Adobe FrameMaker 9: But I Don’t Want a Plain, Round Bullet!

1. Start by deciding what character you would like to use. Symbols like squares, circles and diamonds are very common requests. But if you have access to more exciting ornamental fonts, then the fun is just beginning. To see your options, open FrameMaker 9, click your mouse at the end of a bullet paragraph and choose File > Utilities > Character Palette.

   Note: For older versions of FrameMaker without the Character Palette, you can use Windows Character Map to locate the desired character.

2. Scroll through the list, looking for the ornamental fonts. If nothing else, you should at least have Webdings, and Wingdings 1, 2 and 3.

   

3. Hover over an interesting symbol to enlarge it, and when you find one you like, click once to add it to the document. In my example, I'm choosing a squirrel icon in the Webdings font. Note the last line of the palette: Latin Small Letter O with Grave.
4. Click outside the palette to close it.

   I'm not actually seeing my squirrel yet: it's a Latin Small Letter O with [an accent] Grave. Good thing I saw that in the palette, so I'm not panicking, yet!

   

   The next step is to create a character format to transform the ò into a squirrel:

5. Select the letter.
6. Copy the character to the clipboard.
7. Choose Format > Character > Designer and then choose Commands > Set Window to As Is.
8. Give the new format a simple name (I used the name Webdings).

   

9. Change the Family to the desired ornamental font
10. Optionally, change the size and/or the color
11. Click Apply, then click Create.

    

    OK, now I have a squirrel at the end of my paragraph. He was just there so that we could see what I was doing, go ahead and delete him.

12. Choose Format > Paragraph Designer > Numbering Properties.
13. Paste your symbol on the Autonumber Format line that you copied earlier, followed by a tab. Don't forget to pick your Character Format from the list on the right before you finish up with an Update All.

    

    Cool! Squirrel bullets!

    

Now, I do realize that unless you are working for the International Society of Squirrels, you are highly unlikely to ever use this particular bullet in your technical documents. When I'm wearing my production hat, I'm usually forced to choose between boxes, diamonds, circles, etc. Here's a handy list for "real life":

Just type in the character in the top row, create a character format to change the font to Wingdings , and assign the character and the character format through Paragraph Designer.