book title in cross reference?

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3 total messages Started by Jim_Stoicheff Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:10

#1909

Author: Jim_Stoicheff
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:10

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We use FrameMaker to document a product that has dozens of manuals. We are about to begin including cross-references between documents. We want to include the name of the book in the cross reference. For example: For more information about daisies, see "Asteraceae" in the Pearson Flowering Plant Guide.

The book title currently exists in each chapter as a set of variables: Product, System, and Document. Using the example above, the three parts would be Pearson (Product), Flowering Plant (System), and Guide (Document). These appear in the header on odd pages.

I would like to incorporate these variables in the cross reference, but that doesn't seem to be possible, perhaps because the variables mean different things in each book.

How can I get the book title into the cross-reference?

Re: book title in cross reference?

#1910

Author: Art Campbell
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:10

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I would break your single cross ref into three equivelent components that you've assigned to variables instead of trying to create one large one. Then point them to the appropriate tags in the target book that use those variables.

Re: book title in cross reference?

#1925

Author: Thomas_Michanek
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:14

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I assume you somewhere on the body pages in the other book,
probably on a title cover page, have the complete title of the
book, using the variables. Then point that part of the cross-ref
to that particular paragraph. This means that you must break
the cross-ref into two parts, one that refers to the heading or
page of interest, and one that refers to the title page.

Cross-refs cannot pick up text from background text frames,
those used for page headers and footers. Cross-refs can only
pick up text from body page text frames.

There are ways around this limitation. You could, for instance,
in the beginning of each file include a small invisible body page
paragraph, that contains the variables in question, in effect
duplicating the page header. The cross-ref could then refer
to this invisible paragraph by using <$paratext[special_tag]>.

Another less automatic and error-prone solution would be to
define a set of variables that contain all the names of the
publications for your product. You include these variables in
all files in all books, and maintain them in a single FM file
(a template file if you use that). Instead of using a cross-ref
to the other book for the title, you insert the corresponding
variable. Of course, there is a maintenance aspect if you
change the title of a manual, or add new manuals.

-- 
/Thomas Michanek

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