Restarting a List Manually
Let's start by examining the manual option which is built into the Paragraph Catalog of all new FrameMaker documents. If you take a look at the numbering properties of the Numbered and Numbered1 formats, you'll see that Numbered uses the <n+> building block, which adds 1 to the current counter and displays the results:
Automatically Restarting a List
The more advanced way to reset your lists back to 1 is to assign the job to a different paragraph format. You'll need to examine your document to determine which format always appears between the numbered lists. For me, it's usually the Body format. Once you determine which format to use you can give it the job of resetting the counter, whenever it appears. Here's how:
- Use only the <n+> building block to set up your lists.
- Place your cursor in a paragraph that always appears before each new list. (Again, for me it's the Body format.)
- Display the Numbering Properties on the Paragraph Designer.
- Type the building block <n=0> and then click Update All.
- Don't panic that you now have a 0 in front of every format that you just updated. That's what <n=0> does–it sets the counter to 0 and displays the results.
Focus for a moment on the actual lists in your document. Are they all restarting with 1, even without the use of the <n=1> building block? If yes, continue reading. If not, maybe the paragraph you selected doesn't really appear between each list. In that case, Undo your change and find one that does.
- Once you can see how using another format to reset the list works, it's time to hide the zeros. All you need to do is change <n=0> to < =0> (just change the letter n to a space) and click Update All.
Here's why it works: while <n=0> tells FrameMaker to reset the counter to zero, and display the results, < =0> tells FrameMaker to reset the counter to zero and NOT display the results. How cool is that?
If you are new to FrameMaker and want to get up to speed quickly, join IconLogic's instructor-led, online Introduction to Adobe FrameMaker class. Hope to "see" you there.
About the author: Barbara Binder is the president and founder of Rocky Mountain Training. Barbara has been a trainer for nearly two decades and has been recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide.