Help with FrameMaker

[Beth Friedman <bjf -at- WAVEFRONT -dot- COM>]

I've just been tossed in the deep end with FrameMaker 5.5 and
Illustrator 7.0, and have spent the last couple of days getting up to
speed on both programs.  FrameMaker is very impressive to me (I'm an
advanced Word user) because it has a number of features built in that
I have to do unnatural things to make Word do -- most particularly
involving sidehead text.

Unfortunately, I've been totally stymied by one thing that I need to
do in Frame that is trivial in Word, and I can't imagine that it was
left out -- or was it?

I need to set up a paragraph tag (or style) that has a colored
background.  At this point I don't care whether the text overprints or
knocks out the background color, but I want the background color as
part of the paragraph setup.  Ideally, I'd like a gradated fill for
the background, but I understand that's asking a lot.  But there
doesn't seem to be anything anywhere in the Frame documentation
telling how to set up background color that's associated with text.
Am I just missing it?  I hope so.

Thanks in advance for any help.

*********************************************************************
Beth Friedman                                       bjf -at- wavefront -dot- com
"Speak not to me of pasta Marinara.
I know we laid in lots of boar last Tuesday.
I am the king now, and I want a sandwich."       -- John M. Ford

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