#### 15.4.4.5 Using alternate character formats for menu cascades

In FrameMaker it is not possible to distinguish between two separate applications of the same character format to adjacent text spans, and one application of the format to both spans. Because the DITA <menucascade> element allows only <uicontrol> as content, text is excluded; you cannot use spaces, or any other character outside the <uicontrol> format, as separators.

The workaround is to create two character formats; for example, mc1 and mc2; and apply them alternately to <uicontrol> elements when those elements are in a <menucascade>. You would map both formats to <uicontrol>:

[DITACharTags]

mc* = uicontrol

And indicate that the elements mapped from both formats must be in a <menucascade>:

[DITAParents]

mc* = menucascade

See §15.5.2 Designating DITA ancestor elements.

| 15.4.4.4 Overriding element mapping for character formats |  | 15.4.5 Assigning multiple typographic elements to a format |