Documentation

Structure Indicators Usage

In e-books and XML, structure indicators are used to group paragraphs or sections that cannot be determined automatically through a set of defaults. Structure indicators can be added in Word and maintained through the typesetting process in InDesign in order to best control text groupings.

For example, the Digital Hub will begin a new chapter on a cn or ct paragraph automatically when constructing an e-book. However, in the front matter sections, there are no chapter numbers or chapter titles to indicate the start of a new section or subsection. By adding structure indicators that follow Scribe's standard query format, you can indicate the beginning and end of half-title, title, series, copyright, dedication, epigraph, and other pages that appear before the table of contents begins. There may also be cases in which a body chapter begins with an element like an epigraph or a figure that the Digital Hub does not count as an obvious “chapter start.” In these cases, you should insert structure indicators to delineate the beginning and end of those chapters.

The other uses for structure indicators are to group elements that do not share a base style into one unit or to separate paragraphs that do use the same base style.

When creating an e-book, the Digital Hub will automatically group elements with the same base style, such as sidebar content. Each sidebar style starts with sb, so if there are two or more paragraphs in a row that begin with sb, they are presumed to be a single sidebar. If they are actually multiple sidebars, not to be connected as one, then structure indicators can be wrapped around the groups that should be kept together. (Structure indicators are included as conditional text in InDesign Tagged Text, maintaining them for long-term use while having no effect on the typeset file.)

Note: This is independent of the selection of f, l, or s suffixes to indicate first, last, and standalone style variations.

Again using a sidebar as an example, if you have a different element, such as a figure, between sb paragraphs, then the Digital Hub will treat those paragraphs as separate groups unless structure indicators are placed around the whole sidebar.

Examples

Separate Style Assumption

Because the sidebar and figure paragraphs belong to different base styles, these will be treated as three separate elements:

Overriding the Assumption in Order to Group Separate Style Families

With the addition of the structure indicator, these will be grouped into one sidebar:

Group Style Assumption

Because these sidebar paragraphs have the same base style, they would be grouped as one sidebar:

Overriding the Assumption in Order to Specify Groups within the Same Family

With the addition of structure indicators, elements can be grouped in different ways as needed.

One scenario might be three separate sidebars:

Another scenario might be two separate sidebars, grouped in this way:

How to Apply Structure Indicators

The SAI includes a feature called Insert Structure Indicators. The SAI documentation can be found here.

Highlight the paragraph(s) to be included in the structure group, then click Structure Indicators and select the appropriate structure name.

Sidebars, letters, and recipes have designated structure names. For the full list of structure names, see the ScML Tag List.

When grouping front matter sections such as a copyright or dedication, click Chapter Structure.