragraph Designer, click Update All. All Body paragraphs are indented.

Formatting numbered lists

Next you’ll create two paragraph formats for numbered lists. The first format, for the first item in a list, will number the paragraph with a 1. The second format, for subsequent items in the list, will increment the number by 1.

All numbered steps will use a hanging indent. That is, the number will appear at the left margin, and the text will be indented from the left margin.

A. First-line indent symbol B. Left indent symbol C. Left-aligned tab stop D. Hanging indent

Creating a format for the first item in a list

Rather than modify an existing format, you’ll create a new format. The items you want to number are already formatted as body paragraphs.

1. Click the Previous Page button () in the status bar to display page 2.

2. Click in the paragraph Planning and organizing (the second paragraph under the heading).

3. In the bottom-left corner of the Paragraph Designer, choose New Format from the Commands pop-up menu.

4. Enter Step1 in the Tag text box.

5. Make sure that the options Store in Catalog and Apply to Selection are selected and click Create.

The tag of the current paragraph changes to Step1, and the Step1 format is added to the Paragraph Catalog.

Next you’ll use the rulers and formatting bar to set up indents and a tab stop.

6. In the ruler, drag the first-line indent symbol back as far to the left as it will go.

7. Drag the left indent symbol to the next ruler marking to the right.

You’ll use a tab stop to set the space between the item number and the text that follows. The tab well in the formatting bar contains symbols for left-aligned, center-aligned, right-aligned, and decimal-aligned tab stops.

Left-aligned tab stop

8. Drag a left-aligned tab stop from the tab well to just under the left indent.

Notice that the settings for the tab stop appear in the Paragraph Designer.

9. In the Paragraph Designer, click Update All. The appearance of the paragraph doesn’t change because you haven’t added a tab character. You’ll do that when you set up automatic numbering.

Setting up numbering for the first item

A document can use automatic numbering for different types of items (for example, numbered steps and numbered chapters and sections). An autonumber format may include a series label that specifies an independently numbered series and building blocks that serve as placeholders for numbers or letters. An autonumber format may also include tabs, text, and punctuation.

You’ll finish the Step1 paragraph format definition by setting up its autonumber format.

1. In the Paragraph Designer, display the Numbering properties.

2. Enter S: (the uppercase letter S followed by a colon) in the Autonumber Format text box. This is the series label you’ll use for items in a numbered list.

3. Select <n=1> in the Building Blocks scroll list. This building block, which will insert the number 1 in the paragraph, appears in the text box.

4. Select in the scroll list to add a tab character to the autonumber format.

5. Click Update All. The autonumber appears at the beginning of the paragraph. The tab character is represented by the tab symbol ().

6. Choose File > Save.

Formatting subsequent numbered items

Now you’ll create a paragraph format for the subsequent numbered items in a list. (This format will increase the step number of each successive item by 1.) You’ll begin by applying the Step1 format to the other paragraphs in the numbered list, because that format is very close to the format you want. Then you’ll create a new paragraph format for the paragraphs and change the autonumber format.

1. Drag to select the three paragraphs below the numbered step.

2. Choose Step1 from the Paragraph Formats pop-up menu in the formatting bar. This pop-up menu contains all the formats in the Paragraph Catalog. You can apply formats from this menu just as you apply them from the catalog.

All the selected paragraphs now begin with the number 1, but you’ll fix that next.

3. In the Paragraph Designer, choose New Format from the Commands pop-up menu.

4. Enter Step in the Tag text box.

5. Make sure that the options Store in Catalog and Apply to Selection are selected and click Create.

6. Delete everything after the colon in the Autonumber Format text box.

7. Select <n+> in the Building Blocks scroll list. This building block will increment by 1 the number of the previous paragraph in the series.

8. Select in the Building Blocks scroll list to add a tab character, and then click Update All.

9. Click anywhere in the document to deselect the text.

10. To see how the document looks without the text symbols, choose View > Text Symbols.

Formatting bulleted lists

Next you’ll create a format for items in a bulleted list. You’ll work with the Step1 format as a base, because it’s very close to the format you want.

1. Go to page 12 (or page 11 on some Windows systems) of the document by clicking in the page number area of the status bar. Then type “12” in the Go to Page dialog box and press Go.

2. Select the paragraph beginning with What experience do they have and drag to select the paragraphs that follow it. The last paragraph in the selection should be What color matching systems are supported?

3. Choose Step1 from the Paragraph Formats pop-up menu in the formatting bar.

All the selected paragraphs are numbered 1.

