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1-Visitor
October 15, 2011
Question

Indent Definition List and Repeat Heading Across Column Break

  • October 15, 2011
  • 6 replies
  • 1292 views

Hi again, sorry in advance for being a pain in the neck.


I have a Definition List in Styler on a 2 col page (so 4 cols per page.) It needs to be indented left and right, and the Definition is supposed to left-indent if it wraps to a second or more lines. The Styler Indent Tab seems to be ignored. It was suggested I scrap this and use <algroup>. Also, how to get the heading to repeat across the column breaks?


<acronymlist>
<term></term>
<def></def>
<term></term>
<def></def>
<term></term>
<def></def>
<term></term>
<def></def>
</acronymlist>


It should look like this:


Term


Any advice is appreciated!


Regards, Caroline

    6 replies

    1-Visitor
    October 16, 2011
    If you have <acronymlist> styled as a "Definition List" in Styler,
    then the FOSI that Styler produces will use <algroup>. The problem
    you're running into is that the <algroup> requires appropriate indents
    to be specified for each column. Styler uses the values you specify
    in the "Definition List Details" dialog to set these in the FOSI, thus
    ignoring specific indents you specify for <term> and <def>.

    The solution for overall left and right indents is to specify them on
    <acronymlist>, thereby indenting the whole list. The solution for
    indenting subsequent lines in the <def> is a little more complicated.
    I got the desired result by setting "Hidden" on the Font tab for <def>
    to "yes" and adding Gentext with the element content wrapped in a UFE
    , to which I applied the necessary indents. In order to avoid
    confusion for authors, you may want to set these effects up only for
    Print/PDF or override them in the Editor-specific settings, setting
    "Hidden" to "no" and suppressing the Gentext (maybe just set it to a
    single space).

    The repeating headers proves to be the most complicated, as repeats
    are only supported by Styler for elements styled as a "Title" and it
    only works if the "Title" is an immediate child of the element in
    question (<acronymlist>, in your case). Since Styler wraps Gentext in
    a <_sfe:BeforeOrAfterText> element, you can't just generate the title
    element normally, so a FOSI source edit is required. Fortunately,
    it's a pretty simple one. I created a Property Set for this purpose
    and applied it to <acronymlist>. The source edit for the Property Set
    looks like this:

    <charsubset charsubsetid="acronymlist-title">
    <usetext source="!&lt;_ufe:acronymlist-title">!,\Term\,@5pc,\Definition\,!!"
    placemnt="before"></usetext>
    </charsubset>

    This generates a UFE, wrapped around the two headers, with the second
    header set to appear 5pc in (having defined my definition list to have
    a 4pc-wide column for the term and a 1pc-wide gutter; adjust
    accordingly for your settings). The UFE (<_ufe:acronymlist-title>, in
    my example) needs to be styled as a "Title" with a context where it
    has an <acronymlist> parent. This context should set "Underline" to
    "yes" and "At top after break" (on the "Gentext" tab) to "yes". Click
    the "Edit" button next to the latter setting and modify the markup to
    have just the element content, wrapped in another UFE, which should be
    styled as a block with the same indents as your <acronymlist>, so the
    repeating headers will line up correctly.

    Hope this helps you get what you're after.

    -Brandon 🙂


    On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 9:38 PM, Caroline Leccese
    <caroline@thecodesource.net> wrote:
    > I have a Definition List in Styler on a 2 col page (so 4 cols per page.) It
    > needs to be indented left and right, and the Definition is supposed to
    > left-indent if it wraps to a second or more lines. The Styler Indent Tab
    > seems to be ignored. It was suggested I scrap this and use <algroup>. Also,
    > how to get the heading to repeat across the column breaks?
    >
    > <acronymlist>
    > <term></term>
    > <def></def>
    > <term></term>
    > <def></def>
    > <term></term>
    > <def></def>
    > <term></term>
    > <def></def>
    > </acronymlist>
    >
    > It should look like this:
    >
    > Term Definition <-- with this heading
    > repeating across col breaks
    > term text text text text text text text
    > text (indented here also)
    > text text text text
    16-Pearl
    October 17, 2011
    I can't help but wonder if custom tables would work here? They seem to be
    getting reasonably useful in 6.0 now.

    Of course the stylesheet would need to generate the appropriate UFEs to
    represent the table structure but I think you could make it work with all
    the repeating and stuff.

    -Gareth
    1-Visitor
    October 17, 2011
    Yes, it crossed my mind that custom tables might be a good way to go.
    Unfortunately, Caroline is using 5.3, in which the custom table
    support is limited, without direct support for generated headers, so
    it would likely be no easier.

    -Brandon 🙂


    16-Pearl
    October 17, 2011
    Good point!

    On 17/10/2011, at 15:54, Brandon Ibach <brandon.ibach@single-sourcing.com> wrote:

    > Yes, it crossed my mind that custom tables might be a good way to go.
    > Unfortunately, Caroline is using 5.3, in which the custom table
    > support is limited, without direct support for generated headers, so
    > it would likely be no easier.
    >
    > -Brandon 🙂
    >
    >
    >
    cleccese1-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    October 18, 2011

    Hi Brandon,


    Thank you so much! Unfortunately, after I created the Property Set the "Term Definition" headers are appearing before the generated text for my graphic in figure context. Then when I add the <_ufe:acronymlist-title> it is interfering with my figure xrefs and I am getting an error: "[A12525] WARNING: ID "xxxxxxx#Label_Number.xref" saved to more than once" for all my figure xrefs.


    cleccese1-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    October 18, 2011

    Thanks again Brandon! He discovered that I had accidentally put the acronymlist property set under the wrong ufe.It was bound to happen.