Comb tab

The Comb tools dynamic tab appears on the ribbon if you click either the root comb field or any of the individual comb fields. Click the Comb tab to use the comb operations.

The Comb tools > Comb tab has four sections:

  1. Merge
    • Merge combs
  2. Define cells
    • Leave Comb edit mode
    • Define evenly distributed cells
  3. Merge & Extract
    • Merge cells
    • Extract comb
  4. Cell tools
    • Select (1)
    • Draw cell (2)
    • Split cell (3)

Comb zones are displayed in the FTE treeview as expandable/collapsible lists. Each comb cell is displayed as a separate item in the list.

If the root comb field is selected, the corresponding comb zone is also selected in the page image view, see Figure 1.

Figure 1. Root comb field
Root comb field selected in FTE treeview and on page image view

If any of the individual cells are selected, FTE automatically goes into comb edit mode, the page image is dimmed except for the active comb and the individual comb cells are selected in the page image view, see Figure 2.

Figure 2. Individual comb cell
Individual comb cell selected in FTE treeview and on page image view

When you click on an existing comb zone with the Select tool, the Comb tools tab is displayed. At this stage, only two buttons are active, see Figure 3:

  • Enter comb edit mode
  • Select

Figure 3. Comb tools tab before entering Comb edit mode
Comb tools tab before entering Comb edit mode

Click on Enter comb edit mode button to activate more buttons for editing the selected comb zone, see Figure 4. At this stage the Enter comb edit mode button changes to Leave Comb edit mode button.

Figure 4. Comb tools tab after entering Comb edit mode
Comb tools tab after entering Comb edit mode

The rest of the page image is dimmed and the selected comb zone clearly stands out for better editing results, see Figure 5.

Figure 5. Selected comb zone
Selected comb zone with rest of the page image dimmed

When you click the Leave Comb edit mode button, the page image is not dimmed anymore and the comb zone names are displayed again, see Figure 6.

Figure 6. Normal page image view
Normal page image view after leaving comb edit mode

Note Elements on the ribbon interface are only active if a template library is already open.