Condition Tags

Assign condition tag Ctrl+4 Esc q C
Delete condition tag Ctrl+5 Esc q D
Make unconditional Ctrl+6 Esc q U
Display show/hide box    Esc v C
Turn indicators on/off    Esc v O

Designer Dialog Box Actions

Make As Is Shift+F8
Unify Shift+F9
Apply only current group of properties Ctrl+Apply

Formatting Commands

Paragraph Commands

Justify left Esc j l
Justify right Esc j r
Justify center Esc j c
Justify full Esc j f
Start at top of column Esc j C
Start at top of page Esc j P
Start at top of right page Esc j R
Start at top of left page Esc j L
Start anywhere Esc j Z
Unify, forced Esc j U
Unify, with prompt Esc o p u
Custom line spacing Esc j u

Unify, forced forces the designer to match the selection, and forces all same-named paragraphs to match as well.
Unify, with prompt also forces the designer to match the selection, but also gives you the option of forcing or not forcing other same-named tags to match the selection.

Character Commands

Superscript Esc c +
Subscript Esc c -
Baseline Esc c =
Kerning, remove Alt+Home
Default Para Font (remove custom formatting) Esc o c p
Change to Plain Esc c p
F2
change to lowercase Alt+Ctrl l
(lowercase ell)
CHANGE TO UPPERCASE Alt+Ctrl u
Change To Initial Caps Alt+Ctrl c
Open capitalization dialog Esc e C

Other Timesavers

Repeat last paragraph command Esc j j
Repeat last character command Esc c c

Graphics

Align top Esc j t
Align bottom Esc j b
Align left Esc j l
Align right Esc j r
Align center Esc j c
Aligh middle Esc j m
Runaround off Esc g q
Toggle display of graphics Esc v v
Copy object's properties to palette Select item, press Shift, and choose Pick up object properties from Graphics menu
Reshape Ctrl+r
Add a reshape handle Ctrl+click the border while in reshape mode
Delete a reshape handle Ctrl+click the handle while in reshape mode
Change the curve on only one side of a reshape handle Right-drag the control point
Rotate in 45-degree increments Alt+Shift, then drag
Shrinkwrap Esc m p

Indexes

Autocompress. Insert <$autorange> at beginning of the reference-page paragraph that begins with the marker type. For example, edit the paragraph with the tag IndexIX to contain

<$autorange><$pagenum>

Ranges. Need a starting page and an ending page.

<$startrange>configuration
<$endrange>configuration

See and See Also. These usually get special treatment. Sees are frequently the only item in an entry, and see alsos tend to appear as the very first or very last item; this is called the "sort order". For example:

See   See also
configuration. See installation   configuration
    file location 23
    parameters 45
    See also installation
Since the see item stands alone, you don't need to do anything special to it other than use a <$nopage> to turn off page numbering. Shown without special formatting, it would look like this:
<$nopage>configuration. See installation
  You add the see also reference either as its own index marker or add it to any one of the other markers. If you place it in another marker, place it at the end and use a <$nopage>:
configuration:file location;
<$nopage>configuration:See also installation[configuration:zzz]

Sort Order. Using brackets, enclose the position at which the entry should be alphabetized.

item:text[aaa]
item:text[zzz]
color:in Acrobat[color:Acrobat]

Turn Off Page Number. Use <$nopage>, described in See and See Also references. It turns off numbers immediately after it occurs; this means you can use it in the middle of a string.

Running Headers and Footers

Headers and Dictionary-Style Headers

You can allow Frame to use more than one paragraph tag by placing each tag in a sequence, separated by commas. Use a plus sign (+) to tell Frame to use the last instance of a tag on a page.

To use the first instance of any tag in the list:

<$paratext[paratag1,paratag2,...,paratagn]>

To use the last instance of any tag in the list:

<$paratext[+,paratag1,paratag2,...,paratagn]>

The previous example is commonly used for the recto page of a book with dictionary-style headers, although you would normally not use a list of tags and would simply use one tag:

<$paratext[+,paratag]>

Using Markers in Headings

To use a marker (instead of a paragraph's contents), use a Running H/F variable that's been defined to look for a marker (for example, Running H/F 3 is predefined as <$marker1>). Then, insert the corresponding marker into the text, taking note that marker definition <$markern> always looks for the marker Header/Footer $n. The table below shows what you would use using Frame's predefined variables and markers:

Variable Used
on Master Page
Definition
of Variable
Corresponding
Marker in Text
Running H/F 3
<$marker1>
Header/Footer $1
Running H/F 4
<$marker2>
Header/Footer $2

Special Characters

Elements Used in Regular Typing

All quote codes assume the smart quotes setting is on. In the MIF column, all underscores (_) represent spaces.
In the "In Find Dialog" column, it is understood you can also use the value in the "Hex Code" column as well. Find codes have dependencies on whether smart quotes is enabled, but you can always rely on hex codes.

