Creating Variables - Adobe FRAMEMAKER 6.0 Manual

<XRef
<XRefName `Page'>
<XRefSrcText `34126: Heading: My Heading'>
<XRefSrcFile `'>
> # end of XRef
<String `page'> # The text that appears in the document;
<Char HardSpace > # in this case, a page number followed a
<String `1'> # hard space and the number 1
<XRefEnd> # End of cross-reference text
If you do include the text of the cross-reference, make sure that the XRefEnd statement follows the text. A
FrameMaker product considers everything between the XRef statement and the XRefEnd statement to be
part of the cross-reference.

Creating variables

In a FrameMaker document, variables act as placeholders for text that might change. For example, many
documents use a variable for the current date. A variable consists of a name, which is how you choose a
variable, and a definition, which contains the text and formatting that appear where a variable is inserted.
A FrameMaker product provides two kinds of variables: system variables that are predefined by the
FrameMaker product, and user variables that are defined by the user. System variables contain building
blocks that allow a FrameMaker product to extract certain information from the document or the system,
such as the current date or the current page number, and place it in text. Headers and footers frequently
use system variables. You can modify a system variable's definition but you cannot create new system
variables. User variables contain only text and formatting information.
Within a FrameMaker document, you insert and define variables by choosing Variable from the Special
menu. The variable appears in the document text where it is inserted.
In a MIF file, you define and insert variables as follows:
Define and name the document variables by using VariableFormats and VariableFormat statements.
•
Insert the variable in text by using the Variable statement.
•
Defining user variables
All variable definitions for a document are contained in a single VariableFormats statement. The Variable-
Formats statement contains a VariableFormat statement for each document variable. The VariableFormat
statement provides the variable name and definition.
<VariableFormats
<VariableFormat
<VariableName `Product Number'>
<VariableDef `A15-24'>
> # end of VariableFormat
> # end of VariableFormats
ADOBE FRAMEMAKER 6.0 50
Using MIF Statements