Chapter Numbering (combining numbers and letters)

Question

Is there a way to create a book with module numbering that has a number and a letter.
For example:
Module 9: Family Room Make-Over
Module 9A: Selecting a Paint Color
Module 9B: Selecting a Flooring Style
Module 9C: Selecting Furniture
Module 10: Kitchen Make-Over
Module 10A: Selecting Cupboard Style
Module 10B: Selecting a Counter Top
I'm currently using a building block of <chapnum> that automatically numbers the modules in a book. This information also updates the footer information for the page numbers (example: 9-1, 9-2, 9-3, etc.)
I would like to add a letter with the number as shown in the example above (9A, 9B, 9C, etc.) for some of the modules.
What is the easiest way to do this? Is there a way to automate the book build to get the 9A, 9B, 9C for some modules?
Any help is much appreciated.
Dennis

Answer 1

Dennis:
I'm not really in the Help Desk business, and the advantage of posting here is that someone else might benefit from the exchange (I've often solved my own FM problems by looking at answers to other people's questions here). If the suggestion Thomas provided isn't working for you, though, I'm somewhat at a loss as to what to say: His approach is exactly what I would've suggested.
It might be helpful to establish some parameters: I assume you're broadly familiar with FrameMaker's autonumbering properties? Just to clarify, it's the part of each line of Thomas' example that begins with
i N:
that matters. That label (which could be any single capital letter; there's no special significance to N), followed by a colon, followed by the building blocks for the numbers and letters, all goes in the "Autonumbering Format" field of the "Numbering" tab in the Paragraph Designer. Actually, looking back at your original post, it seems you want the word "Module" at the beginning of the heading and a colon after the number. Thus, the complete autonumbering format for the top-level heading (let's say you call that paragraph tag
i Heading1
) should read:
i N:Module\ <n+>< =0>:\t
...where
i N:
is just a label that identifies this numbering sequence (so it's possible to have more than one sequence in the same document without interference); the word "Module" and the following nonbreaking space (\[space]) are simply text that will appear in the paragraph autonumbering;
i <n+>
is a numerical counter that increments with each new instance of the paragraph;
i < =0>
(and note the space before the equals sign) is a placholder that sets the value of the second numbering position to zero, but doesn't display anything; and
i :\t
is the colon at the end of your autonumber and a tab character to separate the autonumber from the paragraph text (presuming you want to use a tab, that is; this could just as easily be a space or nonbreaking space).
The autonumbering sequence for the subordinate heading (call it
i Heading2
), would be similar:
i N:Module\ <n><A+>:\t
...the difference being that the first counter now returns the same number as the heading above, but doesn't increment, and the second counter returns a capital alpha character whose equivalent numerical value (i.e., 1=A, 2=B, etc.) is the value of the heading above plus 1.
Note that you could replace the first counter in both autonumbering formats with
i <$chapnum>
, as long as you make sure the chapter number is correctly defined for each file in your book. Either way, you'll get the following results:
[First paragraph tagged
i Heading1
in book] -->
b Module 1:
[Heading Text]
[Second paragraph tagged
i Heading1
in book] -->
b Module 2:
[Heading Text]
[First paragraph tagged
i Heading2
under Heading1] -->
b Module 2A:
[Heading Text]
[Second paragraph tagged
i Heading2
under Heading1] -->
b Module 2B:
[Heading Text]
...and so on. Once you've set it up this way, the building block
i <$paranum[Paragraph Tag]>
will return the whole autonumbering string, including text and punctuation, and
i <$paranumonly[Paragraph Tag]>
will return only the values of the counters.
So a cross-reference format for referencing these headings by number and heading text might look like:
i <$paranum>\ <emphasis><$paratext><Default ¶ Font>\
...and would show up in text as "...this topic is discussed in more detail in
b Module 2A:
i Framistat Synchronization
in the next chapter."
To get page numbering at the Heading2 level, you would define one of the user-definable header/footer variables (e.g.,
i Running H/F 3
) as:
i <$paranumonly[Heading2]>
...and then include that variable in a header or footer on your masterpage:
i Running H/F 3-<$curpagenum>
(note that the page number building block will show up as
i #
when you insert it). As I said before, you can (AFAIK) only restart the page numbering to 1 at the beginning of a new file, so you'll have to divide the book into files at the same outline level at which you want to page number.
Hope this makes it all clear and specific; if this still doesn't work for you, you'll need a better guru than me to take this further.
-Bill