Why are some missing? Because I used only cross-platform keystrokes. For example, Ctrl+Space is a nonbreaking space in Windows, but not in Macintosh. Escape Space h works in both, so I use only that.

Name of Special Character In Text In Find Dialog Hex Code In MIF (_ = space)
Bullet Ctrl+Q % \xa5 \xa5 <Char Bullet> (in body copy)
\xa5_ (at the front of a paragraph using \b numbering)
Dash, em Alt+0151 (PC only)
Ctrl+Q Q
\m \xd1 <Char EmDash>
Dash, en Alt+0150 (PC Only)
Ctrl+Q P
\= \xd0 <Char EnDash>
Hyphen, discretionary Ctrl+hyphen \- \x04 <Char DiscHyphen>
Hyphen, nonbreaking Esc hyphen h \+ \x15 <Char HardHyphen>
Hyphen, suppression Esc n s \_ \x05 <Char NoHyphen>
Quote, double curly left Ctrl+q R
Ctrl+Alt+`
\` \xd2 \xd2_
Quote, double curly right Ctrl+q S
Ctrl+Alt+'
\' \xd3 \xd3_
Quote, double straight Ctrl+" \" \x22 "
Quote, grave left-angled Ctrl+` \{ \x60 \Q
Quote, single curly left Ctrl+q T
`
\xd4 \xd4 \xd4_
Quote, single curly right Ctrl+q U ' \xd5 \xd5_
Quote, single straight Ctrl+' \" \x27 \q
Return, forced Shift+Return \r \x09 <Char HardReturn>
Space, em Esc Space m
Crtl+Shift+Space
\sm
\M
\x14 <Char EmSpace>
Space, en Esc Space n
Ctrl+Alt+Space
\sn
\N
\x13 <Char EnSpace>
Space, nonbreaking Esc Space h \_ \x11 <Char HardSpace>
Space, numeric Esc Space 1 (one) \s#
\s
\x10 <Char NumberSpace>
Space, thin Esc Space t \st
\i
\x12 <Char ThinSpace>

Special Characters Used in Find/Change Dialog Boxes

In Find Field Special Character
\t Tab
\r Forced return
\p End of paragraph
\P Start of paragraph
\f End of flow or cell. Seems broken in Windows; use \x0b.
^ Beginning of a line
$ End of a line
\< Start of word
\> End of word
* Zero or more characters, excluding spaces and punctuation
? Single character, excluding spaces and punctuation
| One or more spaces and punctuation characters
[abc] Any one of several characters
^[abc] Any one character not in a group of characters
[a-c] Any one of a range of characters

Spelling

To have FrameMaker use your hyphenation settings, you must first click the "incorrect" word at the top of the dialog box, then click Show Hyphenation.

Task In Dialog Box Appearance In DIC File
Hyphenate only here Thorn-hill Thorn-hill
Compound word -user\-defined -user\\-defined
Do not hyphenate -Thornhill -Thornhill
Nonbreaking hyphen CD\+ROM -CD\x15ROM

Other characters you may see in DIC files:

\xaa trademark (TM)
\xa8 trademark, registered (R)
\xd5 Quote, curly right single

Tables

Standard Line Widths

Frame Name
Width
Double Two 0.5-pt lines, 2 pt apart
Thick 3.00 pt
Medium 2.00 pt
Thin 0.50 pt
Very Thin 0.25 pt

Table and Cell Actions

Select entire cell Ctrl+click cell
Select entire column Ctrl+dblclick horiz border
Select entire row Ctrl+dblclick vert border
Select body cells in column Esc t h b
Select entire table Ctrl+triple-click a cell
Type a tab in a cell Esc Tab
Add row below current row Ctrl+Enter
Add column to right of current column Esc t c r
Add column to left of current column Esc t c l (lowecase ell)
Delete selected area's contents Esc t c e
Delete selected rows or columns Esc t c x
Resize to widest selection's width Esc t w
Resize column without changing table width Alt+drag cell handle

Tool Selection

Each "1" is a number 1.

Graphic Frame Esc 1 m
Object Selection Esc 1 o
Smart Tool Esc 1 s
Rectangle Esc 1 r
Text Frame Esc 1 t f
Text Line Esc 1 t l