TechNote

Annotations not placed in the expected area as comments (FrameMaker 9)

Issue

When you import annotations into an Adobe FrameMaker 9, the placement is not in the area that you are expecting it to be as a FrameMaker comment.

Reason

Ideally, the annotation should be applied to same text in FrameMaker as was originally applied in the PDF.

If the text range is not found due to any of the possible reasons listed in this document, then the annotation is inserted as a marker and the marker text contains information about the annotation. The inserted marker is tracked (as added text) whether the Track Text Edits is enabled by the user or not.

This document lists the reasons that the correct text range is not found.

1. Annotations applied on Non-Text objects in PDF.

There are objects in framemaker where application of character formats or insertion of markers is not allowed (see below). But in a PDF generated from this FM document, it is possible to apply annotations anywhere on the page, be it on text, graphics. When these annotations are imported from PDF to FM document, the text location of the annotation cannot be correct and hence, the placement is marked unconfirmed. In this case, the comment is applied to a text location near the actual location.

Objects in FrameMaker that do not allow insertion in them:

Variable
Equation
Textline
Graphic objects (rectangle, lines etc)
Bullets and numbering

2. Annotation is on a text which is under a flow which has no tag name.

In this case, the comment will be inserted at a valid text location, which is near the location of annotation. Here, "valid" means a text location which falls in a flow which has a flow tag name and the marker can be inserted at this location). Examples of a flow with no flow tag are header and footer. The user can also create a text frame and not specify any flow tag to it.

3. Annotation is on a text which is under a flow which has a tag name with length > 127 bytes in UTF-8 encoding.

In this case, the comment will be imported as marker at first location in the main flow of the document.

4. Text range does not exist in FM document.

In this case, the comment will be inserted at a text location closest to the given text range. If the text range is completely invalid (i.e. paragraphs do not exist), then a default text location will be chosen in the same flow on that page (the first paragraph in the flow on that page).

5. Text range falls on uneditable fields in FM document.

Because a marker cannot be inserted in a text location which falls inside an uneditable field (see below), no comment will be applied to a text which falls inside an uneditable field. In such a case, the placement will be considered unconfirmed and a marker will be inserted at a text location closest to original text range.

Note: In the case of Sticky notes, the location is not intended to be on particular text. Rather, it is attached to a section in the document. So, its placement is never considered unconfirmed.