Re: FW: Adobe CEO interview

[Bodvar Bjorgvinsson]

On 5/18/07, Ann Zdunczyk [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

It is interesting that I have been hearing about paperless offices for years
but have yet to see one.


On the news last night there was a story about one of the Baltic
states (Estonia or Latvia, IIRC) complaining that Russia was attacking
their computer systems (which, of course Russia denies!). This state
is probably the only one in the world (or at least the first one) that
went for the paperless office in their government offices.
The CEO of F-Prot (www.fprot.com) commented that sadly it is very easy
to attack and force to a standstill such systems, and that [some of]
the former USSR nations were using this as a political weapon.

I am not going to elaborate about it here, but such attacks can be
very difficult to track, and more so as the attackers usually use
thousands of sleepers all over the world for these attacks. There
is, I understand, no solution to the problem in sight.

I do not see a paperless office in the near future. There would have
to be a major change in the Internet system for that to happen --
which might just as well end in doing away with the Internet as such.

Bodvar Bjorgvinsson
-- never pessimistic, even on a Monday.




OK my two cents for a Friday.

Have a GREAT weekend everyone.

Z


**
Ann Zdunczyk
President
a2z Publishing, Inc.
Language Layout  Translation Consulting
Phone: (336)922-1271
Fax:   (336)922-4980
Cell:  (336)456-4493
http://www.a2z-pub.com
**


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Re: FrameMaker.next

[Bodvar Bjorgvinsson]

Bill, are you by any chance implying that FramMaker.next will come
with a Sushi support. That would be nice. FM does such a nice thing of
wrapping upp a lots of things anyway! ;-)

Bodvar Bjorgvinsson
-- here to lighten up your Monday morning.


On 5/17/07, Bill Swallow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 As an aside (and just to make Bernard blush, if that's possible), if you
 ever get a chance to sit in on training or a presentation done by
 Bernard, DO IT!!!  I have to say that he was my favorite presenter at
 the conference (or maybe he just had the best and most interesting
 material...)  You'll learn lots of great information and techniques from
 him, and be entertained at the same time -- but be sure you've had lots
 of caffeine so you can keep up.  :-)

Yes, but if you have a chance to eat sushi with Bernard, make sure you
are at the end where he is ordering from to prevent the draining of
the entire ocean's population onto your table. ;-) I think we ate more
sushi at our table (of about 10-12 people) than was eaten that entire
day by all other patrons. ;-) I'm not complaining by any means. On
another plus side, the Sapporos kept coming. ;-)

--
Bill Swallow
HATT List Owner
WWP-Users List Owner
Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
STC Single-Sourcing SIG Manager
http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
avid homebrewer and proud beer snob
I see your OOO message and raise you a clue.
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Re: Character switching FM/Distiller

[Bodvar Bjorgvinsson]

Hi Penelope and Kenneth,

Thank you for your help. I regret to be late in replying. Usually
replies move the thread into the Inbox of my Gmail, but this time it
did not. I just started looking in my Sent Mail because of the thread
(header) Confused about hexadecimal Codes, and then I saw a couple
of replies to my posting.


Kenneth:
You are absolutely right. This is not a Distiller problem. I would
rather think this is has to do with the PS driver. The character
prints as intended on any non-postscript printer, but on a PostScript
printer and to PDF it prints incorrectly.

Penelope:
It would have set me on the right track if I had read it eariler. :-(
But the Confused... thread lead me to study the online manual:
FrameMaker Character Sets where I saw that there is no entry for the
circled roman 2, which must be rated as a bug. However, the sans-serif
circled 2 has an entry, as referred to in your reply.

ADOBE:
I think Adobe should really make a separate revision/upgrade to this
part of FM for all versions 7.x at least, or if this is, as I am
starting to suspect, a PostScript driver fault, to revise the Adobe
PostScript driver, and have this solved in the FrameMaker.next (as
Bernard prefers to call the next version).

Thanks again and God bless,

Bodvar


On 5/16/07, Penelope Perkins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Bodvar,

I can confirm this behavior on Win XP, FM 7.2, Acro 7.0. Do you recall
the issue a number of years ago with Zapf Dingbats and Win2000/XP? To
get the right characters to both display and print, you had to edit the
PPD for the printer driver. I thought that might have something to do
with your problematic circle-2, but I checked the PPD used by Distiller
7 and it doesn't even include the line that the fix told you to edit.
Just out of curiosity, I tried this on a system with Win2000, FM 7.0,
Acro 5.5, and got the same results, regardless of whether that PPD is
edited, so it's not a new problem.

