Re: ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

[Jeremy H. Griffith]

On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:49:35 -0600, Patrick Fortino [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
wrote:

[Amusing rant snipped.]

Since you mention Mif2Go below, a few comments...  OK, it turned
out to be more than a few.  ;-)

However, now that you know my opinion of Webworks as a company, I will  
admit that the new epubisher a pretty nice tool. I had a hard time  
getting used to the new interface, but once I did, it converted my fm  
books pretty flawlessly. With Webworks Publisher, I would have to do  
extensive template modificaitons to get the html output to look the  
way I wanted it to look. But with epub, the output was almost perfect  
without any mods. 

That's also the case with Mif2Go, for many outputs.  It really
depends on the complexity of your Frame files, and on the number
of bells and whistles you want added.  Many folks tell us they 
are producing deliverable output 15 minutes after download of
the Mif2Go distro.  I wouldn't count on that g, but it's way
simpler than other alternatives, IMHO.

And it was VERY EASY to set up a multi-volume help  
project (one with many different books). Because I was helping to set  
up this project for users who beginner frame  and webworks users, ease  
of use was VERY important.

It's almost trivial to use the same settings for multiple projects;
we do that all the time, using conversion templates (Frame files)
and configuration templates (shared .ini files).

epub is also much faster than wwpub pro at converting fm books. A real  
plus when you are developing a new project and need to generate output  
many times a day.

That's always been one of Mif2Go's strengths; it's *very* fast.
It leads to a more productive mode of working, where you can
edit one setting then rerun the project to see the effect... 
in a minute or two.  Not after going out for lunch.  g

One of the best things about epub, compared to robo help is that it  
uses your frame docs as the source. Last I checked, robo help still  
only uses the frame docs to import the project. Once imported, you  
have two content sources: robo help and frame.

I haven't use flare so can't comment on it.

Both RH and Flare are designed as stand-alone authoring apps.
They import Frame, but require some work in their own system
after every import before you get the output you want.  Both
WWP and Mif2Go regard Frame as the authoring app, so you are
always ready to run with the latest content edits.  It's a
fundamental design choice.

I tried mif2go; it can almost do what epub can do, 

Really?  We think it does *more*.  More formats for sure;
for one thing, nobody else does Word output from Frame at 
*all*.  Then there's DITA and DocBook from UNstructured
Frame, Oracle Help for Java (a better JavaHelp), WinHelp
(still needed for some older apps), and Eclipse (which we
added two years ago and which ePP added this summer...).

And our Open Source Web help system, OmniHelp, loads a
lot faster than any other browser-based system, and does
more for you...  See what it does with our 1000-page
User's Guide:
  http://www.omsys.com/dcl/omnihelp.htm

but requires a LOT more mucking around in the code. 

LOL!  There's no code to muck around in; it's all in
compiled C++, not an interpreted template language like 
WWP used.  (That's one reason for the speed difference.)

There *are* settings needed to control various features
in the .ini files, but they are no more complex than
a mapping table has to be, like:

[ParaStyles]
Heading 1=H1

And our Setup looks at your doc and makes reasonable
guesses about what those should be.  You *can* do a
lot more there if you want, but you don't *have* to.

If price is your bottom line, it might be worth looking at. But 
I'd be willing to bet that if you keep track of your hours learning 
mif2go versus epub, the cost difference would be negligible.

Hardly!  We start off at around 1/5 of ePP ($295; the
price of ePP is not listed on its Web site), *include*
a year of support (which most customers never need to
use, BTW, thanks to a very thorough User's Guide) and 
of *all* upgrades.  And then we let you continue with 
support and upgrades forever at $75/year.

The truth is, you can equip a whole workgroup with Mif2Go
licenses for less than *one* ePP license.  And many major
corps have realized that.  One reason we can give free
copies, with full support, to the unemployed and academics,
is that the corporate world supports us very well indeed.

So that's the sad story. Because webworks is the only game in town,  
they can get away with their Draconian licensing practices.

Only as long as *you* choose to support those practices.  ;-)  

All the best!

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]  http://www.omsys.com/
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Problem with run-in heads

[Roger Jones]

I'm glad to be back after a long absence from Framers, and I am still on FM 
7.0p579.

I have a problem with run-in headings in a double-column format. All paras 
are set to 10pt fixed and there is no line feathering, but the run-in heads 
are misaligning the baselines across columns. A page full of text with no 
headings has perfect alignment; add a run-in heading and the right-hand 
column goes out of alignment from that point onwards. Setting columns to 
balance makes no difference.

I need the run-ins because I want two paras on the same line, with 
automatic running heads picking up on one of them and not the other.

Any clues, anyone?

All the best

Roger Jones

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RE: ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

[RJ Jacquez]

Hi Patrick, I just wanted to point out that the enhanced version of RoboHelp 7 
in the Technical Communication Suite enables you to live link your FrameMaker 
documents and books in the same way WebWorks allows you to, so you may want to 
look into that if you have some time.

There's a link in my last blog post where I talk about what's new in our latest 
Suite and on slide 3 of the recording, there's a link to another recording 
where I go over exactly how you can natively reuse FrameMaker documents in 
RoboHelp.  The link to my blog is listed below my email signature.

For what's worth, I worked for WebWorks for about three years and they are 
great people and I have also had a lot of great conversations with Jeremy from 
Mif2Go, so either way you go, you'll be working with great folks.

Sincerely,

RJ Jácquez
Senior Product Evangelist
Adobe Technical Communication Suite
Adobe eLearning Solutions
http://blogs.adobe.com/rjacquez

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Patrick Fortino
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:50 AM
To: Jeremy H. Griffith
Cc: framers@lists.frameusers.com; Callie Bertsche
Subject: Re: ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

RANTFirst let me say that I think that ePublisher licenses are
highway robbery. For example, they do not allow you to upgrade from an
older version; instead, you pay the full price.  I had webworks
publisher pro, or whatever the version was before epublisher. No
upgrade path for that because I did not upgrade when epublisher came
out. I'd like to know what software planet webworks operates on,
because I have NEVER bought ANY software that did not have an upgrade
path.

