🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello Trevor,

It is, as Russ writes, a great topic, and indeed, I am of the opposite opinion. (opposite to Russ', that is.)

Using FrameMaker for a year or 12 or so, I have always made use of the format catalogues. They are great, but they can be hard to maintain. The list of paragraph formats tends to grow, because catalogues are merged when you import formats from other documents. In the editing process you invent new formats you need and in the end you have a long list of formats, some with only minor variations. And there is, as far as I know, (but I'm not using the newest version) no way to delete all formats quickly, you have to delete them one by one. So if you have a book with 20 chapters, and you want to cleanup your format lists, you are well underway to develop RSI.

When I switched to Structured FrameMaker, I started using my old paragraph formats and concentrated on the structure in the EDD, which was a good idea, because I had to learn the structure business. When finished, I discovered that my long format catalogues were still not used consistently in the books I wrote over the years (technical manuals and user manuals). Between chapters, there were still some differences, and yes, I know you can import formats to get this right. But I didn't want to be bothered at all by this.

My next step then, was to write all format definitions in the EDD. Yes, it became long (a bit less than 40 pages) but because the EDD itself is structured it is still readable; I divided it into sections.
It took some testing and debugging, but now my paragraph catalogue is empty. I needed to define only some character formats (less than 5) and some 10 cross-reference formats and a couple of table formats. And it was a relief. Importing an EDD overwrites the existing element catalogue, which certainly is an advantage. I myself am very happy to use this method.

Just do what suits your needs best. But my opinion is: the longer your documents and books, the more you benefit from writing all your formatting in the EDD.

Success,

Ruud