At 8:32 am -0500 16/12/05, Rick Quatro wrote:

>No apologies necessary: that is what the list is for. Well, it's actually for 
>complaints, gripes, etc., but FrameMaker questions are acceptable once in 
>awhile.

Many thanks. And much appreciated it is too.

>The best method depends on how different the structure is from one EDD to 
>another. Here are some possible methods.
>
>1) Import the new Element Definitions and then clean up the structure by hand. 
>This could be fairly tedious if a lot of clean up is required. You could use 
>FrameScript scripts to assist you with the clean up, and perhaps automate the 
>whole process.

Well, it won't be me doing this, but I'd like to make the process as painless 
for my clients as possible.

I will be building the EDD, so I can at least attempt to make it the element 
definition as close to their existing EDDs as possible,

>2) Save the document as XML and then use XSLT stylesheets to convert the XML 
>so that it conforms to the new structure. Import the converted XML back into 
>FrameMaker using the new EDD. If your structure is XML and you have a lot of 
>documents, this may be the best approach. FrameMaker 7.2 for Windows (sorry) 
>allows you to apply XSLT transformations on import or export, adding some 
>automation to the process. Of course, you still have to write the appropriate 
>XSLT stylesheets.

Client has FrameMaker for Windows, so this may be an option for them.

>3) If your EDD uses paragraph and character formats to define formatting,

...it will, in most cases, do so...

> you could try removing the structure from (a copy of) the document. Then you 
> could use a Conversion Table to restructure the document according to the new 
> EDD. This may be a good approach because it would not require any tools 
> outside of FrameMaker.

Thanks, Rick.  I will pass all this on.
-- 
Steve

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