Also, webworks support will cost you plenty. NOTHING is free. Example,
even though we bought two new licences and had difficulties installing
it on one of our machines, Webwork offers NO support for this. This
really pissed me off, especially since it turns out that my install
problems were due to their poor documentation (there was no mention
that you could only have one version of frame installed. I wasted a
complete day getting the install to work).

Their documentation is almost worthless. It's essentially a functional
spec; eg, this function does this, this function does that, etc. There
is very little How To help in the so-called help file. And to make
it even worse, they don't even have a forum where you can post
questions; you have to go to the yahoo webworks group which is
supported by some very kindly webworks users./RANT

However, now that you know my opinion of Webworks as a company, I will
admit that the new epubisher a pretty nice tool. I had a hard time
getting used to the new interface, but once I did, it converted my fm
books pretty flawlessly. With Webworks Publisher, I would have to do
extensive template modificaitons to get the html output to look the
way I wanted it to look. But with epub, the output was almost perfect
without any mods. And it was VERY EASY to set up a multi-volume help
project (one with many different books). Because I was helping to set
up this project for users who beginner frame  and webworks users, ease
of use was VERY important.

epub is also much faster than wwpub pro at converting fm books. A real
plus when you are developing a new project and need to generate output
many times a day.

One of the best things about epub, compared to robo help is that it
uses your frame docs as the source. Last I checked, robo help still
only uses the frame docs to import the project. Once imported, you
have two content sources: robo help and frame.

I haven't use flare so can't comment on it.

I tried mif2go; it can almost do what epub can do, but requires a LOT
more mucking around in the code. If price is your bottom line, it
might be worth looking at. But I'd be willing to bet that if you keep
track of your hours learning mif2go versus epub, the cost difference
would be negligible.

So that's the sad story. Because webworks is the only game in town,
they can get away with their Draconian licensing practices.

--
Pat Fortino
writenowdesign.com

 |
- Web Sites
- Technical Writing
- Editing
- Desktop Publishing

Get Firefox, a Safer, Faster, and Better Browser

On Sep 12, 2008, at 9:47 PM, Jeremy H. Griffith wrote:

 On Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:58:51 -0700, Callie Bertsche
 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 - Have other products sharpened their competitive edge since our last
 tool decision (a few years ago)? For instance, comparisons with
 MadCap
 or Flare?

 In considering a new product, I know immediately I value the
 following:

 - Dynamic connection with FrameMaker documents (ability to rescan/
 update
 files in help project file)
 - Ability to set variables and conditions or pass them through from
 the
 document, in a user-friendly manner, when building the help

 You might look at Mif2Go, if you haven't lately.  It does both of
 those things, and in fact everything that ePP does with FrameMaker,
 and more.  

[UPDATE] Freelance Assignment

[Anker Heegaard]

I'm following up to the posting below from yesterday morning. I have
received a lot of interest, and I'm very impressed with the depth of
expertise and extensive qualifications of folks on this forum. At this
point, I will sort through the responses I've received so far, with
confidence that this group is sufficient for selecting someone for this
assignment. Thanks very much for your interest and time,

 

Anker

 



From: Anker Heegaard 
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 9:54 AM
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Freelance Assignment

 

I trust this posting is appropriate for the list serve. 

 

We're looking for a freelancer for a single assignment who has a strong
working knowledge of Adobe FrameMaker. We have a trade publication laid
out in FrameMaker about seven years ago. We've revised it (in Word) and
need the edits managed into a revised edition in FrameMaker. This
requires a strong working knowledge of the software and its features.
The assignment will include managing and updating extensive
cross-referencing, indexing, and other aspects. We are also looking at a
subsequent conversion of the FrameMaker files to a dynamic PDF, for
release as an e-book (or extensively hyperlinked PDF). 

We expect the layout work will need to be done in early-mid October. 

Please reply only if you have worked in FrameMaker extensively, are
reliable and professional, and are attentive to detail. This is a
short-term assignment. We would consider either a fixed price or an
hourly rate. And, of course, please reply to me off-list. 

Thanks,

 

Anker Heegaard

 

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

 

 

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Re: Problem with run-in heads

[Stuart Rogers]

Roger Jones wrote:
 I'm glad to be back after a long absence from Framers, and I am still on FM 
 7.0p579.
 
 I have a problem with run-in headings in a double-column format. All paras 
 are set to 10pt fixed and there is no line feathering, but the run-in heads 
 are misaligning the baselines across columns. A page full of text with no 
 headings has perfect alignment; add a run-in heading and the right-hand 
 column goes out of alignment from that point onwards. Setting columns to 
 balance makes no difference.
 
 I need the run-ins because I want two paras on the same line, with 
 automatic running heads picking up on one of them and not the other.
 
 Any clues, anyone?
 

Hi Roger,

The Fixed spacing refers only to line spacing within the pgf.  Do your 
run-in heads have a larger font size, or a space above or below?  Those 
could cause a misalignment with the other column.  Adjustment of the 
space above should be able to bring them back in line.

HTH,

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

srogers phoenix-geophysics com

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap 
between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were 
instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish 
squirting out ink.

— George Orwell
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Re: Problem with run-in heads

[quills]

Your post confuses me a bit. As I read it, you have two separate 
columns on the page, do you mean your master page has two columns?

If so, then the run-in headings won't work. If you are using a single 
column master page with a run-in heading and a paragraph following 
it, then Stuart's comment is correct and equalizing the font, line 
spacing, above and below spaces, should correct your problem.

Scott

At 9:16 AM +0100 9/18/08, Roger Jones wrote:
I'm glad to be back after a long absence from Framers, and I am still on FM
7.0p579.