4. In the Paragraph Designer, choose New Format from the Commands pop-up menu.

5. Enter Bullet in the Tag text box.

6. Make sure the options Store in Catalog and Apply to Selection are selected and click Create.

7. Delete the contents of the Autonumber Format text box.

8. In the Building Blocks scroll list, do one of the following:

• (Windows and UNIX) Select .

Windows

• (Mac OS) Select the bullet symbol (•).

Mac OS

This building block inserts a round bullet symbol at the beginning of each Bullet paragraph.

9. Select in the Building Blocks scroll list to insert a tab, and then click Update All.

Windows

Mac OS

10. Click anywhere on the page to deselect the paragraphs.

Next you’ll change the left indent of the bulleted paragraphs.

11. Click in the first bulleted paragraph.

12. In the ruler, drag the left indent symbol as far to the left as it will go (to the left margin).

The paragraph no longer uses a hanging indent.

13. In the Paragraph Designer, click Update All to update the other bulleted items and the Bullet format in the catalog.

14. If you like, apply the Bullet paragraph format to the items under the next heading (on pages 12 and 13).

Creating a chapter title

All that’s missing now is the chapter title. You’ll add the title and create a new chapter title format.

1. Go to page 1.

2. Choose View > Text Symbols.

3. Click at the beginning of the first paragraph on the page and press Return/Enter to create an empty paragraph.

4. Click in the empty paragraph and type Planning for Commercial Printing (the text of the title).

The paragraph format for the chapter title will be similar to the Heading1 format, so you’ll start with that format.

5. In the formatting bar, choose Heading1 from the Paragraph Formats pop-up menu.

6. In the Paragraph Designer, choose New Format from the Commands pop-up menu.

7. Enter ChapterTitle in the Tag text box.

8. Make sure the options Store in Catalog and Apply to Selection are selected and click Create.

9. Display the Default Font properties.

10. Change the Size to 30. This value does not appear in the pop-up menu, so you must enter it in the Size text box.

11. Change the Weight to Semibold and then click Update All.

12. Display the Basic properties.

13. Change the Space Below to 18 and click Update All.

14. Display the Numbering properties.

15. Enter C:Chapter <n+> in the Autonumber Format text box. Be sure to enter a space before the <n+> building block. (You can enter the building block by typing it or selecting it from the scroll list.)

This autonumber format tells FrameMaker 7.0 to number chapters in a different sequence than steps (the series label is C: rather than S:) and to begin the paragraph with the word Chapter followed by a space and the chapter number.

16. Add a colon and a space at the end of the text in the Autonumber Format text box, and click Update All.

When you assemble the chapters into a book, they will be numbered sequentially.

17. Close the Paragraph Designer.

Deleting formats

When you created the document, its Paragraph Catalog already contained some paragraph formats that you won’t use. You’ll delete the unused formats.

1. Click the Paragraph Catalog button (¶) on the right side of the document window to display the Paragraph Catalog.

2. At the bottom of the catalog, click Delete.

3. Select Bulleted (not Bullet) in the scroll list and then click Delete.

4. Select HeadingRunIn and Click Delete again.

5. Delete the Indented, Numbered, Numbered1, and Title (not ChapterTitle) formats.

6. Click Done. Notice that the formats you deleted no longer appear in the Paragraph Catalog.

7. Close the Paragraph Catalog.

8. Save and close the document.

Moving on

FrameMaker 7.0 comes with a variety of templates, such as memos, letters, reports, newsletters, and books. To see a list of available templates, choose File > New > Document, click Explore Standard Templates, and select a template from the list. Click Show Sample to see how a document using the selected template looks.

You’ve completed this lesson. For in-depth information about formatting text, see Chapter 5, “Text Formatting,” in the Adobe FrameMaker 7.0 User Guide.

Review questions

1. How do you create a custom new document?

2. What is the effect of turning on the invisible snap grid?

3. List three options for positioning headings and other paragraphs in a document that has a side-head area.

4. How do you change a paragraph format?

5. How do you create a new paragraph format?

6. What items can you include in an autonumber format?

Answers

1. Choose File > New > Document (Windows and Macintosh) or choose New from the main FrameMaker 7.0 window (UNIX). Click Custom, set the options for the document, and click Create.

2. Items in the ruler and objects in the document snap to the invisible grid when you move them. This helps you position tab stops, indents, and objects at regular intervals.

3. The paragraphs may appear in the side-head area, in the body-text area, or across both area

4. In the Paragraph Designer, change properties of the format and click Update All.

5. In the Paragraph Designer, choose New Format from the Commands pop-up menu. Enter a tag for the format, specify whether the format is stored in the catalog and applied to the selection, and click Create.

6. An autonumber format may include a series label, a building block for an automatically inserted number or a bullet, a building block for a tab, and text and other items.