About GNML formats
Contents
Formats are collection of typographical, filtering and fitting default attributes and GNML libraries of styles.
A GNML format has one set of typographical, filtering and fitting defaults, and can link to up to eight libraries of styles.
Purpose
Formats are used to apply formatting on an article text. When a GNML format is assigned to an article element, all the custom tags and styles, defined in all GNML libraries linked to the format, are available to be used in that text. Furthermore, the default attributes are read from the format and applied on the unformatted parts of text. Default text and paragraph copy fit sets are used for copy fitting.
Formats cannot be assigned to articles, but only to article text elements.
Note: if the filtering defaults are enabled, the format will be appear in the list of available formats only if the target text element belongs to the same type and/or category, and if the height of its linked frame is within the specified geometry height range.
Editing
You create GNML formats in the Formats and Style libraries applets in EdAdmin4.
Availability
Writers, editors or layout staff assign GNML formats to stories, article elements, and to master pages. Only one format may be assigned to a text or pages at any one time. However, to each text on a page, and to each element in an article, you can assign a different format.
A format is a sort of "template", which is similar to the NORMAL.DOT template file of Microsoft Word, but it does not contain any page format information. Usually, the standard word processors and page make up applications store the style sheets within the documents themselves. For example, a document created in either QuarkXpress or Microsoft Word, contains both style sheets and text. The drawbacks of their solution follow: •It overloads unnecessarily the copy flow, due to the presence of longer files •It does not provide an efficient control of the styles management. In other words, if you create 100 stories, which are based on a Microsoft Word template including 20 styles, all the styles of that template are copied into all of the 100 documents, making the traffic of 2000 styles. If you create the same 100 stories, basing them on a GN4 format including one GNML library of styles with 20 styles, no style is copied into that stories, only the link to the library is generated. Format types All the GNML formats have the same physical structure, but from the point of view of usage, they may be classified in various groups. In general, the number of format groups correspond to the number of element types, specified in the XML schema. Each group of formats can contain any number of formats. •Default format J Use it to format text elements that have no other specific format. •Headline formats Use them to format headline elements. Every headline element typically has more formats. E.g, headlines have formats for 50pt, 70pt, 90pt etc. Separate formats are to be created for kicker/strap line, also in multiple sizes. Then, for subheads, intros etc. Such formats may contain no styles if graphical look of the paper does not require variations on-the-fly. Alternatively, they may contain any number of styles. •Body formats Use them to format body text element and parts of body text. Typically, every body type may have separate format. For example, body text in Times Roman, 10pt on 11pt leading has its own format, different than format for body text in Times Roman, 10pt on 10pt leading, etc. Typically, body formats always contain styles for bylines, column heads, etc. •Photo caption formats Use them to format caption text elements. One or more formats, as above. •Briefs formats Use them to format text elements without headlines. One or more formats, as above. •Other formats Use them to format other text elements, such as tabulation, special bits etc. Any number of formats, as much as needed. |