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Known limits and special properties
In most programs the numbers of objects to be handled are limited. The same is true for FrameMaker. Special properties (defaults) are often hard coded … The found restrictive value may have been present since the beginnings, although I have discovered them only in late FM versions. Sume mnimum and maximum values could be found by entering extreme values into a dialogue to provoke an error message.
Readers of this page are kindly invited to provide additional information or corrections to the author.
| Property | Min / max value | FM version | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adding pages | A maximum of 300 can be added at once | fmres.dll | |
| Arrow properties | Custom settings are constrained to these limits: |
Shlomo Perets | |
| Automatic save | Time for automatic save can be 1 … 180 minutes | fmres.dll | |
| Book: number of files | no limit | see remark | |
| Button matrix | Number of rows or columns can be 1 … 100 | fmres.dll | |
| Case insensitivity of names | Marker type. Marker type Author is predefined. You can not create a user defined type author. | experience | |
| Case sensitivity of names | Paragraph format, character format, colour, cross reference format, table style, table ruling style, user variable… | experience | |
| Character formats in catalogue | Maximum length of name: 254 chars Maximum number of entries: see Document objects |
experience | |
| Character mapping | Character mapping rule can have value from 0 … 255 | fmres.dll | |
| Commands for all FM Api Clients | 2017 (previously, the limit was 250) | 7.0P578 | |
| Conditional tab | Names are URL encoded in xml, may be ≤ 256 characters. Special characters, such as blanks, require 3 positions (%20). | 8.x | f.i.t. 2007 |
| Conditional tags | We have not found a limit (see this forum post). Large numbers are difficult to handle mentally and to distinguish. See Rick Quatros offer "If you want to create a spreadsheet of Condition Format names, color names, and CMYK values, I will post a free script that will create all of the formats for you." | ?? | experience |
| Console log | Maximum capacity of displayed area: Until FM-13: approx 30 KB |
4.x | experience |
| Since FM-14: > 256 KB in a dockable window | 14.x | ||
| Dictionary, entry length (custom.dct, site.dct) | 31 chars including hyphenation dashes. There is no chance to define
hyphenation or spelling of the word Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
(34 chars)
by "learning". You need to delete some of the hyphenation points
in the user/site or document dictionary. Special codes (e.g. \x9f for ü)
count as 4 characters. |
4.x | experience |
| 63 chars including hyphenation dashes since FM 8. The coding of the dictionary now is UTF-8. | 8.x | ||
| Dictionary, personal | Number of entries < 2'000 words. If exceeded, FM may crash unexpectedly | 7.x | N.Furia |
| With FM-9 the dictionary business has been changed completely. The dictionaries seem to be shared with other Adobe applications. |
9.x |
experiments | |
User dictionary is located at C:\Users\user\AppData\LocalLow\Adobe\Linguistics\UserDictionaries\FMUserDictionaryUser dictionary can contain very many words (tested with 10'000 words). |
11.x | experiments | |
| Document objects | The internal context table is a memory construct that holds many
types of FrameMaker document objects. The following table illustrates
the different entries and their requirements. Element: 2 entries; Variable: 2 entries; Cross-reference: 2 entries; Marker (any type): 1 entry; Table: 1 entry; Aanchored frame: 1 entry; Hidden conditional text: 1 entry per block. In FrameMaker 5.5, maximum number of entries is 2^24 (16 777 216). This may be extended in the 64-bit version (since FM-15). |
Adobe support DB | |
| dpi value | For imported images the dpi value must be 72 … (max tested until 10000). The dpi value must be such that the resulting image is between 1/8 point (0.04mm) and 3600 point (1270mm). |
fmres.dll |
|
| Elements (structure) | 8 millions | 5.5 | University of Huston |
| Equation (formula) | Maximum length of string constant: 61 characters. See note formula strings below. | 7.2 | experience |
| ExtendScript | Number of objects: a script is crashing when a number of objects exceeds around 50,000 due to the garbage collection process of ExtendScript. ➔ Fixed in FM-15 | 10 …14 | Adobe |
| File path | ≤ 255 characters according to OS.
