I like Fred's arguments here. I have mainly advocated the Paragraph/Character format approach in EDDs for two main reasons:
1) It is generally easier to have a single EDD work with multiple templates, which is advantageous for some document sets. 2) It allows the client a bit of flexibility in determining the look and feel of their templates. I do the EDD work and they can do the template work with the Paragraph and Character Designer interface that they are familiar with. Because the large number of formats that this approach can entail, you need to plan your format names carefully so they make sense to the template designer. Over time, I have become less strict, and moved to more of a mixed approach. For certain types of formatting, I will use a base paragraph format and specify "exceptions" in the EDD; for example, page breaks, extra space at the end of a list, etc. This still allows template changes with the Designers, but cuts back on the number of "exception" formats in the paragraph and character catalogs. I have found that this works well and still supports the two reasons above. Rick Rick Quatro Carmen Publishing Inc. 585-283-5045 r...@frameexpert.com -----Original Message----- From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Fred Wersan Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2012 1:29 PM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: Re: Unstructured to Structured: Question about retaining, paragraph formats Just my two cents on this. There is no right answer. Depends where you want the control to be and maybe your philosophical approach - as in "no formatting in the EDD". When I went structured, it was an opportunity to reduce paragraph format bloat. I analyzed what I needed, pared down the paragraph and character formats and tried to stay that way. I didn't want a different format for every possible different formatting issue that might come up. In part this means that if you are strict about things you don't let users deviate from the set of formats that are provided. But you can cover acceptable deviations by putting formatting in the EDD (if your philosophy permits this). As a practical matter, I have found that due to limitations in the EDD, there are times when putting formatting in the EDD works well and times when it just doesn't seem to work right. The conditions get too complicated and it isn't worth it. Of course, as a lone writer, I get to make all the decisions, but I try to act as if it were a bigger setup - no changes to para formats and no new on-the-fly formats allowed. With multiple books using the same EDD, they all have to comply or they get blasted every time I update the EDD, so there is a strong incentive to do things right. A previous respondent said: " The idea with structure is (as has already been said) to separate structure from display.?" I am not sure that I entirely agree with that. The idea of structure, particularly in FrameMaker, is that the computer enforces the formatting based on the element structure rather than writers needing to apply formatting via paragraph tags as they go along. If you are in a non-WYSIWYG environment, then you don't get the display. In FrameMaker you get the display too, but you don't have to be responsible for it, just for applying the correct element tags. Whether the computer enforces the formatting based entirely on what is in the EDD or on a mix of EDD coding and para formats is an implementation detail. Either way the application of formatting is done by the computer, not by the user. Fred -- Fred Wersan VT MÄK, Principal Technical Writer 68 Moulton Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 T: +1.617.876.8085 x124 Email: fwer...@mak.com Get Realistic Background Traffic - up to 75% off! www.mak.com/YourPatternOfLife | Offer ends September 25, 2012 _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to framers as r...@rickquatro.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/rick%40rickquatro.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.