Using paragraph items in lists

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Andrew
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Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 5:37 am

Using paragraph items in lists

Post by Andrew »

I've been trying to figure out the best way to include notes/tips in my numbered instructions. My tip/note style is a p.Note, and it has top/bottom borders with a background color. Since my lists have a margin-left, I want the tip/note within the list to share the margin-left. There is currently only one method I can find that reliably works in Flare 4:

- Add list items
- Break out of the OL entirely, use p.NoteList (which is the same as p.Note, but includes the same margin-left as my list)
- Create new list and select "Continue list"

This is a fairly annoying way to accomplish my task, for a couple reasons:
1) I have to continuously make/break lists, which I both don't fully trust, and which is a reasonably labor-intensive method.
2) Creating multiple styles for each level of list for each note/important style really clogs up the stylesheet. I hate scrolling through lots of styles when I'm building my documents.

I looked at this method (scroll to the bottom of the first post), but it doesn't seem to work in Flare 4: when I click the Outdent button, it creates an empty list item above the p.Note, and the p.Note turns into a regular li.

I also took a look at this method, but it has a similar problem: there is still a number in front of the p.Note, because it is wrapped in an li.

I can manually create code that gets me what I want thus:

Code: Select all

<ol>
<li>*Select the data stream you want and click OK. The data stream's SQL statement appears in the SQL Statement field.</li>
<p class="Note">Tip!	You can use the Query Editor in SQL Server as a “scratch pad” to figure out which columns to add, and to design the JOIN statement, if you need one. See Using Query Editor as a Scratch Pad on page 4 below.</p>
<li>You should usually enable the Inactive checkbox while you create the customization; that way, you can save the custom work done without inadvertently affecting forms that are generated by the system before you are fully ready to introduce the customization (e.g., before you finish the SQL modifications, before you make the changes to the form design itself, or before you ensure that those in your organization who need to know about this change are made aware of it, etc.).</li>
</ol>
By adding a p.Note inside the <ol> but outside any <li>, I get exactly what I want: the p.Note style is properly indented with the list, and does not have a number in front of it. Nor does it affect the numbering of the li elements. This is exactly what I want...but is there a way to get there with CSS/the Flare UI, or would this process have to be manual every time?

Thanks!
Andrew
Flare v6.1 | Capture 4.0.0
LTinker68
Master Propellus Maximus
Posts: 7247
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:38 pm

Re: Using paragraph items in lists

Post by LTinker68 »

When you're in the list, go to the end of the line after which you want to insert the note. Click the drop-down arrow next to the List Actions icon and select "Make Paragraph Item" (I think that's what it's labeled -- I don't have Flare open at the moment). You'll see the <li> block on the left change to include two <p> blocks inside it -- the first one is the list item and the cursor will be on the new <p> block. Apply your note class to that second <p> block. At the end of that block, press return to get a new paragraph, then click the outdent button to get back to a normal list item for the next numbered line. I tend to enter the text for the first line item, click enter to get another line item and type a couple of characters for placeholders, then go back to the first line item and insert the paragraph after it.
Image

Lisa
Eagles may soar, but weasels aren't sucked into jet engines.
Warning! Loose nut behind the keyboard.
Andrew
Propellus Maximus
Posts: 1237
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2006 5:37 am

Re: Using paragraph items in lists

Post by Andrew »

Ah, THANK YOU! That worked beautifully. I should have realized what it was doing when it created the number on the first paragraph mark. It's sort of a clunky procedure, but no more so than manually breaking the lists, and now I won't have to create a ridiculous number of styles. :D
Flare v6.1 | Capture 4.0.0
LTinker68
Master Propellus Maximus
Posts: 7247
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2006 9:38 pm

Re: Using paragraph items in lists

Post by LTinker68 »

The big benefit of that method is that the line item and paragraph are grouped together, so if you want to use a toggler to hide/show the line item then it'll take care of both of them (or you can toggle the note by itself). Or if you want to move the line item, then the paragraph comes with it automatically because it's part of the line item.
Image

Lisa
Eagles may soar, but weasels aren't sucked into jet engines.
Warning! Loose nut behind the keyboard.
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