UL lists counting?

[Be_eM]

Hi all,

I'm just facing a strange problem: I've got a numbered list, interrupted by a short bullet list (UL). However, when I set the numbered list entry below the bullet list to "continue", it counts the bullet list paragraphs (currently 2) and continues with "3" instead of "2". This changes with adding or removing further bullet list entries, reproducible. Is that expected behavior and correct? Shouldn't UL lists be "neutral" regarding a numbering?

This is Flare 2017 r3.

Thanks,
Bernd

[devjoe]

What you are showing is two separate numbered lists with other content between them. This looks like a case where the second list has had its start number set to 3, which is typical of material imported from Word or the like where there was no concept of having anything more than a single paragraph as part of a list item - except that somewhere along the way, a step was deleted.

If you want to make one numbered list, make item 1 a paragraph item (you'll see this command when you right-click the structure bars for its LI or OL tag) and drag the bulleted list and note into that item after the paragraph. Then you'll have two OL lists immediately following one another, and in the second one, right-click the OL structure bar and merge it with the previous list. Then you'll have one list which should number normally.

[Be_eM]

What you are showing is two separate numbered lists with other content between them. This looks like a case where the second list has had its start number set to 3, which is typical of material imported from Word or the like where there was no concept of having anything more than a single paragraph as part of a list item - except that somewhere along the way, a step was deleted.

Wow, thanks, this is an interesting piece of information. Actually this text (and formatting) was not imported from anywhere, but authored directly in Flare. However, coming from FrameMaker my head is probably that place with "no concept of having anything more than a single paragraph as part of a list item". I didn't know that such a thing exists. Which of the many Flare manual PDFs contains an explanation of that concept?

If you want to make one numbered list, make item 1 a paragraph item (you'll see this command when you right-click the structure bars for its LI or OL tag) and drag the bulleted list and note into that item after the paragraph. Then you'll have two OL lists immediately following one another, and in the second one, right-click the OL structure bar and merge it with the previous list. Then you'll have one list which should number normally.

It took me a while until I found out that I cannot drag the bulleted list by the structure bars behind other structure bars, but have to place it on the page instead. This seems another area which still requires a lot of learning on my side. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Anyway, although there's a practical solution to my problem now, the original question still remains unanswered. The position "3" above was not manually set to that value, but is a result of the two UL items above. If there were three bullet items, the number would show "4". Now it's kind of an academic question, since the problem is solved, but why is it that way? Why are UL lists (internally) numbered?

Thanks again,
Bernd

[NorthEast]

Which of the many Flare manual PDFs contains an explanation of that concept?

The concept you're looking for is "HTML".
Flare's topics are HTML-based (or rather XHTML), so the topic is a hierarchical structure of tags.
Learning a little bit about HTML will help a lot with in Flare.

Now it's kind of an academic question, since the problem is solved, but why is it that way? Why are UL lists (internally) numbered?

They're not numbered by default - you'd normally have to set that manual numbering yourself. It may be like that if the content is imported.

[Be_eM]

OK, I will learn more about XHTML

The basic idea of structured content (and even XML as used with FrameMaker) is somewhat clear, however, I simply didn't know that a "li" item may contain other items. I will check the (inherited) stylesheets for settings related to the numbering of UL lists.

[jjw]

the original question still remains unanswered. The position "3" above was not manually set to that value

Yeah that's weird - I'd say it's just a Flare bug. It seems to be looking for any previous list and not just the previous ordered list.