TechNote (Archived)

Cannot Change Paragraph or Character Tags in FrameMaker 5 Document

Issue

After you import text by reference in FrameMaker 5, you cannot change the paragraph or character format of the paragraph that contained the insertion point when you imported the text.

Solutions

If the text inset has been deleted, save the document in Maker Interchange Format (MIF), then set the FLocked and PgfLocked statements to No for the paragraph that was associated with the text inset:

1. Open the document and choose File > Save As.

2. Specify a filename with an ".mif" extension.

3. Select Interchange (MIF) from the Format pop-up menu, then click Save.

4. Open the MIF file in a text editor that can save in text-only format.

5. Search for the paragraph associated with the text inset.

6. Find the PgfLocked statement for the paragraph and edit it so it reads:

7. Find the FLocked statement for the paragraph and edit it so it reads:

8. Repeat steps 5-7 for each paragraph affected.

9. Save the file in text-only format.

OR: If the text inset is still present, remove the lock by updating the text inset to use the current document's formats or by reformatting the inset as plain text:

1. Click on the text inset.

2, Choose Edit > Text Inset Properties.

3. Click the Settings button.

4. Select Reformat Using Current Document's Formats or Reformat as Plain Text, then click Import.

OR: Convert the text inset to editable text:

1. Click on the text inset.

2. Choose Edit > Text Inset Properties.

3. Click the Convert to Text button.

4. Select All Text Insets or Selected Text Insets, then click Convert.

5. If you converted the Selected Text Inset only, repeat steps 1-4 as needed for other text insets.

Additional Information:

When you import text by reference and retain the source document's formatting, FrameMaker 5 locks the paragraph and character formats used in the text inset to preserve the formatting of the source document. However, FrameMaker also locks the formats used in the paragraph that contained the insertion point at the time you imported the text, so you cannot modify the formats or apply different formats to that paragraph.

If the text inset has been deleted from the document, you can remove the lock by saving the document as MIF and editing the MIF file. The MIF statements "PgfLocked" and "Flocked" control whether the paragraph format and the font of the character format, respectively, are locked in a paragraph.