Hi, again, all; especially Rick! I'll try to be brief....
FM8, could go to FM9, but NOT FM10. Unstructured. Mixed Win7/WinXP
environment.
I'm making a pair of pubs: a Checklist (CHKL) pub which needs to xref to
an Implementation (IMPL) pub that shows all details of a given step in
the Checklist... if there are any! Not every step in the CHKL/IMPL has
substeps! So don't say "LOP". LOP won't cut it, for usability
requirements. ;)
Example:
CHKL
----
2.5 ...
2.6 Get the foo out of the box.
2.7 Insert the foo into the bar. (Details)
2.8 ...
IMPL
----
2.5 ...
2.6 Get the foo out of the box.
2.7 Insert the foo into the bar.
2.7.1 Hold the foo.
2.7.2 Carefully approach the bar.
2.7.3 Insert the foo through the opening in the bar.
[picture of bar opening with approaching foo]
2.8 ...
SO, initial plan is as follows:
* Single-file sourcing (for the sake of example; this will actually be
done to several hundred small files which are "modules" of a very
complex, multi-variable-dependent process)
* When PDFing the IMPL: The substeps (e.g., 2.3.1) are made visible by a
condition (Show IMPLonly); and the "Details" xref links are hidden (Hide
CHKLonly).
* When PDFing the CHKL: The substeps are hidden (Hide IMPLonly); and the
"Details" xref links are made visible (Show CHKLonly).
And the theory is that, when a Details link is clicked in the Checklist,
it jumps to the Implementation pub, which shows all of the substeps but
NOT the Details link.
(I'm sure you are already anticipating the failure mode....)
First attempt: Of course, the Details links self-link to the Checklist
itself, at the same step, NOT to the Implementation pub's step with all
the substeps. Leading to...
MY QUESTION:
-----------
Is there any way to force FrameMaker to consider the BOOK file AND the
Document file, when making an xref to a marker in the Document? At the
least, can I force it to explicitly reference the Document file name as
the xref source file, rather than "Current"?
Looking at MIF, the Details xrefs all read:
<XRefSrcFile `'> [link to self]
As a workaround, they could read:
<XRefSrcFile `<c\>Module101.fm'> [link to explicit file name]
...That way, I can do all the work in the Implementation (all conditions
visible), then just Ctrl+drag to make copies, which get the "- Copy"
suffix added to the file name, use those Copy files in the Checklist
BOOK, and VOILA! The xrefs point at the file names without "- Copy" in
them, thus pointing to the full substeps spelled out in the
Implementation, NOT self-referencing inside the Checklist.
But ideally, they would read (something like):
<XRefSrcFile `<c\>CHKL.book<c\>Module101.fm'> [link to explicit BOOK
and file name]
...This way, I'd just need a separate BOOK file, with the SAME Document
files--FM will go look for the xrefs in ONLY a CHKL.BOOK-wrapped
Document file, even though the xref target is in the Document file
itself.
I am currently resigning myself to the workaround, by saving the files
to MIF and running a script across them to replace:
<XRefSrcFile `'>
...with:
<XRefSrcFile `<c\><current_file_name>.fm'>
So that the MIFs can be used to build the Checklist BOOK, and they will
all "aim" at the Implementation pub.
But that's SUCKY, if you'll pardon my French. The save-to-MIF-and-script
process after each file update should be fast enough (assuming I can
write one to walk across all MIF files in the folder in which the script
resides, storing the current file name in a variable, to rewrite the
XrefSrcFile attributes). But, really, it's repetitive grind work, and
computers are supposed to be really good at that sort of stuff, they
tell me!
So... HOW? What should I do differently? Where's the setting in FM8 or
FM9 that says, "Hey, link to this EXACT BOOK and Document file, not
'Current'"?
Thanks a million, y'all;
David Artman
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