I have a problem with run-in headings in a double-column format. All paras
are set to 10pt fixed and there is no line feathering, but the run-in heads
are misaligning the baselines across columns. A page full of text with no
headings has perfect alignment; add a run-in heading and the right-hand
column goes out of alignment from that point onwards. Setting columns to
balance makes no difference.

I need the run-ins because I want two paras on the same line, with
automatic running heads picking up on one of them and not the other.

Any clues, anyone?

All the best

Roger Jones

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Re: Problem with run-in heads

[Mike Wickham]

Roger,

I recall seeing this problem on FM 7.0, although it wasn't related 
specifically to run-in heads, but to having any heading in the first 
column-- and, offhand, I can only remember it happening when the very first 
line of the first column was a heading. I can't find a document exhibiting 
the behavior right now. I am on FM8, now, and maybe it's no longer an issue. 
But I did find a note I made on solving the problem:

Unchecking the Fixed Line Spacing checkbox fixes the column alignment 
problem, but then text containing superscripts and subscripts causes 
problems with line spacing instead.

Maybe that will help point your toward a fix, but be aware that I may have 
made other changes that affected the behavior, after I made the above note.

Mike Wickham

- Original Message - 
From: Roger Jones [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 3:16 AM
Subject: Problem with run-in heads


 I'm glad to be back after a long absence from Framers, and I am still on 
 FM
 7.0p579.

 I have a problem with run-in headings in a double-column format. All paras
 are set to 10pt fixed and there is no line feathering, but the run-in 
 heads
 are misaligning the baselines across columns. A page full of text with no
 headings has perfect alignment; add a run-in heading and the right-hand
 column goes out of alignment from that point onwards. Setting columns to
 balance makes no difference.

 I need the run-ins because I want two paras on the same line, with
 automatic running heads picking up on one of them and not the other.

 Any clues, anyone?

 All the best

 Roger Jones

 ___


 You are currently subscribed to Framers as [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 Send list messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 To unsubscribe send a blank email to
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 or visit 
 http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/info%40mikewickham.com

 Send administrative questions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit
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RE: ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

[Kelly McDaniel]

RJ,

Thanks for the post.

You mentioned live link your FrameMaker documents and books. Did you mean 
import by reference, or is there a different linking method?

I have attempted to IBR my FM files to RoboHTML, about 50MB total. The process 
takes ~30 minutes, and the Robo view of the files is raw. That is, each 
cross-ref is appended with the FM file name as a prefix. This requires major 
handwork ex post facto.

If there is a method to live link, which implies true roundtripping, please 
elucidate...best regards, Kelly / PavTech/Rockwell

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of RJ Jacquez
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 7:44 AM
To: Patrick Fortino; Jeremy H. Griffith
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; framers@lists.frameusers.com; Bertsche
Subject: RE: ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

Hi Patrick, I just wanted to point out that the enhanced version of RoboHelp 7 
in the Technical Communication Suite enables you to live link your FrameMaker 
documents and books in the same way WebWorks allows you to, so you may want to 
look into that if you have some time.

There's a link in my last blog post where I talk about what's new in our latest 
Suite and on slide 3 of the recording, there's a link to another recording 
where I go over exactly how you can natively reuse FrameMaker documents in 
RoboHelp.  The link to my blog is listed below my email signature.

For what's worth, I worked for WebWorks for about three years and they are 
great people and I have also had a lot of great conversations with Jeremy from 
Mif2Go, so either way you go, you'll be working with great folks.

Sincerely,

RJ Jácquez
Senior Product Evangelist
Adobe Technical Communication Suite
Adobe eLearning Solutions
http://blogs.adobe.com/rjacquez

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Patrick Fortino
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:50 AM
To: Jeremy H. Griffith
Cc: framers@lists.frameusers.com; Callie Bertsche
Subject: Re: ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

RANTFirst let me say that I think that ePublisher licenses are
highway robbery. For example, they do not allow you to upgrade from an
older version; instead, you pay the full price.  I had webworks
publisher pro, or whatever the version was before epublisher. No
upgrade path for that because I did not upgrade when epublisher came
out. I'd like to know what software planet webworks operates on,
because I have NEVER bought ANY software that did not have an upgrade
path.

Also, webworks support will cost you plenty. NOTHING is free. Example,
even though we bought two new licences and had difficulties installing
it on one of our machines, Webwork offers NO support for this. This
really pissed me off, especially since it turns out that my install
problems were due to their poor documentation (there was no mention
that you could only have one version of frame installed. I wasted a
complete day getting the install to work).

Their documentation is almost worthless. It's essentially a functional
spec; eg, this function does this, this function does that, etc. There
is very little How To help in the so-called help file. And to make
it even worse, they don't even have a forum where you can post
questions; you have to go to the yahoo webworks group which is
supported by some very kindly webworks users./RANT

However, now that you know my opinion of Webworks as a company, I will
admit that the new epubisher a pretty nice tool. I had a hard time
getting used to the new interface, but once I did, it converted my fm
books pretty flawlessly. With Webworks Publisher, I would have to do
extensive template modificaitons to get the html output to look the
way I wanted it to look. But with epub, the output was almost perfect
without any mods. And it was VERY EASY to set up a multi-volume help
project (one with many different books). Because I was helping to set
up this project for users who beginner frame  and webworks users, ease
of use was VERY important.

epub is also much faster than wwpub pro at converting fm books. A real
plus when you are developing a new project and need to generate output
many times a day.

One of the best things about epub, compared to robo help is that it
uses your frame docs as the source. Last I checked, robo help still
only uses the frame docs to import the project. Once imported, you
have two content sources: robo help and frame.

I haven't use flare so can't comment on it.

I tried mif2go; it can almost do what epub can do, but requires a LOT
more mucking around in the code. If price is your bottom line, it
might be worth looking at. But I'd be willing to bet that if you keep
track of your hours learning mif2go versus epub, the cost difference
would be negligible.

So that's the sad story. Because webworks is the only game in town,
they can get away with their Draconian licensing practices.

