Hi Corinne This is how we do it with unstructured FrameMaker:
1. We print the PPT to PDF. 2. We design a FrameMaker template which looks exactly like the slides in the PPT (background image, titles, bullet points...), but we also have sufficient space on each page for training notes. 3. We import one page of the PDF file into FrameMaker, for example page 2. This page appears in an anchored frame "at insertion point" and the anchored frame is in a paragraph with a dedicated paragraph tag ("z_anchor"). A "z_anchor" is set to appear "Top of Page". 4. We copy this "z_anchor" paragraph with the anchored frame and we paste it a number of times, depending on the number of pages (slides) you have in your PPT file. For example, if you have 120 slides in one PPT file, you can just hold down CTRL+V until you have 120 pages in FrameMaker. Now, you have 120 copies of the same slide. 5. We save the FM file as MIF and open the MIF in a plain text editor (EditPad, Notepad++, ...). 6. In the MIF file, you can see something like this: <ImportObFileDI `<c\>training_manual.pdf'> <ImportObFile `training_manual.pdf'> <ImportHint `0001FRAMPDF WIN3 '> <ImportObEditor `#PageNumber(2)'> 7. We change <ImportObEditor `#PageNumber(2)'> to <ImportObEditor `#PageNumber(3)'>, <ImportObEditor `#PageNumber(4)'> etc. 8. We open the MIF file in FrameMaker again: now each "slide" starts on a new page. 9. If/when slides need to be changed, we remove the PDF and recreate the slide in FrameMaker. If the slide has graphics, you can double-click the imported PDF file in FrameMaker to open the PDF in Acrobat. In Acrobat, you can export the images or "extract" objects using the TouchUp Object tool. 10. When the training manual is ready, we generate a table of contents and an index and we save our FM file as PDF. This is the training manual we give to our students. To create "slides" from this PDF file, we just crop the slide area with the Acrobat Crop tool and that's it. If necessary, you can also use "full screen transitions" in Acrobat: choose Edit > Preferences > General > Full Screen. This is the "manual" process. To import all the pages of the PDF file into FrameMaker automatically, I'm sure a Framescript could help. When we create topic-based training manuals "from scratch", we use DITA and Leximation's DITA-FMx plug-in: 1. We wrap the information which needs to go on the "slide" in an <abstract> element. 2. Using DITA-FMx, we generate a FrameMaker book from the DITA map of our training manual. For this FrameMaker book, we use a template which is similar to the one I mentioned in the "unstructured FM" method. The topic title and the abstract appear in a separate text frame with a background image. 3. We save the FM book as PDF, crop the slide area and Bob's your uncle! The big benefit of this process is that you have your content in a presentation-neutral format: XML. This offers you other ways to create presentations, for example HTML Slidy: http://www.w3.org/Talks/Tools/Slidy/ Cheers -- Yves Barbion • Managing Director • Adobe-Certified FrameMaker Instructor www.scripto.nu • skype: yves.barbion • T: +32 494 12 01 89 • F: +32 9 366 50 23 _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.