Multi-channel publishing and reference pages

[GrossTonnage]

Hi all,

I'm beginning to dig into FM12 multi-channel publishing. I have stripped down my unstructured template to a more minimalist model in order to flex better to multiple outputs. My current document template has several ANSI-based alert styles (Danger, Warning, etc.) that reference heading images in the reference pages. These heading images do not show up when I publish to HTML5. The header images are important to these styles, but I am loathe to add them manually to each instance, obviously. Is it possible to call reference page images when publishing to HTML 5, or should I change my styles?

I know that this will not be an issue when I to migrate to XML, but I'm hoping to find a quick fix in the meantime. I suspect that if there is an unstructured solution to this, it's hiding in the style mapping settings.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Are the images in anchored frames? That’s the only way they’ll survive publishing as HTML

[GrossTonnage]

Yes, each of the referenced images are in a separate anchored frame.

The paragraph style calls the image from the reference page.

This is is a PDF output sample:

This is an HTML5 output sample from the same source and settings:

Am I missing a setting somewhere?

[Bob_Niland]

> Are the images in anchored frames? That’s the only way they’ll survive publishing as HTML

So Frame Above/Below doesn't survive in some workflows?

That sounds like a bug to me.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Not sure – my images in FM11 are all set to None for those Above/Below settings

[GrossTonnage]

Error7103 wrote:

> Are the images in anchored frames? That’s the only way they’ll survive publishing as HTML

So Frame Above/Below doesn't survive in some workflows?

That sounds like a bug to me.

That's right. When using the Publish toolbar,  the image selected in "Frame above pgf:" does not survive from the .fm file to responsive HTML5, as shown above.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

[GrossTonnage]

Looks like Arnis Gubins already laid this issue to rest a few days ago.

Reference graphics missing in HTML5

This is disappointing, but I guess I can just make these alert graphics available for import.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

So it sounds if you strand the images in anchored frames with that above/below property set to None, then they will appear in the HTML5?

[max_drawdown]

@Jeff_Coatsworth,

Uh, I feel nervously ignorant on this point. Nervous because I'm sure I'll need to deal with this "feature" when I am ordered to use FM12 for multi-channel.

Where are the anchored frames? On the Reference page?

The way I read @ArnisG over here, anchored graphics can be used.

If above/below is None, how does the paratag find the anchored frame?

I probably need more caffeine.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

@max_drawdown – no, I’ve got them on my Body page for screenshots. The layout I’ve got has them spanning the full width of the page with text above them and a table below. I’ve read about people creating these sort of warning icon images and the accompanying warning text being put side by side in a 2 cell table with the image in an anchored frame in the left cell and the text in the right cell.

[Bob_Niland]

> Nervous because I'm sure I'll need to deal with this "feature" when I am ordered to use FM12 for multi-channel.

And then it gets worse.

Until and unless ADBE fixes this obvious defect, you'll need to abandon the time-honored Reference Frame Above way of doing ANSI ZS535 and ISO 3864 risk admonishments.

If you switch to in-Flow anchored frames, the question still arises of just exactly what FM is going to render into the HTML.

Our safety panels are high quality vector rectangles with text as stroked outlines, imported as EPS from external files. In the testing I've done with FM up through FM9, this gets trashed to raster for HTML.

For HTML5, you might at least expect SVG vector art to survive, and just get passed on through. It doesn't in FM9, and  I wouldn't assume it for anything later without testing.

Even if you do the panels as cloned instances of FM graphic rectangles with actual font text overlay (or perhaps BG color rather than art rectangles), you'll need to test extensively to see what actually gets rendered into the various workflows (HTML, XML, ebook).

[max_drawdown]

Error7103

Thanks for the follow-up.

Apparently FM12 offers both multi-channel publishing and a now-being-discovered multi-channel authoring feature. The more channels we have, the more authoring we do.

[Arnis_Gubins]

Unfortunately, any content in a Reference frame is not carried over by the current Publish modules, regardless of whether or not it is an an AFrame.

With FM12, you have to change your layouts to ensure that any graphic you want to show up in the ePub or HTML outtput is in an AFrame and that means a lot of manual work. Either scripting or Silicon Prairie's AutoText (see Silicon Prairie - FrameMaker Products ) would be very useful for this.

If you can wait another year or so (if Adobe follows their typical release timelines), then perhaps the next version may have this behaviour addressed. With enough users complaining about this, perhaps a patch may improve this behaviour even sooner. 

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

@all – sorry, I completely missed the reference page part of this discussion – apologies all round – I was talking body pages obviously (d’oh!)

[max_drawdown]

@Arnis Gubbins,

Thanks.

Apart from returning a call from an Adobe sales guy, where is the best place to complain?

Best regards,

[Arnis_Gubins]

Some likely candidates are:

TechComm Suite Sr. product manager: Kapil Verrma = kverma at adobe.com

FrameMaker product manager: Vikram Verma = vikverma at adobe.com

TechComm Sr. marketing manager: Saibal Bhattacharjee = saibal at adobe.com

TechComm evangelist: Maxwell Hoffmann = mhoffman at adobe.com

Just replace the " at " with the appropriate symbol for an email address

[mattschlote]

I reported this bug to Adobe about a month ago. They said it would be fixed in the next release of FM, whenever that may be.

In the short-term, you can use CSS to place an image before a particular format. In my example I am using a NDNoteWarning format that had a reference frame Warning icon above text. Add the below style info to the main.css file (located in template/Theme1_Standard/ folder). You'll have to play around with the margin and text-align settings for your application:

#rh_default_topic_placeholder_id p.FM_NDNoteWarning::before {

  content:url(note-warning.png);

  display: block;

  margin-left: auto;

  margin-right: auto;

  margin-top: 8px;

  text-align: center;

}

[GrossTonnage]

@mattschlote,

I suspected/hoped that CSS would hold a solution to this problem, but I'm a relative noob there. Thanks for the starter code. I'll tweak it, try it out, and post results.

[Bob_Niland]

> I suspected/hoped that CSS would hold a solution to this problem ...

That might introduce a new problem, which is: do all browsers on all clients support the CSS generated. MSIE8 in particular might be spotty.

[mattschlote]

@GrossTonnage

I was not very specific in explaining the CSS code. If you have any more questions, just let me know.

Also, remember to keep a backed up copy of the main.css stylesheet as it gets overwritten each time the output is generated.

[GrossTonnage]

@mattschlote:

Thanks for the tip! I haven't dug into it yet, but I wonder how much of this I might be able to tuck into the style mapping settings to make it persistent.

@Error7103:

good point. I'll jump off that bridge soon after I cross the one that leads to me publishing my ANSI admonitions the easy way.

[GrossTonnage]

FYI, This problem was addressed by the latest patch. I contacted everyone in @ArnisGubins ' post above, and they responded promptly and proactively. Thanks to everyone who weighed in here and leaned on Adobe to get this addressed.

[Bob_Niland]

And just in case you wanted another aspect of this to tweak, be sure to see:

ANSI Z535.1 Safety Colors in Frame