Posted on: July 20, 2020 / FrameMaker Tips / admin
Here are some handy tips to clean up your paragraphs. These also work with text in table cells (i.e. IPC parts tables).
To avoid splitting a task reference or an ATA number, replace a standard hyphen with a non-breaking hyphen:
Translation: Press and release the ESC key (escape), then – (hyphen), then h
To keep two words together on the same line, replace a standard space with a non-breaking space:
Translation: Hold down Ctrl (control) while pressing the space bar
When text symbols are turned on, the non-breaking space appears as shown below:
If a paragraph’s alignment is set to “Justified” (aligned along both the left and right margins), the broken line does not follow justification rules, it acts as if you used a standard return. This makes an ugly and confusing paragraph!
Uncorrected paragraph:
Paragraph corrected using soft return (Ugly!):
Corrected paragraph using non-breaking hyphen and non-breaking space (Better!):
If a task is referenced in a procedural step that is only two lines long, it’s okay to use a soft return instead of non-breaking characters.
Corrected using non-breaking spaces (Ugly!):
Corrected using a soft return (Better!):