Understand how to work with the Elements catalog in Adobe FrameMaker and how to insert, wrap, and change an element.
The elements in a structured document depend on the Structured Application on which the document is based.
When you create a structured document, the Elements catalog for the document is populated with the elements defined in the application. With the Elements Catalog, you can insert new elements, wrap elements into a new parent element, or change (rename) an element to another element. You can also use keyboard shortcuts and the Smart Catalog to do the same element manipulations.
To insert an element in a structured document, do the following:
Place the insertion point at a location in the document hierarchy.
Select the required element in the Elements catalog.
Click Insert to insert the element in the document hierarchy.
If the Attributes for New Element dialog is displayed, specify the required attributes and click Insert Element.
You can also click Insert Element and specify any attributes later. For details on attributes of elements in a document, see Working with element attributes.
If the element is text-based (paragraph or note), you can start typing into the document. FrameMaker ensures that the text is inserted within the element boundaries.
If the element is image-based, the file selection dialog box is displayed.
If the element is table-based, the Insert Table dialog box is displayed.
To change how FrameMaker functions when you insert an element into the hierarchy, use the options in the New Element Options dialog ():
Display the Attributes for New Element dialog every time you insert an element into the document.
Display the dialog only if the associated Structured Application specifies mandatory attribute values for an element. If you do not specify the values, the structure of the document is broken. However, you can specify the values later.
Does not display the dialog when a new element is inserted in the hierarchy.
If an element contains child elements, insert the child elements when the parent element is inserted.
The child elements inserted
along with the parent depends on the rules defined in the associated Structured
Application. For example, in a DITA topic, if you insert an ordered
list (<ol>) element, one list item (<li>)
element is also inserted. If you disable this option, an empty ordered
list element is inserted.
If an element contains descendant elements (child elements that also contain children), insert all the descendant elements when the parent element is inserted.
The descendent elements
inserted along with the parent depends on the rules defined in the
associated Structured Application. For example, in a DITA topic,
if you insert an ordered list (<ol>) element,
one list item (<li>) element is also inserted.
Inside the list item element, a paragraph element is inserted. If
you disable this option, an ordered list element is inserted along
with the list item element.
To insert an element in a structured document using the Smart Catalog, do the following:
Select an element in the document or in the Structure View.
Press ctrl+1 to display the Smart Catalog.
From the Smart Catalog select the new element and press Enter.
To wrap an element into another element, do the following:
Select an element in the document or in the Structure View.
Select the new parent element in the Elements panel.
Click Wrap to enclose the selected element within the new parent element.
To wrap an element in a structured document using the Smart Catalog, do the following:
Select an element in the document or in the Structure View.
Press ctrl+2 to display the Smart Catalog.
From the Smart Catalog select the new element and press Enter.
To change an element (rename an element), do the following:
Make sure the Structure View () and the Elements catalog () are open.
Select the element in the Structure View panel that you want to change. You can select more than one element, even if the elements do not have the same tag. All the elements are changed to the new type of element. However, the elements’ children are not changed, but they sometimes become invalid because the parent changed.
Select an element in the Elements catalog and click Change.
To change an element in a structured document using the Smart Catalog, do the following:
Select an element in the document or in the Structure View.
Press ctrl+3 to display the Smart Catalog.
From the Smart Catalog select the new element and press Enter.