Create an EDD

Analyze requirements

Before building the proposal template, analyze existing proposals to identify their components. Based on this analysis, you create a content map. The proposal example results in the following sequence:

1. Title

2. Executive summary: Title, One paragraph

3. Project description: Title, One or more paragraphs

4. Cost: Title, One or more paragraphs

5. Schedule: Title, One or more paragraphs

Choose an EDD strategy

You can build an EDD in multiple ways:

• Create the entire EDD yourself.

• Import a DTD or schema to create an EDD that contains structure definitions.

• Use a conversion rules table to structure an existing sample document. Then create a first draft of the EDD that contains basic element definitions and formatting that matches your unstructured template.

• Modify an existing EDD—one of the samples supplied with FrameMaker or an EDD from another source.

Build the proposal EDD

Based on the content analysis, you can now create the proposal EDD.

1. Make sure you are in Structured FrameMaker. To switch from unstructured to Structured FrameMaker, choose File > Preferences > General. In the Product Interface drop-down list, select Structured FrameMaker. Close and restart FrameMaker.

2. Choose Structure > EDD > New EDD to create an EDD file. Default elements are inserted in the EDD.

   Note: The EDD is itself a structured FrameMaker document. You use the same guided editing environment to create the EDD that you use to edit other structured documents.

3. Choose Structure > Structure View to display the Structure View panel.

4. Create the top-level <Proposal> element. Position your cursor to the right of the Tag bubble in the Structure View, and type in Proposal. As you type, the letters appear in both the Structure View and the document window.

5. Open the Elements Catalog.

6. In the Structure View, click to the right of the red box (which indicates that additional information is required). Notice that the contents of the Elements catalog change because of the new cursor location. In the Elements catalog, select Container and click Insert. The <Container> element and a child <GeneralRule> elements are inserted. The general rule specifies which elements are allowed inside the proposal element. During the content analysis, you identified the following: title, executive summary, project description, cost, and schedule.

7. Type a general rule for <Proposal>: Title, ExecSummary, ProjectDescription, Cost, Schedule

   Note: Element names cannot contain spaces.

8. Insert a <ValidHighestLevel> element as a sibling of the <GeneralRule> element. To do so, click underneath the <GeneralRule> element to position your cursor, click the <ValidHighestLevel> element in the Elements catalog, and then click Insert.

The <Proposal> element is complete. You must now provide definitions for each of the child elements: <ExecSummary>, <ProjectDescription>, <Schedule>, and <Cost>.

Define child elements

1. Position your cursor at the bottom of the structure.

2. Using the Elements catalog, insert an Element bubble. Name the element <ExecSummary>, make it a container, and specify the following as the general rule: Title, Para+

3. Repeat step 2 to define the remaining elements. The general rules are shown in the following table:

   Element	General Rule
   ProjectDescription	Title, Para+
   Cost	Title, Para+
   Schedule	Title, Para+
   Title	<TEXT> (Type the word TEXT with angle brackets around it.)
   Para	<TEXT> (Type the word TEXT with angle brackets around it.)

4. Save your EDD file as proposal_EDD.fm.

Add formatting to the EDD

You have now built an EDD that provides the structure for a simple proposal. However, when you type content, no formatting is applied.

The following section describes how to provide formatting, and how to automatically insert the correct text for the various titles. By default, text uses the Body paragraph style.

Change the Body element definition

1. In structured_proposal.fm, choose Format > Paragraphs > Paragraph Designer and change the default definitions of the Body and Heading1 paragraph styles. For example, change the font or place a line above the Heading1. To make your changes obvious, you may also want to assign unique colors to the two tags.

2. In proposal_EDD.fm, modify the <Para> element definition to include a formatting rule. To specify that <Para> should always use the Body paragraph style, click under the <GeneralRule> element, add a <TextFormatRules> element, and then add an <ElementPgfFormatTag> element. Type Body as the text for the <ElementPgfFormatTag> element.

   For the <Title> element, you need more complex formatting rules. <Title> should automatically display section titles, such as Executive Summary, Project Description, and so on. You must write a context rule that specifies what text to display for each type of heading, and specify that <Title> uses the Heading1 paragraph style.

3. In proposal_EDD.fm, modify the <Title> element definition to use the Heading1 paragraph style. Add the same <TextFormatRules> and <ElementPgfFormatTag> elements as you did for the <Para> element.

   Note: Like the paragraph styles, the information you enter is case-sensitive and space-sensitive. For example, “Heading1” is not the same as “heading1” or “Heading 1.”

Next, add a prefix rule to the <Title> element. Prefix rules let you specify text that should appear at the beginning of the element. Based on the <Title>’s position, you’ll specify which text should be displayed.

Add a prefix rule

1. Position your cursor in the <Title> element to insert a child of <Container> after <TextFormatRules>.

2. Insert a <PrefixRules> element.

3. Insert a <ContextRule> element. The <If> and <Specification> elements are inserted automatically. For the <Specification> text, type ExecSummary.

4. Position your cursor underneath the Specification element and insert a Prefix element.

5. For the Prefix element text, type: Executive Summary

6. Repeat steps 3–5 for the other elements that need titles—<ProjectDescription>, <Schedule>, and <Cost>—and insert the appropriate text for each prefix.

Test the results

1. Save the EDD.

2. Import the element definitions into your structured_proposal.fm file to test the results. Each section should display the title text you’ve specified.

Test the EDD

To test the EDD, you import it into a document and then verify that you can create the structure you expect. At this point, the document does not have any formatting, but you can still verify the structure.

1. Create a new, blank, portrait document by selecting File > New > Document, and then click Portrait.

2. Make sure that the EDD and the new document file are both open. From the new document, choose File > Import > Element Definitions. In the Import from Document drop-down list, select the proposal_EDD.fm file and click Import.

   Note: If your EDD is not displayed in the list, make sure that the EDD file is open and that you have saved it. Until you save a document, it is not available in this list.

   The structure definitions in your EDD are imported into the blank document. To verify that the definitions were imported, position your cursor in the main text flow and then display the Elements catalog. You should see the <Proposal> element.

3. Insert a <Proposal> element. The <Title> element, which is required as the first child of <Proposal>, should now appear in the Elements catalog.

4. Insert the <Title> element. Continue inserting elements until your proposal structure is complete.

   Note: If your structure is incorrect, go back to your EDD, correct it, and then re­import the element definitions. For more information, see the Structured Application Developer Reference guide.

5. Save your file as structured_proposal.fm.