Beginner with Framemaker

[kookiedakat]

I have been using Indesign for a year and pretty much know my way around.

I just started Framemaker and I get some things from it but I cant figure out on how to add Paragraph styles without it having the existing ones.

I am working on a math book and need to do equations. It said to click on the text box and open your equation palete. I did that and clicked on some of the images that i needed for the equation but a "no selection in an equation" poped up.

Since i'm new to this program i've been reading some books, articles, forums, and tutorials. They talk about the different topics i'm looking for but doent explain it very well and how to do other things only with it.

I have the "Complete Reference Framemaker 7" book. Are there any other books or sites I could find with better information on how to work in Framemaker. Especailly with books and equations.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Mykimus]

Welcome to FrameMaker...I'm sure you'll learn to love it after you get familiar with it. I had to teach myself to use it with only the Adobe product manuals to guide me...and it was no easy task.

To begin with, you're in a good starting place. In my experience, the FrameMaker 7: The Complete Reference by Sarah O'Keefe and Sheila Loring is far and away the best reference book available for FrameMaker. I have found it much more helpful than the Adobe user guide or even the Adobe help files (although I use both of those on a regular basis as well.)

For your Equations problem: before you can place symbols in an equation, you have to create an equation "object" within the document. After opening the Equations palatte, you have to click the "Equations" button and add a new equation. (the "Equations" button has a down-arrow on it and is in the upper-left corner of the Equations palatte.)

Regarding Paragraph Tags: First, make sure you understand the difference between Paragraph Tags and Character Tags. Look at the previous paragraph in this post I'm typing now. (Starts with "For your Equations problem" and ends with "Equations palatte.)") If I change the paragraph tag while my cursor is ANYWHERE in that paragraph, regardless of whether any text is selected or not, the ENTIRE paragraph will change to the new paragraph tag. But let's say I only wanted to make the word "before" show up bold. I would select that one word and change the CHARACTER tag. This will modify only the currently selected word (or words). So, you could say that Paragraph tags determine the base formatting for a paragraph, and Character tags are used to OVERRIDE that formatting for any portion of that paragraph.

With that understood, all you have to do to create a new paragraph tag is type over the paragraph tag name in the Paragraph Tag box of the Paragraph Designer (Format, Paragraph, Paragraph Designer in version 7.2.) For example, if your present paragraph tag is named "Body" and you want to create a new paragraph tag named "Note", put your cursor in the Paragraph Tag drop-down box (in the paragraph designer), remove the word "Body", and type the word "Note", then click Apply. You'll get a "New Format" pop-up box that asks you to:
1. Verify the name for the new tag
2. Verify that you want it stored in the catalog (you do.)
3. Specify whether or not you want this new paragraph tag applied to the current paragraph.
Click the Create button, and you will now have a paragraph tag named "Note" that is for all intents and purposes is identical to the "Body" tag. Now, all you have to do is apply the "Note" format to a paragraph, then use the Paragraph Designer to start making and applying the changes that will make the "Note" paragraph tag different from the "Body" paragraph tag.

When you make a change to the tag, click Apply to apply it to the current selection. At that point, the change will be considered an "overriding" change, because you've applied it to only the one "Note" paragraph and not to all "Note" paragraphs. Once the "Note" paragraph has been set up to look the way you want it to, click the "Update All" button, which will:
1. Apply the changes to all paragraphs currently tagged "Note" in the open document
2. Update the "Note" tag so that all future paragraphs tagged "Note" in this document will also get these changes.

I hope this helps get you started in the right direction!