Adobe FrameMaker 8: Reference Pages Part 1... What Are They?

by Barbara Binder

 

FrameMaker 8 offers three types of pages: Body, Master and Reference.

 

Body pages are where you will do most of your work. This is where you flow your text and place pictures.

 

Master pages are for the repeating elements: the headers, footers, logos--items you want to appear on every page and in the same position.

 

So what's the role of those pesky Reference pages? Lots of good stuff, which I will help you explore over the next few weeks.

 

Let's start with the basics. In a new default document, when you chose View > Reference Pages, you land on a page that looks like this:

 

 

You see four frames, three of which contain ruling lines, and four text labels. The labels are for your convenience, they don't do anything except call out the names of the frames.

 

Try this: click on the edge of one of the four frames and look at the middle of the status bar at the bottom of the page--that's where the all-important frame name appears. OK, so what do we do with them?

 

The first two are used automatically when you insert a footnote or a table footnote into your document. FrameMaker calls in the appropriate frame and places it above the first footnote on the page. Regular footnotes get a rule, with space below, and table footnotes just get a bit of space (that's why there isn't anything in the TableFootnote frame).

 

If you don't like the way the footnotes look in your document, change its appearance on the Reference Page. You can make the footnote frames taller or shorter to control the vertical spacing above the first footnote, or modify how the line looks (make it longer or shorter, move it up or down within the frame, or change its color, width or style).

 

Try changing the Footnote rule on the Reference Page so that it looks like this:

 

 

And you will change all the footnotes on the Body pages so that they'll look like this:

 

 

And you thought you were stuck with the default footnote rules! Tune in next week for more on Reference page rules.

 

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Want to learn more about Adobe FrameMaker? Come to our upcoming Introduction to FrameMaker 8 class. All you need is a computer with fast Internet access, a headset and the current version of FrameMaker (the 30-day trial version of the software works fine). You can ask all the questions you like because all virtual classes are led by a live instructor--this is not pre-recorded content.

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About the author: Barbara Binder is the president and founder of Rocky Mountain Training. Barbara has been a trainer for nearly two decades and was recently recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide for 2007. 

Comments

[photo retouching]

Great resource. I am planning to start watching the tutorials on offer.