FrameMaker Tips

Paragraph Designer: Apply vs. Update All
(or…Those Pesky Overrides)

---

Category: Using FrameMaker

Relevance: All Manuals

When making changes in the Paragraph Designer, which button you click on to save your changes can make a huge difference when future updates are made.

---

To change all the paragraphs that use the paragraph tag:

1. Place your cursor in the paragraph you want to change, this will make the tag active in Paragraph Designer, or you can choose the tag name from the Paragraph Tag drop-down list in Paragraph Designer.

2. Make the change in Paragraph Designer.
3. Click the Update All button.

This will change the definition of the paragraph tag. All the paragraphs that use that tag will change to the new characteristics unless the paragraph contains an override.

Note: After making a change, you will need to choose Apply or Update All before moving to another tab in Paragraph Designer.

---

To change only one paragraph (add an override):

4. Place your cursor in the paragraph you want to change, this will make the tag active in Paragraph Designer.
5. Make your change in Paragraph Designer.
6. Click the Apply button.

This will apply the change to the current paragraph and mark the paragraph with an override. No changes will be made to other paragraphs that use the same tag.

---

More About Overrides

You can tell if a paragraph has an override on its tag by checking the paragraph tag name in the formatting bar or in the status bar, if the tag name is preceded by “*”, it has an override.

To remove an override:

Choose the tag name from the Paragraph Catalog or from the drop-down list in the formatting bar. This will reapply the original definitions.

To apply the characteristics of the override to all the paragraphs:

Click in the paragraph with the override to make the tag active, click the Update All button.

The overrides message:

You may get this message when you update a paragraph tag:

This means that there is an override on at least one paragraph that uses the tag you want to update. If you click on Remove Overrides, you may remove page breaks, custom numbering, or other important overrides that you probably don’t really want to remove. If you click on Keep Overrides, your changes will be applied to the all paragraphs including those that have overrides, however, they won’t change a characteristic that has an override. (example: If an override was used to make text red, a change to make text blue and bold would apply the bold, but not the blue, thus the text would end up red and bold.)

---

Overrides and Templates

Override = Bad

Since an override blocks an update, an override in the footer of a manual can result in old info appearing on the page.