Do you have to use the serif numbers? There are sans serif numbers in
circles starting at ALT+0192; I tested to make sure ALT+0193 really
produces a circle-2.

BTW, you can see info about the aforementioned issue at
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/[EMAIL PROTECTED]@.ef4dc73

Regards,
Penelope

=
Penelope Perkins, Senior Technical Writer
Synergex
Sacramento, California
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

 -Original Message-
 From:
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
.com] On Behalf Of Bodvar Bjorgvinsson
 Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 6:48 AM
 To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
 Subject: Character switching FM/Distiller

 Hi all,

 I am trying to use Zapf Dingbats (that has never failed me!) to
 display and print a.o. the digit 2 in a ring. The FM shortcut is
 CTRL-q - (dash) or ALT-0173.

 The weird thing is that in both instances (using CTRL-q - (dash) and
 ALT-0173) or by copy - pasting from the character map, the character
 shows correctly in FM 7.2 but after distilling, the pdf shows the hand
 holding pen turning left.
 Both characters are using the dash, according to the character map,
 with the difference that the hand is hard dash and the 2 circled is
 the soft dash.

 Any ideas? Will I need to use the circled numbers from Wingdings 1?

 I have no problems with the circled 1.

 Bodvar Bjorgvinsson,
 Supervisor Publishing,
 Air Atlanta Icelandic.
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RE: XML - graphics - import - solved

[Allen, Richard (Raytheon)]

Hi

Problem solved.

I have been working on this, on and off, for the past two months.  Turns
out that the XML application I set-up from the existing and working SGML
application is case sensitive.  I though I had accounted for all case
issues of elements and attributes.  The last piece was the case for
attributes in the read/write rules.  Problem solved.

Thanks

Richard


Hi Richard...

Maybe you could describe what the problem is. I'm assuming that the file

isn't opening properly .. but what kind of errors are you getting? Do 
you have a structapp defined for this XML doctype?


 I have been trying to open up a XML document in FrameMaker 7.2 which
 contains graphic entities.  I am at a los as to what I am missing.
The
 graphics are declared at the top of the XML document instance.  The
 structure of the XML document instance is valid.

 Anyone have a hint as to what I might look at to resolve this?


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re: Getting data from xml into Frame was, Do I need to jump into the Structured FM pool?

[Carrie Baker]

Slightly connected to this.
We have Frame 7.2, not structured and are doing fine.
We are a small (understaffed) department of 2 half time writers.
There is one very large chapter of a user guide which is based on
information from the programmers .xml file.
Their xml file consists of a list of parameters with various
explanations about them. This file is used by the application.
As writers we need to list all of these parameters and explain them.
Documentation began when the list was a very small list. The SME gave
us a word file which was eventually converted to Frame with the
information the users required.
Since then everything has grown a lot.
The xml file now contains a over 2000 parameters.
Various tech writers worked on it over the years and at some point a
lot of parameters were missed out.
For every product release a large number of parameters are added to the list.
The problem I am facing is how to identify the parameters that are
currently missing from the Frame file, and in the future how to
smoothly make sure the file is kept up to date. As new features are
developed RD tell us which parameters are added, but if parameters
are changed or removed we do not really have a way of tracking.
RD tried to give us an Excel file (i.e. they opened their xml file in
Excel and saved it for us), but it actually messed up the
information, since there were also sub groups of parameters (e.g.
parameter x contains the following 50 fields, then each field appeared
as a stand alone parameter).

As is mentioned below, Frame knows how to talk to xml, so what I am
looking for is whether someone can tell me, how I can make my
alphabetical list in FrameMaker (which I am willing to turn into a
table or something else), talk directly to the xml list to see what is
missing from my list and in future easily identify what to add.
However, the entire content of the 2 lists are not identical, since
the Frame file (or user guide) has to give the user a full explanation
of the meaning of each parameter, which the .xml file does not do.

