RE: Number of paragraph tags and adding new pages

[David Cramer <dacramer@xxxxxxxx>]

Dan Emory has suggested my own preferred approach to unavoidable page 
breaks which cannot be handled by other approaches already mentioned 
(Widows & Orphans, Keep With Next/Previous, etc.). Dan wrote:

>Why not create a PageBreak paragraph tag?. This format has a large space
>below value, so large that anything you insert below it will be forced to
>the top of the next page. The paragraph is not intended to contain any
>text. This will eliminate the need for all paragraph tags whose sole
>distinction is that Top of Page is turned on. Thus, you no longer need to
>have tags like Head2Top, becuase any Head2 paragraph will be forced to the
>top of a page if it is preceded by a PageBreak paragraph.
>Replacement of all those xxxxTop tags by a single PageBreak tag will also
>simplify the generation of TOCs, and make life easier for authors. Notice
>also that you can find every forced page break in a document by using
>Find/Replace to search for the PageBreak tag. Also moving a page break will
>no longer entail changing to a different paragraph tag. Instead, you just
>cut the PageBreak paragraph, and paste it at the new page break point.

We have tried a couple of other things over the years, but the above 
approach is easier to work with, over all. Search and replace is easy 
to use to remove them, for example. HOWEVER, I feel it is very 
important to add one extra little twist to make it safer to manage 
ANY kind of empty paragraphs, whether they're for supplying special 
spacing features or page breaks or whatever.

Add a color to the default character formatting for the paragraph tag 
and always work with Text Symbols showing so the paragraph symbols 
will clearly announce the presence of these special empty 
paragraphs!!! You might also do something useful with alignment and 
indents if you like, so your color-coded paragraph symbols will 
appear in a consistent, useful location. I also set the font to 
something obviously "wrong" so it's even more obvious if you ever 
accidentally start typing in a supposedly "empty", special-purpose 
paragraph like that.

For example, our "pb PageBreak" paragraph tag (with 700 pt Space 
Below for the page break effect) includes 10-pt Courier font with red 
character formatting. Then when Show Text Symbols is on, the 
paragraph symbols of the page break paragraphs always stand out 
clearly for editing safety.

Incidentally, we also use a couple of kinds of blank spacer 
paragraphs to simplify working with MS-Word files which already have 
these paragraphs inserted around tables (cuz Word's tables are so 
pathetic, of course), and they're set to Courier blue.

Works for me.

Regards,

David


On Mon, 24 Jul 2000 16:13:50 -0700, "Willis, Elizabeth" 
<ebwillis@pscnet.com> wrote:
>I have a question for all you Frame "experts" out there. This is the first
>time I have posted to this list, but we are having a little controversy here
>that perhaps some of you might be able to settle.
>I am in charge of template development and maintenance in my department, and
>I have tried to keep the number of paragraph tags to a minimum, feeling that
>would contribute to ease of use.
>However, some of my users have requested that I add a number of tags set to
>begin at the top of the next page. I already have them for headings (Head1,
>Head1Top; Head2, Head2Top etc.) but I have resisted adding them to all the
>other tags (Numbered, bulleted, etc). I try to find other ways to split the
>document when needed (other than using a dreaded override, of course).
>I would like to hear from any of you who have feelings on how many paragraph
>tags make up an effective template, and hear any creative solutions you
>might have found for the page issue.
>
>Thanks very much,
>Elizabeth Willis
-- 
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          @@@@@@@@@@@  David Cramer, Information Architect  @@@@@@@@@@@@
          @@@@@  934 Sherburn Street, Winnipeg MB R3E 2M6, Canada  @@@@@
          @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

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