Displayed in object properties dialogue: at most 49 ≥FM-15: The value can be scrolled and copied. |
≤ 14 | experience, see note |
| Font offset | Offset values (for combined fonts) must be between -1000% and 1000%. | fmres.dll | |
| Font size | 2 pt … 400 pt (0.7 … 141 mm) | FM dialogue | |
| Font spread | 1% … 1000% | fmres.dll | |
| Font stretch | 10% … 1000% | fmres.dll | |
| Half tone screen | Screen frequency can be 5… 500 lines/inch; screen angle (of course) can be 0 … 360° | fmres.dll | |
| Hot spot in graphic | URL lenght: 1011 single byte UTF characters or 505 double byte UTF characters Tool tip length 1023 single byte UTF characters or 511 double byte UTF characters |
11 | FM-12 Help |
| Line spacing | -4000 pt … 4000pt (-1411 … 1411 mm)) | 7.2 | fmres.dll |
| Graphic Line width | 0.015 pt … 360 pt (0.005 … 127 mm). Minimum is 983 internal units = 0.015pt (0.. Values below will be set to this value. | FM dialogue | |
| Maker.ini | Max length of line processed: 255 chars | 3.0 | f.i.t 3 - see remark |
| Marker text | 255 characters; since FM-12 the limit is 1023 characters \ acts as an escape character (attention in hypertext markers with windows-paths!). See also note Markers |
4.0 | Klaus Göbel |
| Master page | 100 including Right/Left More can be defined by importing formats (!) |
6.0, 7.0 | FM help |
| Object size | Picture or object size after import with scaling: 0.125 … 3600 pt (0.04 … 1270 mm) | fmres.dll | |
| Padding around imported graphic | 1/12" = 2.12 mm This can be modified by some plug-ins |
experience | |
| Page size | FrameMaker: minimum is 1 x 1" (25.4 × 25.4 mm), maximum not yet found. PDF: 1 x 1" (25.4 × 25.4 mm) … 216 x 216" (548 × 548 mm). This maximum can only be overcome with reduction of the printer resolution. See Creating a banner with FM and Acrobat. This is not a restriction in Acrobat! |
7.0 | FM help |
| Paragraph formats in catalogue | Maximum length of name: 254 chars Maximum number of entries: > 3000 (test document generated in FM-14, opening MIF in FM-8 takes 2½ minutes at 2.5GHz machine, creates large log file due to skipped items) |
7.2 | experience |
| Paragraph numbering | Maximum value: 65536 (x10000). Larger values (e.g. set by <n=xxxx) are
presented as mod(value, 65536). For example, if the ¶ format contains <n=136987> then the numbering presents "5915" . Thus it it not possible to create negative numbers by "overflow". |
7.2 |
experience |
| The label of the numbering sequence (eg. the A in A:<n+>) may be any printable character from the (lower) ASCII set. I have tested these characters: $ ; : _ + , . | ~ 7 ^ " ` blank Hence there are 96 possible numbering sequences (including that with no label) |
7.2 | experience | |
| Rubi size value | 1 … 1000% (and max. font size applies) | fmres.dll | |
| Runaround gap | Gap can be 0 … 432 pt (0 … 152.4 mm) | fmres.dll | |
| Running Headers/Footers | ≤ FM-7: 4; starting with FM-7.2: 12; starting with FM-11: 18: | 11 | Adobe |
| Recent file list | The maximum seems to be some 32767 | 9 | Adobe |
| Shading (tint) | The minimum tint recognisable depends on the colour depth of the monitor: a system set to display 256 colors cannot display tints below 16% accurately | - | FM-12 Help |
| Shrink-wrapping | Resultant margin between the enclosed object (image, formula) and the skeleton of the frame: 1pt = 0.353mm. Unwrapping is quite mysterious: the size of the frame seems to be derived from margin settings - but which ones? |
experience | |
| Smart catalogs | Smart catalogs are are lists of paragraph or character styles, elements etc. issued by the short cuts F9, F8, CTRL+1 etc. In FM-12 the list shows at most10 entries fitting the entered filter characters. In FM-9 to FM-11 the list is limited by the screen The sort order is influenced by the maker.ini entry SymbolSortingBeforeAlphaNumeric |
9 | |
| Table sort order | Seems to depend on Windows locale | experience | |
| Table | Maximum width of table or column: 40"=1016 mm = ; Maximum height of row: 14" = 355.6 mm = Maximum number of columns: 256 Maximum number of rows: > 3600 (tested with 256 empty columns) Maximum 'overhang' of table over the current text column width, before the table is aligned at the next 'higher' text column: 1/6" = 4.23 mm (see note table-overhang) |
7.0 | experience |
| Text flow | Name of a text flow can be very long. I have tested with 64 characters. However in the status line the name may be truncated | 9.0 | experience |
| Text frame | Height minimum: 1/8" (9 pt, 3.175 mm); maximum 216" (15552 pt, 548 mm) | Adobe support DB | |
| Unit of measure | The unit depends on the object: Base is the internal unit of 1/65536 pt (DTP point) DTP point = PostScript point = 25.4mm/72 = 0.353mm. 1 ATA pt (American Typefounders Association) = 0.013837Inch. 1 TEX pt = 1/72.227Inch. |
||
| Undo History | The maximum size is 32767 (value 0 has same effect). FM≤10: only 1 undo | 11 | Adobe |
| User String object | FP_UserString can contain ≤ 1038 bytes of string data. The main problem is sharing the strings between plug ins. | www.zenserve.co.uk | |
| Variable: contents | ≤ FM 7.2: ≤ 255 characters including meta-notations (such as <Default ¶ Font> or
\t - this counts as 16 resp. 2 characters).≥ FM 8.0: ≤ 1023 Windows Codepage characters or ≤ 1022 UTF-8 characters. See important note Variables below. |
7.0 |
experience, Arnis Gubins |
| Zoom factor | Zoom factors can be set between 25 and 1600% | dialogue |
Special remarks
Files in a book
FrameMaker does not limit the number of files you can place in a generated book. Adobe has tested placing several hundred files in a book without consequence. Though you can create a book of this size, generating or updating the book requires enough memory and disk space to open and save every file.[Adobe Support DB]
f.i.t 3
The company itl in Munich arranged FrameMaker Information Days from 1992 until 2006. At the 3rd event 1995 a collection of questions and answers concerning FrameMaker on Windows (3.1) was presented. The source of information was Frame Technolgy's Frame News etc. The collection was distributed by itl as FrameMaker Help (FrameViewer format).