--
Pat Fortino
writenowdesign.com

 |
- Web Sites
- 

RE: FM8 HTML output

[Charlie Kyle]

Judy,
It sounds like you need some help setting up the numbering of chapters,
headings, pages, and figures in your template. If you are in San Diego,
I think Matt Sullivan is in your area and my understanding is that he is
knowledgeable about FM and the TCS. His site is
http://www.grafixtraining.com/ 

If you have to go it alone then I think the Adobe FM7.0 Classroom in a
Book is a good resource. I had a great FM teacher in Boulder CO and we
used that book. 

I'm in a similar boat in that I'm very familiar with RH, but less so
with FM. Are you importing FM8 files directly or importing by reference?
Importing by reference means your FM8 files stay synced with your HTML
output. 

Two days ago I hooked up (imported by reference) an FM8 book to RH7
based on a PDF presentation from Kevin Siegal and a video by RJ Jacquez
(see below). I have most of the stuff working that I need and I am
trying to iron out the style mapping. I may wait to come back to this
project after I've taken Kevin Siegal's virtual training class.

Search for Kevin Siegal's presentation called Blurring the Production
Lines here: 
http://www.stc.org/edu/55thConf/index.asp 

Kevin Siegal's site is http://www.iconlogic.com/ I plan to take his
virtual training class called Integrating Adobe's Technical
Communication Suite on October 18.

RJ Jacquez, Adobe Product Manager, has a training video on getting
started with TCS. Its located at
https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a295153/p13101233/ I've gone thru this
a couple times and made a how doc from it.

I'm getting grief from my manager because he said that he thought TCS
was supposed to be integrated. He's half joking, but the additional time
its taking me to figure this out from sources outside the user doc is
messing up my schedule. Its too bad the product documentation from Adobe
does not adequately cover the integration of FM and RH.

One last thing. When the sys reqs for TCS say Intel(r) Pentium(r) 4
processor, they mean it. After a series of daily crashes, I'm upgrading
my 1.5 GHz Pentium machine with 2 GB RAM to 2.8ghz p4 Dual Core
processor with 2 GB RAM.

Good luck and stay in touch,

Charlie Kyle 


-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Judy
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:54 AM
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: FM8 HTML output

 Charlie,
I'm trying to do the same thing.  I've used RH for years, but I'm new to
FM.
I've finally gotten *most* of the unstructured FM functionality down and
I'm moving my doc set into TCS.  I'd be more than willing to share
notes.

I began with 1 shorter chapters (less than 100 pgs.) and was able to
import them by copy to FM8 and tweak the formatting.  I was also able to
successfully add those by reference to RH.(At least I got topic files in
RH.
I haven't fiddled with the TOC and index.)

Last week I attempted a much larger chapter and RH doesn't recognize it
as a valid FM file.  I found a thread in the user forum that said
there's a file size limit.  If I remember correctly, their experience
was that 25MB would work.  I've had 15MB files go unrecognized.

I went back into FM and learned a lot about document properties and book
settings, and am in the process of trying to work around that size
limit.

I was trying to include numbered chapters, headings, figures, and pages.
I can do it successfully in 1 continuous *.fm file, but I have trouble
if I have to break it into smaller files. I can get the page numbers to
run consecutively, but heading, figure and table numbers restart with
each new fm file!

I think I may be able to further decrease my file size by entering the
images by reference too, but that will take way more time than I have
before my release deadline in early Dec..  (Did I mention I'm a lone
writer and have to start writing the new content now?!  This is a major
leap of faith!)

Does anyone out there have any ideas?

Judy







-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 3:00 AM
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Framers Digest, Vol 35, Issue 15

Send Framers mailing list submissions to
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Re: Contents of Framers digest...


Today's Topics:

   1. Handling source files for translation to several languages
  (Andersen, Verner Engell VEA)
   2. RE: FM8 HTML output (Diane Gaskill)
   3. Re: FM8 HTML output (Yves Barbion)
   4. Re: Hypertext command (Shlomo Perets)
   5. Translation into japanese and chinese
  (Andersen, Verner Engell VEA)
   6. Is it possible to use a PNG with 

FM update 8.04 failure

[Fred Staal]

Hi,

I'm having trouble with installing update 8.04 to Framemaker (version
8.0p276). The 8.04 update downloads, but during the installation
process gives an error message: You do not have the correct version of
FM install (sic) on your system. This patch installer will work only
with Version 8 p276. Patch installer will quit now. This occurs whether
FM is opened or closed during the update process.

As noted above FMHelpAbout indicates the program IS at Version 8 p276,
so what is going on? Is update 8.04 worth installing, and if so, how can
I get it to install? 

Thanks,

Fred

 

Fred Staal

Supervisor, Technical Publications

Schilling Robotics, Inc

 

ph  (530) 747-2476

eml  [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] m

 

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Replying to a Digest message

[Stuart Rogers]

Charlie Kyle wrote:
  Judy,




PLEASE DO NOT REPOST THE ENTIRE DIGEST WHEN REPLYING.

It's happened twice today already.  Please edit the body of your message 
to quote only the minimum relevant material.

Thank you,

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

srogers phoenix-geophysics com

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap 
between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were 
instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish 
squirting out ink.

— George Orwell
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ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

[Jeremy H. Griffith]

On Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:49:35 -0600, Patrick Fortino  
wrote:

[Amusing rant snipped.]

Since you mention Mif2Go below, a few comments...  OK, it turned
out to be more than a few.  ;-)

>However, now that you know my opinion of Webworks as a company, I will  
>admit that the new epubisher a pretty nice tool. I had a hard time  
>getting used to the new interface, but once I did, it converted my fm  
>books pretty flawlessly. With Webworks Publisher, I would have to do  
>extensive template modificaitons to get the html output to look the  
>way I wanted it to look. But with epub, the output was almost perfect  
>without any mods. 

