Smart Catalogs

Learn how to use a Smart Catalog in Adobe FrameMaker.

You can use the Smart Catalog as a convenient shortcut to the catalogs available in Adobe FrameMaker. For example, to set a paragraph style in a document, you use the Smart Catalog to quickly search for and select the required paragraph style. In a structured document, you can easily find the required elements and attributes to insert at a point in the document.

See the video Smart Catalogs.

To use the Smart Catalog:

  1. Place the cursor at the required location in the document.

    For instance, for character and paragraph styles, place the cursor inside a paragraph. For elements and attributes in a structured document, place the pointer at the element insertion location in the Structure View.

  2. Press the Smart Catalog shortcut key. See the Smart Catalog shortcut keys defined below.

    The Smart Catalog dialog displays.

    Figure 1. “Insert Element” Smart Catalog in Adobe FrameMaker
    The “Insert Element” SmartCatalogdialog in FrameMaker

    The focus of the pointer is now within the text box at the top of the dialog.

  3. To search for an item in the current catalog, start typing either the name of the item or the description. As you type, the list in the dialog is narrowed down.

    For example, if you want to insert a list element in a structured document, you can type the name of the list element: <ul>, <ol>, or <dl>. You can, however, also type the description of the element, list, and the dialog list is narrowed down to all the available list items in element catalog.
    Figure 2. Filtered elements in the “Insert Element” Smart Catalog
    Search andfilterelements in the “Insert Element” Smart Catalog

Note: The list of displayed items in the dialog is limited to ten. If the list exceeds ten, you can use the scrollbar to navigate up and down the list.
Table 1. Smart Catalog shortcut keys

Shortcut

Smart Catalog

Applies to…

F8, ctrl+8

Character catalog

Structured and unstructured

F9, ctrl+9

Paragraph catalog

Structured and unstructured

ctrl+1

Element catalog

Structured

ctrl+2

Wrap element

Structured

ctrl+3

Change element

Structured

ctrl+4

Apply condition

Structured and unstructured

ctrl+5

Remove condition

Structured and unstructured

ctrl+7

Attributes

Structured

esc+q+o

Object styles catalog

Structured and unstructured