File path
The object property dialogue does not display the full path of an imported object, if the path name is too long. The middle part is replaced by an ellipsis:
G:\VeryLongFilenames\Level02\...\TheImage.png E:\VeryLongFilenames\L...03\Level04\TheImage.png ..\..\Samples\Glossary...s\Graphics\TheImage.png
Relative paths are used only up to a certain level of directories. I have
not yet found out what this level is. In the above examples the path for
the document containing the image is E:\FM-specials\Tips\GraphicsFiguresEps\Path-of-graphics.fm
Find out the full path name by 're-importing' - just opening the import dialogue for the selected image. In the Import dialogue expand the Look in drop down list to see the full directory hierarchy.
|
If you have the extended Send To function implemented in Windows, you may get the full path with the Send To Clipboard function on the selected file:
If you don't find this useful tool anymore on the MS-site, here is a copy
of |
Formula strings
Markers
Lynne A. Price reported the possibility for an Index Marker to be much longer than 255 character. My findings are these:
- A MIF file set up with an index marker holding 1290 characters will display 1023 characters in the Marker dialogue. Leaving the dialogue by just closing it will preserve these 1023 characters. But these 1023 characters are interspersed with semicolons to form multiple index entries.
- Trying to Edit Marker will issue an error message (Marker text is too long. Marker text is limited to 255 characters).
- Generating an index from the overly long marker will create multiple index entries (due to the semicolons) with a maximum length of a 248 characters.
- Marker text for hypertext markers Alert and Alert with title can have the full length. Line breaks can be inserted as
\x0din these texts.
Variables
When defining variables in MIF, the length of the contents is practically unlimited (Arnis Gubins has tested ≤ 2510).
However, as soon as you use the GUI with dialogue Special > Variable… for that variable (even just looking at it), the content will be truncated to 255 (≤ FM-7.2) or 1022/1023 (starting with FM-8) characters.
To save characters use </> as replacement for <Default ¶ Font> .
Valid characters in variable contents
| In MIF a blank must follow this code! | In Dialogue | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hexadecimal notation |
Meaning | Display after import | Insert as | Count |
| \x20 … \xfe | Displayable characters | blank ! " # $ % & etc. (some may not be displayed correctly, because they are not in all fonts) |
similar or directly via keyboard | 1 |
| \x04 | Optional hyphen | blank, functional | \x04 | 1 |
| \x05 | Suppress hyphenation | blank, functional | \x05 | 1 |
| \x08 | Tab | bank, functional | \t | 2 |
| \x09 | Newline | \r | \r | 2 |
| \x0a | Paragraph end | blank, no function | ||
| \x0b | Flow end | blank, no function | ||
| \x10 | Numeric space | \s# | \s# | 3 |
| \x11 | Non breaking space | \§ (§ depicts a blank) | \blank | 2 |
| \x12 | Thin space | \st | \st | 3 |
| \x13 | En space | \sn | \sn | 3 |
| \x14 | Em space | \sm | \sm | 3 |
| \x15 | Non breaking hyphen | \+ | \+ | 2 |
Table overhang
A table is placed in the same text column as the table anchor is. The table is aligned at a different boundary if it is to wide for the current text column:
- If the table is to wide for the current text column, but the overhang (table width - text column width) is smaller than 1/6" the table is left as is.
- If the table is wider than text column width + 1/6" a second (and third etc.) text column is taken.
- If this also is not sufficient the side head area is taken into consideration also.
- If the table is wider than the text frame it projects over the text frame and even over the paper area (where it is cut off).