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zhaop,

It is not clear to me what you want to do, but FrameMaker provides twelve running H/F variables that you can add to master pages. You can change their definitions to suit your needs. For example, you can use the building block <$elemtext[elemtag]> in a running H/F variable to display the content of the elemtag element. The elemtag element need not be a marker element. See the Structured FrameMaker Developer's Guide for details.

Hope this helps,
Van

zhaop,

To add to Van's response, the running H/F variables used on master pages can also refer to attribute values. The building block <$attribute[attrname]> pulls in the value of an attribute named "attrname" regardless of the element on which it occurs. If you want the value of an attribute of an element of a particular type, follow the attribute name with a colon and the element tag. For example, <$attribute[status:chapter]> retrieves the value of the status attribute of the first chapter element on the page.



In unstructured documents, Header/Footer markers are the only way to enter text on a body page that is to appear in a header or footer even though it does not appear as the sole text in a paragraph. FrameMaker provides only two such marker types ("Header/Footer $1" and "Header/Footer $2") and, as you have encountered, there are documents where it would be helpful if there were more. In structured documents, though, you can use empty elements with attributes for the same purpose. Since the elements are empty, they need not affect the formatting of the content of the body pages, but using the building block mentioned above, you can insert text from their attributes into running headers and footers.

--Lynne

Good idea,Thank you,Lynne

In my xml file:
 <aoi>
  <airportInfo>
  <airportName code="ZBAA">ASDB</airportName>
  </airportInfo>
 </aoi>
I want to use <$attribute[code:airportName]> in my running header. I define myself variable at first,then I insert my variable into header,But In header,It can't display all content,It can only display the string "<$attribut".

When I open the xml file in frameMaker,The header display the string "<$attribut", not the string "ZBAA" that I want to dispay. But why? I try to use <$elemtxt[airportName]>,the same error.

Jack,

You may be inserting the string <$attribute[code:airportName]> in the wrong place. On the master page where you want the header to be, create a text frame and in this frame insert one of the 12 running header and footer variables, say for example the variable Running H/F 9. Then DEFINE this variable to be <$attribute[code:airportName]>. This should work.

I think you inserted the string <$attribute[code:airportName]> into the text frame for the header instead of a running H/F variable.

Good luck,
Van

My problem of header/footer is ok,thank you!

I am having similar issues with a variable I would like to appear in the footer. I would like my Heading1 element text to appear in the footer, so I tried to modify the Running H/F2 definitions according to what I understand in your advice above. I also consulted the Structured FrameMaker Developer's Guide for details. And still, my footer displays the string <$elemtext on the body page.

My footer information (Heading, date, revision#, page#, and editor name) is set up in a Table within a text frame. Do I need to include anything special in my EDD TableCell general rules to accommodate the variable inclusion?

Janice,

It is unclear what exactly you are doing.

First, if the string <$elemtext is displaying in the footer, this indicates you are missing the closing >. It should be <$elemtext>.

Second, you need to specify the element name that holds the heading information. That is, the running H/F definition should contain something like <$elemtext[elementname]>, where elementname is the element containing the heading information.

Whether the footer information is contained in a table is immaterial, I think, as long as the table structure is within the structure of the document. That is, the footer variable needs to find elementname within the main flow of the document. You do not need to do anything in the EDD general rules for TableCell.

Good luck,
Van

Van:
To display the Section title in the footer of my document, I entered the variable <$elemtext[Head]> in my footer and all that appears is the string <$elemtext. (I double checked for the ">" and it is there in the definition.)

In my EDD, my Head element is defined to Count Ancestors named Section and apply properties to Context labels: Heading1, Heading2 and Heading3, respectively. I tried entering <$elemtext[Heading1]> instead of <$elemtext[Head]> to see if that would produce the results I am looking for & I still get <$elemtext and nothing else. I hope that makes more sense. Can you think of anything else that I might be missing from my definition?

Janice

After a lot of trial and error, I've answered my own question. I had created a table in the footer of my document to try to separate all the components neatly. That did seem to make a difference as to whether the variable worked or not. For some reason with the table created first, I could not get the variable to work properly within the table. I deleted the table, created the variable and then made it one of the table cells and now it works. Seems quirky to me...

janice

Janice,

I misunderstood something. I thought you created the table in the main flow of the body pages, inside which you had elements that contained the information you wanted to display in the footer. I now understand that you created a table in the footer as a way to organize the information spatially, that is, as a formatting device.

I have not done that, but I am guessing that such a table should NOT be a structured table, just an ordinary unstructured table. Such a table is not part of the documents main flow and therefore does not need to be structured. Maybe that is the key to the problem you are having.

On the other hand, if you are trying to organize the footer information spatially, there is no need to use a table. You can place each piece of information in its own small text frame and then just position them where you want. Or course, if the text frames need to expand to accommodate varying amounts of content, then maybe a table would suit the purpose better. I would be interested to see if the key to the problem is using an unstructured table rather than a structured one.

Good luck,
Van

I'm actually using the table in my footer to mimic a similar, related document created in Word by someone else in our company. It does help position things spatially in this case.

Now that I think of it, both times I used an unstructured table, so adjusting my EDD would not have produced any results. I have no idea why creating the variable successfully first, and then selecting it and creating the table around it worked. However, starting with the table in place and trying to add the variable did not work. I followed the same steps both times in defining my variable.

Also in both situations I had entered the page number variable (unmodified) and that worked fine in both cases. In any case, it works now. Thanks for the input, Van.

Janice