6 Ways to Display Paragraph Style Catalog in Adobe FrameMaker

© Ugur Akinci
Adobe FrameMaker offers many ways to organize and display your paragraph style catalog that comes in very handy when your are working on a document or creating a template out of the document you are currently working on.
1) Display the paragraph style catalog (Format > Paragraph > Catalog).
2) Scroll down to the bottom of the catalog (if necessary) and click the Options button to display the Set Available Formats dialog box.

3) Select one of the following 6 options and then , when finished, click OK:
a. SHOW ALL — displays alphabetically every single paragraph tag somehow attached to your document, whether they are actually used in the document or not. When you import formats from another document, for example, you end up with a bunch of paragraph styles that were used in the source document but not in your present document. If there are more such unused styles than the few ones you are using, such a long list may at times becomes confusing and hard to navigate. In such cases you may think about weeding out the catalog and simplifying it by limiting it only to those styles that you actually use in your document.
b. SHOW USED BEFORE UNUSED — This is the same list as above but with a little more discipline and organization to it. You can now see all the styles that are used in your document before those that are not used. This is a reversible act. You can always go back and unselect this choice.
c. SHOW ONLY USED FORMATS — This will simplify the catalog by hiding every styles that you have not used in your document so far. This is a reversible act. You can always go back and unselect this choice.
d. SHOW ONLY UNUSED FORMATS — Select this option if for some reason you’d only like to see the unused paragraph formats and hide every styles that you have used in your document so far. This is a reversible act. You can always go back and unselect this choice.
e. DELETE ALL UNUSED FORMATS — This will simplify the catalog by getting rid of every style that you have not used in your document SO FAR. And that’s where the catch is. Before deleting every style that you have not used so far make sure that you will not need them in the future during the development of the document. Because if you do need them, then you’d need to re-create those deleted styles from scratch, which is never a pleasant task to accomplish. So think twice before pulling the trigger and getting rid of all those styles that you think you don’t need AT THE MOMENT. This is not a reversible act. Once you delete a style it’ll be gone forever.
f. CUSTOMIZED LIST — Click the Edit button to display the Customize List of Available Format dialog box.

Here you can determine exactly which formats will display in your catalog by clicking those formats that you do NOT want and then clicking the right arrow to transfer it to the DON’T SHOW list. You can click the MOVE UP and MOVE DOWN buttons to determine exactly the sequence of the formats either. When you’re done click the SET button.
g. When done with your choices, click the OK button to close the Set Available Formats dialog box. To cancel any changes to your catalog, click the Cancel button.