That's also the case with Mif2Go, for many outputs.  It really
depends on the complexity of your Frame files, and on the number
of bells and whistles you want added.  Many folks tell us they 
are producing deliverable output 15 minutes after download of
the Mif2Go distro.  I wouldn't count on that , but it's way
simpler than other alternatives, IMHO.

>And it was VERY EASY to set up a multi-volume help  
>project (one with many different books). Because I was helping to set  
>up this project for users who beginner frame  and webworks users, ease  
>of use was VERY important.

It's almost trivial to use the same settings for multiple projects;
we do that all the time, using conversion templates (Frame files)
and configuration templates (shared .ini files).

>epub is also much faster than wwpub pro at converting fm books. A real  
>plus when you are developing a new project and need to generate output  
>many times a day.

That's always been one of Mif2Go's strengths; it's *very* fast.
It leads to a more productive mode of working, where you can
edit one setting then rerun the project to see the effect... 
in a minute or two.  Not after going out for lunch.  

>One of the best things about epub, compared to robo help is that it  
>uses your frame docs as the source. Last I checked, robo help still  
>only uses the frame docs to import the project. Once imported, you  
>have two content sources: robo help and frame.
>
>I haven't use flare so can't comment on it.

Both RH and Flare are designed as stand-alone authoring apps.
They "import" Frame, but require some work in their own system
after every import before you get the output you want.  Both
WWP and Mif2Go regard Frame as the authoring app, so you are
always ready to run with the latest content edits.  It's a
fundamental design choice.

>I tried mif2go; it can almost do what epub can do, 

Really?  We think it does *more*.  More formats for sure;
for one thing, nobody else does Word output from Frame at 
*all*.  Then there's DITA and DocBook from UNstructured
Frame, Oracle Help for Java (a better JavaHelp), WinHelp
(still needed for some older apps), and Eclipse (which we
added two years ago and which ePP added this summer...).

And our Open Source Web help system, OmniHelp, loads a
lot faster than any other browser-based system, and does
more for you...  See what it does with our 1000-page
User's Guide:
  http://www.omsys.com/dcl/omnihelp.htm

>but requires a LOT more mucking around in the code. 

LOL!  There's no "code" to muck around in; it's all in
compiled C++, not an interpreted template language like 
WWP used.  (That's one reason for the speed difference.)

There *are* settings needed to control various features
in the .ini files, but they are no more complex than
a mapping table has to be, like:

[ParaStyles]
Heading 1=H1

And our Setup looks at your doc and makes reasonable
guesses about what those should be.  You *can* do a
lot more there if you want, but you don't *have* to.

>If price is your bottom line, it might be worth looking at. But 
>I'd be willing to bet that if you keep track of your hours learning 
>mif2go versus epub, the cost difference would be negligible.

Hardly!  We start off at around 1/5 of ePP ($295; the
price of ePP is not listed on its Web site), *include*
a year of support (which most customers never need to
use, BTW, thanks to a very thorough User's Guide) and 
of *all* upgrades.  And then we let you continue with 
support and upgrades forever at $75/year.

The truth is, you can equip a whole workgroup with Mif2Go
licenses for less than *one* ePP license.  And many major
corps have realized that.  One reason we can give free
copies, with full support, to the unemployed and academics,
is that the corporate world supports us very well indeed.

>So that's the sad story. Because webworks is the only game in town,  
>they can get away with their Draconian licensing practices.

Only as long as *you* choose to support those practices.  ;-)  

All the best!

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
http://www.omsys.com/

Problem with run-in heads

[Roger Jones]

I'm glad to be back after a long absence from Framers, and I am still on FM 
7.0p579.

I have a problem with run-in headings in a double-column format. All paras 
are set to 10pt fixed and there is no line feathering, but the run-in heads 
are misaligning the baselines across columns. A page full of text with no 
headings has perfect alignment; add a run-in heading and the right-hand 
column goes out of alignment from that point onwards. Setting columns to 
balance makes no difference.

I need the run-ins because I want two paras on the same line, with 
automatic running heads picking up on one of them and not the other.

Any clues, anyone?

All the best

Roger Jones

ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

[RJ Jacquez]

Hi Patrick, I just wanted to point out that the enhanced version of RoboHelp 7 
in the Technical Communication Suite enables you to live link your FrameMaker 
documents and books in the same way WebWorks allows you to, so you may want to 
look into that if you have some time.

There's a link in my last blog post where I talk about what's new in our latest 
Suite and on slide 3 of the recording, there's a link to another recording 
where I go over exactly how you can natively reuse FrameMaker documents in 
RoboHelp.  The link to my blog is listed below my email signature.

For what's worth, I worked for WebWorks for about three years and they are 
great people and I have also had a lot of great conversations with Jeremy from 
Mif2Go, so either way you go, you'll be working with great folks.

Sincerely,

RJ J?cquez
Senior Product Evangelist
Adobe Technical Communication Suite
Adobe eLearning Solutions
http://blogs.adobe.com/rjacquez

-Original Message-
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com 
[mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Patrick Fortino
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:50 AM
To: Jeremy H. Griffith
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com; Callie Bertsche
Subject: Re: ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

First let me say that I think that ePublisher licenses are
highway robbery. For example, they do not allow you to upgrade from an
older version; instead, you pay the full price.  I had webworks
publisher pro, or whatever the version was before epublisher. No
upgrade path for that because I did not upgrade when epublisher came
out. I'd like to know what software planet webworks operates on,
because I have NEVER bought ANY software that did not have an upgrade
path.

Also, webworks support will cost you plenty. NOTHING is free. Example,
even though we bought two new licences and had difficulties installing
it on one of our machines, Webwork offers NO support for this. This
really pissed me off, especially since it turns out that my install
problems were due to their poor documentation (there was no mention
that you could only have one version of frame installed. I wasted a
complete day getting the install to work).

Their documentation is almost worthless. It's essentially a functional
spec; eg, this function does this, this function does that, etc. There
is very little "How To" help in the so-called "help" file. And to make
it even worse, they don't even have a forum where you can post
questions; you have to go to the yahoo webworks group which is
supported by some very kindly webworks users.

