FOSI - Drawing lines and arrows on side margin

[ptc-953343]

This is another can I do this question. I have a procedure that has a
bunch of steps. There are what I call conditions that group some of these
steps together. In some cases where there are multiple conditions there is
an OR relationship between them.

The steps within these conditions can span several pages and it is not
always obvious when 2 or more conditions are related to each other. So far
I have only seen a choice between 2 conditions, but I would think the
possibility exists for having more than two.

The printed sample I have uses an arrow that points to the condition text,
then a bar down the side of the page until the next condition that is then
pointed to. On each page that this bar appears, the word OR is inserted.
The OR floats to different locations, so it sort of looks like this was
created by hand rather than with a stylesheet. Anyway it sort of looks
like this in print:

--> If main wheel tire is blown:
| 1. Brake ...
| 2. Arrestment briefing ..
| NOTE
| some note text here
| 3. another step
OR
|
|-> If nose wheel tires blown:
4. first step of this condition
5. next step of this condition

So I have markup that I can use to determine what conditions are related
to each other, so I have the information to make this work from the
content side. Can I do something like this with a FOSI?

..dan

[LynnHales]

Dan,

I'm going to say NO. You could probably work something to put a mark out next to the conditioned procedures, but I don't think you can do the lines down the side.

Lynn

---- Dan Vint <dvint@dvint.com> wrote:
> This is another can I do this question. I have a procedure that has a
> bunch of steps. There are what I call conditions that group some of these
> steps together. In some cases where there are multiple conditions there is
> an OR relationship between them.
>
> The steps within these conditions can span several pages and it is not
> always obvious when 2 or more conditions are related to each other. So far
> I have only seen a choice between 2 conditions, but I would think the
> possibility exists for having more than two.
>
> The printed sample I have uses an arrow that points to the condition text,
> then a bar down the side of the page until the next condition that is then
> pointed to. On each page that this bar appears, the word OR is inserted.
> The OR floats to different locations, so it sort of looks like this was
> created by hand rather than with a stylesheet. Anyway it sort of looks
> like this in print:
>
> --> If main wheel tire is blown:
> | 1. Brake ...
> | 2. Arrestment briefing ..
> | NOTE
> | some note text here
> | 3. another step
> OR
> |
> |-> If nose wheel tires blown:
> 4. first step of this condition
> 5. next step of this condition
>
> So I have markup that I can use to determine what conditions are related
> to each other, so I have the information to make this work from the
> content side. Can I do something like this with a FOSI?
>
> ..dan
>

[ptc-1908075]

I think this can be done with boxing on steps, using only the left vertical line
of the box. You may need a little trial and error to determine top and bottom
boxing offsets so the vertical rule is continuous.

If the markup does not directly support this, you will have to suppress and save
stuff for output placement=after using formatting pseudo-elements.

Note that boxing is unbreakable across pages or columns unless
deepcontentsplitting is enabled, which may or may not work out of the box. In
this case, column/page breaks would be allowed between steps but not within a
step, which may be what is wanted anyway.

Good luck!
Suzanne