However, now that you know my opinion of Webworks as a company, I will
admit that the new epubisher a pretty nice tool. I had a hard time
getting used to the new interface, but once I did, it converted my fm
books pretty flawlessly. With Webworks Publisher, I would have to do
extensive template modificaitons to get the html output to look the
way I wanted it to look. But with epub, the output was almost perfect
without any mods. And it was VERY EASY to set up a multi-volume help
project (one with many different books). Because I was helping to set
up this project for users who beginner frame  and webworks users, ease
of use was VERY important.

epub is also much faster than wwpub pro at converting fm books. A real
plus when you are developing a new project and need to generate output
many times a day.

One of the best things about epub, compared to robo help is that it
uses your frame docs as the source. Last I checked, robo help still
only uses the frame docs to import the project. Once imported, you
have two content sources: robo help and frame.

I haven't use flare so can't comment on it.

I tried mif2go; it can almost do what epub can do, but requires a LOT
more mucking around in the code. If price is your bottom line, it
might be worth looking at. But I'd be willing to bet that if you keep
track of your hours learning mif2go versus epub, the cost difference
would be negligible.

So that's the sad story. Because webworks is the only game in town,
they can get away with their Draconian licensing practices.

--
Pat Fortino
writenowdesign.com

 >>|
- Web Sites
- Technical Writing
- Editing
- Desktop Publishing

Get Firefox, a Safer, Faster, and Better Browser

On Sep 12, 2008, at 9:47 PM, Jeremy H. Griffith wrote:

> On Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:58:51 -0700, "Callie Bertsche"
>  wrote:
>
>> - Have other products sharpened their competitive edge since our last
>> tool decision (a few years ago)? For instance, comparisons with
>> MadCap
>> or Flare?
>>
>> In considering a new product, I know immediately I value the
>> following:
>>
>> - Dynamic connection with FrameMaker documents (ability to rescan/
>> update
>> files in help project file)
>> - Ability to set variables and conditions or pass them through from
>> the
>> document, in a user-friendly manner, when building the help
>
> You might look at Mif2Go, if you haven't lately.  It does both of

[UPDATE] Freelance Assignment

[Anker Heegaard]

I'm following up to the posting below from yesterday morning. I have
received a lot of interest, and I'm very impressed with the depth of
expertise and extensive qualifications of folks on this forum. At this
point, I will sort through the responses I've received so far, with
confidence that this group is sufficient for selecting someone for this
assignment. Thanks very much for your interest and time,



Anker





From: Anker Heegaard 
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 9:54 AM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Freelance Assignment



I trust this posting is appropriate for the list serve. 



We're looking for a freelancer for a single assignment who has a strong
working knowledge of Adobe FrameMaker. We have a trade publication laid
out in FrameMaker about seven years ago. We've revised it (in Word) and
need the edits managed into a revised edition in FrameMaker. This
requires a strong working knowledge of the software and its features.
The assignment will include managing and updating extensive
cross-referencing, indexing, and other aspects. We are also looking at a
subsequent conversion of the FrameMaker files to a dynamic PDF, for
release as an e-book (or extensively hyperlinked PDF). 

We expect the layout work will need to be done in early-mid October. 

Please reply only if you have worked in FrameMaker extensively, are
reliable and professional, and are attentive to detail. This is a
short-term assignment. We would consider either a fixed price or an
hourly rate. And, of course, please reply to me off-list. 

Thanks,



Anker Heegaard



anker at compassgroup.net

Problem with run-in heads

[Stuart Rogers]

Roger Jones wrote:
> I'm glad to be back after a long absence from Framers, and I am still on FM 
> 7.0p579.
> 
> I have a problem with run-in headings in a double-column format. All paras 
> are set to 10pt fixed and there is no line feathering, but the run-in heads 
> are misaligning the baselines across columns. A page full of text with no 
> headings has perfect alignment; add a run-in heading and the right-hand 
> column goes out of alignment from that point onwards. Setting columns to 
> balance makes no difference.
> 
> I need the run-ins because I want two paras on the same line, with 
> automatic running heads picking up on one of them and not the other.
> 
> Any clues, anyone?
> 

Hi Roger,

The Fixed spacing refers only to line spacing within the pgf.  Do your 
run-in heads have a larger font size, or a space above or below?  Those 
could cause a misalignment with the other column.  Adjustment of the 
space above should be able to bring them back in line.

HTH,

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

srogers phoenix-geophysics com

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap 
between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were 
instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish 
squirting out ink."

? George Orwell

Problem with run-in heads

[qui...@airmail.net]

Your post confuses me a bit. As I read it, you have two separate 
columns on the page, do you mean your master page has two columns?

If so, then the run-in headings won't work. If you are using a single 
column master page with a run-in heading and a paragraph following 
it, then Stuart's comment is correct and equalizing the font, line 
spacing, above and below spaces, should correct your problem.

Scott

At 9:16 AM +0100 9/18/08, Roger Jones wrote:
>I'm glad to be back after a long absence from Framers, and I am still on FM
>7.0p579.
>
>I have a problem with run-in headings in a double-column format. All paras
>are set to 10pt fixed and there is no line feathering, but the run-in heads
>are misaligning the baselines across columns. A page full of text with no
>headings has perfect alignment; add a run-in heading and the right-hand
>column goes out of alignment from that point onwards. Setting columns to
>balance makes no difference.
>
>I need the run-ins because I want two paras on the same line, with
>automatic running heads picking up on one of them and not the other.
>
>Any clues, anyone?
>
>All the best
>
>Roger Jones
>

Problem with run-in heads

[Mike Wickham]

Roger,

I recall seeing this problem on FM 7.0, although it wasn't related 
specifically to run-in heads, but to having any heading in the first 
column-- and, offhand, I can only remember it happening when the very first 
line of the first column was a heading. I can't find a document exhibiting 
the behavior right now. I am on FM8, now, and maybe it's no longer an issue. 
But I did find a note I made on solving the problem:

"Unchecking the Fixed Line Spacing checkbox fixes the column alignment 
problem, but then text containing superscripts and subscripts causes 
problems with line spacing instead."

Maybe that will help point your toward a fix, but be aware that I may have 
made other changes that affected the behavior, after I made the above note.

Mike Wickham

- Original Message - 
From: "Roger Jones" 
To: 
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 3:16 AM
Subject: Problem with run-in heads


> I'm glad to be back after a long absence from Framers, and I am still on 
> FM
> 7.0p579.
>
> I have a problem with run-in headings in a double-column format. All paras
> are set to 10pt fixed and there is no line feathering, but the run-in 
> heads
> are misaligning the baselines across columns. A page full of text with no
> headings has perfect alignment; add a run-in heading and the right-hand
> column goes out of alignment from that point onwards. Setting columns to
> balance makes no difference.
>
> I need the run-ins because I want two paras on the same line, with
> automatic running heads picking up on one of them and not the other.
>
> Any clues, anyone?
>
> All the best
>
> Roger Jones
>
> ___
>
>
> You are currently subscribed to Framers as info at mikewickham.com.
>
> Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com
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>
> Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit
> http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
>
> 

ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

[Kelly McDaniel]

RJ,

Thanks for the post.

You mentioned "live link your FrameMaker documents and books." Did you mean 
"import by reference", or is there a different linking method?

I have attempted to IBR my FM files to RoboHTML, about 50MB total. The process 
takes ~30 minutes, and the Robo view of the files is "raw." That is, each 
cross-ref is appended with the FM file name as a prefix. This requires major 
handwork ex post facto.

If there is a method to "live link", which implies true roundtripping, please 
elucidate...best regards, Kelly / PavTech/Rockwell

-Original Message-
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com 
[mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of RJ Jacquez
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 7:44 AM
To: Patrick Fortino; Jeremy H. Griffith
Cc: Callie at lists.frameusers.com; framers at lists.frameusers.com; Bertsche
Subject: RE: ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

Hi Patrick, I just wanted to point out that the enhanced version of RoboHelp 7 
in the Technical Communication Suite enables you to live link your FrameMaker 
documents and books in the same way WebWorks allows you to, so you may want to 
look into that if you have some time.

There's a link in my last blog post where I talk about what's new in our latest 
Suite and on slide 3 of the recording, there's a link to another recording 
where I go over exactly how you can natively reuse FrameMaker documents in 
RoboHelp.  The link to my blog is listed below my email signature.

For what's worth, I worked for WebWorks for about three years and they are 
great people and I have also had a lot of great conversations with Jeremy from 
Mif2Go, so either way you go, you'll be working with great folks.

Sincerely,

RJ J?cquez
Senior Product Evangelist
Adobe Technical Communication Suite
Adobe eLearning Solutions
http://blogs.adobe.com/rjacquez

-Original Message-
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com 
[mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Patrick Fortino
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:50 AM
To: Jeremy H. Griffith
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com; Callie Bertsche
Subject: Re: ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

First let me say that I think that ePublisher licenses are
highway robbery. For example, they do not allow you to upgrade from an
older version; instead, you pay the full price.  I had webworks
publisher pro, or whatever the version was before epublisher. No
upgrade path for that because I did not upgrade when epublisher came
out. I'd like to know what software planet webworks operates on,
because I have NEVER bought ANY software that did not have an upgrade
path.

Also, webworks support will cost you plenty. NOTHING is free. Example,
even though we bought two new licences and had difficulties installing
it on one of our machines, Webwork offers NO support for this. This
really pissed me off, especially since it turns out that my install
problems were due to their poor documentation (there was no mention
that you could only have one version of frame installed. I wasted a
complete day getting the install to work).

Their documentation is almost worthless. It's essentially a functional
spec; eg, this function does this, this function does that, etc. There
is very little "How To" help in the so-called "help" file. And to make
it even worse, they don't even have a forum where you can post
questions; you have to go to the yahoo webworks group which is
supported by some very kindly webworks users.

However, now that you know my opinion of Webworks as a company, I will
admit that the new epubisher a pretty nice tool. I had a hard time
getting used to the new interface, but once I did, it converted my fm
books pretty flawlessly. With Webworks Publisher, I would have to do
extensive template modificaitons to get the html output to look the
way I wanted it to look. But with epub, the output was almost perfect
without any mods. And it was VERY EASY to set up a multi-volume help
project (one with many different books). Because I was helping to set
up this project for users who beginner frame  and webworks users, ease
of use was VERY important.

epub is also much faster than wwpub pro at converting fm books. A real
plus when you are developing a new project and need to generate output
many times a day.

One of the best things about epub, compared to robo help is that it
uses your frame docs as the source. Last I checked, robo help still
only uses the frame docs to import the project. Once imported, you
have two content sources: robo help and frame.

I haven't use flare so can't comment on it.

I tried mif2go; it can almost do what epub can do, but requires a LOT
more mucking around in the code. If price is your bottom line, it
might be worth looking at. But I'd be willing to bet that if you keep
track of your hours learning mif2go versus epub, the cost difference
would be negligible.

So that's the sad story. Because webworks is the only game in town,
they can 

FM8 HTML output

[Charlie Kyle]

Judy,
It sounds like you need some help setting up the numbering of chapters,
headings, pages, and figures in your template. If you are in San Diego,
I think Matt Sullivan is in your area and my understanding is that he is
knowledgeable about FM and the TCS. His site is
http://www.grafixtraining.com/ 

If you have to go it alone then I think the "Adobe FM7.0 Classroom in a
Book" is a good resource. I had a great FM teacher in Boulder CO and we
used that book. 

I'm in a similar boat in that I'm very familiar with RH, but less so
with FM. Are you importing FM8 files directly or importing by reference?
Importing by reference means your FM8 files stay synced with your HTML
output. 

Two days ago I hooked up (imported by reference) an FM8 book to RH7
based on a PDF presentation from Kevin Siegal and a video by RJ Jacquez
(see below). I have most of the stuff working that I need and I am
trying to iron out the style mapping. I may wait to come back to this
project after I've taken Kevin Siegal's virtual training class.

Search for Kevin Siegal's presentation called "Blurring the Production
Lines" here: 
http://www.stc.org/edu/55thConf/index.asp 

Kevin Siegal's site is http://www.iconlogic.com/ I plan to take his
virtual training class called "Integrating Adobe's Technical
Communication Suite" on October 18.

RJ Jacquez, Adobe Product Manager, has a training video on getting
started with TCS. Its located at
https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a295153/p13101233/ I've gone thru this
a couple times and made a how doc from it.

I'm getting grief from my manager because he said that he thought TCS
was supposed to be integrated. He's half joking, but the additional time
its taking me to figure this out from sources outside the user doc is
messing up my schedule. Its too bad the product documentation from Adobe
does not adequately cover the integration of FM and RH.

One last thing. When the sys reqs for TCS say Intel(r) Pentium(r) 4
processor, they mean it. After a series of daily crashes, I'm upgrading
my 1.5 GHz Pentium machine with 2 GB RAM to 2.8ghz p4 Dual Core
processor with 2 GB RAM.

Good luck and stay in touch,

Charlie Kyle 


-Original Message-
From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Judy
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:54 AM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: FM8 HTML output

 Charlie,
I'm trying to do the same thing.  I've used RH for years, but I'm new to
FM.
I've finally gotten *most* of the unstructured FM functionality down and
I'm moving my doc set into TCS.  I'd be more than willing to share
notes.

I began with 1 shorter chapters (less than 100 pgs.) and was able to
import them by copy to FM8 and tweak the formatting.  I was also able to
successfully add those by reference to RH.(At least I got topic files in
RH.
I haven't fiddled with the TOC and index.)

Last week I attempted a much larger chapter and RH doesn't recognize it
as a valid FM file.  I found a thread in the user forum that said
there's a file size limit.  If I remember correctly, their experience
was that 25MB would work.  I've had 15MB files go "unrecognized".

I went back into FM and learned a lot about document properties and book
settings, and am in the process of trying to work around that size
limit.

I was trying to include numbered chapters, headings, figures, and pages.
I can do it successfully in 1 continuous *.fm file, but I have trouble
if I have to break it into smaller files. I can get the page numbers to
run consecutively, but heading, figure and table numbers restart with
each new fm file!

I think I may be able to further decrease my file size by entering the
images by reference too, but that will take way more time than I have
before my release deadline in early Dec..  (Did I mention I'm a lone
writer and have to start writing the new content now?!  This is a major
leap of faith!)

Does anyone out there have any ideas?

Judy







-Original Message-
From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of
framers-request at lists.frameusers.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 3:00 AM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Framers Digest, Vol 35, Issue 15

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Today's Topics:

   1. Handling source files for translation to several languages
  (Andersen, Verner Engell VEA)
   2. RE: FM8 HTML output (Diane Gaskill)
   3. Re: FM8 HTML output (Yves Barbion)
   

FM update 8.04 failure

[Fred Staal]

Hi,

I'm having trouble with installing update 8.04 to Framemaker ("version
8.0p276"). The 8.04 update downloads, but during the installation
process gives an error message: "You do not have the correct version of
FM install (sic) on your system. This patch installer will work only
with Version 8 p276. Patch installer will quit now." This occurs whether
FM is opened or closed during the update process.

As noted above FM>Help>About indicates the program IS at Version 8 p276,
so what is going on? Is update 8.04 worth installing, and if so, how can
I get it to install? 

Thanks,

Fred



Fred Staal

Supervisor, Technical Publications

Schilling Robotics, Inc



ph  (530) 747-2476

eml  fred.staal at schilling.co  m

Replying to a Digest message

[Stuart Rogers]

Charlie Kyle wrote:
 > Judy,




PLEASE DO NOT REPOST THE ENTIRE DIGEST WHEN REPLYING.

It's happened twice today already.  Please edit the body of your message 
to quote only the minimum relevant material.

Thank you,

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

srogers phoenix-geophysics com

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap 
between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were 
instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish 
squirting out ink."

? George Orwell

ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

[RJ Jacquez]

Hi Kelly, please see my comments below.

Sincerely,

RJ J?cquez
Senior Product Evangelist
Adobe Technical Communication Suite
Adobe eLearning Solutions
http://blogs.adobe.com/rjacquez


-Original Message-
From: Kelly McDaniel [mailto:kmcdan...@pavtech.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 10:20 AM
To: RJ Jacquez
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: ePublisher Pro vs. other generated online help

RJ,

Thanks for the post.

You mentioned "live link your FrameMaker documents and books." Did you mean 
"import by reference", or is there a different linking method?
[RJ Jacquez] Sorry for the confusing, I used talk a lot about live links from 
my days with RoboHelp for FrameMaker, but what I meant was the import by 
reference, so you are doing this correctly.

I have attempted to IBR my FM files to RoboHTML, about 50MB total. The process 
takes ~30 minutes, and the Robo view of the files is "raw."
[RJ Jacquez] What do you mean by "raw"?  That is, each cross-ref is appended 
with the FM file name as a prefix. This requires major handwork ex post facto.
[RJ Jacquez] This is interesting.  Do you know we have a cross-reference 
mapping feature, similar to mapping Paragraph and Character styles?  If not, I 
created a quick Captivate recording showing where this feature is and here's 
the link for you to watch:
http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/fmxrefs2rh/

If there is a method to "live link", which implies true roundtripping, please 
elucidate...best regards, Kelly / PavTech/Rockwell
[RJ Jacquez] Hopefully this will help you resolve the Xrefs issues and if you 
have some more problems, I'm planning on participating on this forum more 
actively, so please ask away.