(or what can I ask RD to do to help us, as each time they only give
us this messed up Excel file)

(Oh and my boss does not want to spend too much time on this!)
__

Marcus wrote

Structure can certainly help - if you store your manuals in XML all the
manual work can be eliminated. Chances are your bug tracking system can
export reports in XML. An XSLT stylesheet can very easily replace the
existing version of this information so when next you open the document in
FrameMaker, the data is all updated.

Of course, this open up myriad possibilities for customisation of the bug
information - separation of code and interface bugs, ordering by severity
for developers and date for managers, whatever you can imagine.

The point is that generating this information is best accomplished by your
bug tracking software, not by FrameMaker. It can generate a report of open
bugs, so why would you want to do exactly that in FrameMaker? You may want
to dump it all into FrameMaker and conditionally display it - providing
different views for different audiences is very much part of what
FrameMaker should be responsible for.

Probably the biggest gain that you can get out of XML is the ability to
make your information span applications, but to do so you obviously need
to look wider than FrameMaker. You're doing software manuals by the sound
of it, so you presumably have access to programmers. If I was you, the
first step would be sit down with a couple of them and see if you have the
resources to develop a scalable, robust system. I recommend against the
toe in the water approach - I've seen too many people spending too much
time trying to gradually improve them into the system that they knew they
wanted but weren't brave enough to embark on in the first place.

Measure twice, cut once and have fun!


Marcus
_
Carrie Baker
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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RE: PDF Content reuse with Frame + DITA?

[Linda G. Gallagher]

I've admittedly missed the beginning of this thread, but I would like to
comment on this:

The Index Tools Pro plug-in claims to provide for conditional index 
entries .. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but it may perhaps 
make the process of conditionalizing individual markers easier.

I've used this plug-in with conditions, and it does work to essentially
apply a condition to index markers. You can also use variables in index
entries with Index Tools Pro. 

I'm just a satisfied user.


~
Linda G. Gallagher
TechCom Plus, LLC
lindag at techcomplus dot com
www.techcomplus.com
303-450-9076 or 800-500-3144
User guides, online help, FrameMaker and
WebWorks ePublisher templates




-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Scott Prentice
Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2007 3:20 PM
To: Jeremy H. Griffith
Cc: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Re: PDF Content reuse with Frame + DITA?

Thanks Jeremy .. good point! Now that I read what I wrote, I can see how 
it could be misunderstood. I meant that even if you do duplicate and 
conditionalize markers just to change one word in that marker, it will 
become a mess to manage.  :)

The Index Tools Pro plugin claims to provide for conditional index 
entries .. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but it may perhaps 
make the process of conditionalizing individual markers easier. Our 
plugin, MarkerTools, lets you insert a custom building block into 
markers which maps to variables that are defined in your document .. in 
essence allowing you to have variables within markers (not possible 
without the plugin). This can give you a type of conditional control 
within a marker (especially when used in conjunction with BookVars).

..scott


Jeremy H. Griffith wrote:
 On Sun, 20 May 2007 13:30:45 -0700, Scott Prentice wrote:

   
 It's a good practice to avoid conditional content within 
 index entries .. it's one thing to include/exclude a marker 
 in a specific output, but if you start messing with words 
 within a marker, you'll go nuts.
 

 It's not only good practice, it's the law.  ;-)

 Frame *implements* conditional text using markers.  So it's
 flat-out impossible to conditionalize *within* a marker.
 As Scott says, the closest you can get to that is:

   
 you'd need to create duplicate markers with different text, 
 and conditionalize each marker accordingly. However this 
 is difficult to maintain ...
 


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




   

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RE: Character switching FM/Distiller

[Dov Isaacs]

For what it is worth, there is no such thing as an
Adobe PostScript Driver, at least for the current
versions of Windows. The driver used for the Adobe PDF
PostScript printer driver instance and for most printers
supporting PostScript is in fact the PSCRIPT5 driver
distributed and maintained by Microsoft as part of 
Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and
Windows Vista. Although Adobe worked with Microsoft to
originally develop that driver nearly eight years ago,
Microsoft has had full responsibility for it ever since.

The problems with FrameMaker's poor character set support
cannot be readily solved without full Unicode support.
You will NOT see such support in any FrameMaker 7.x (or
earlier) versions.

- Dov
 

 -Original Message-
 From: Bodvar Bjorgvinsson
 Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 3:39 AM
 To: Penelope Perkins
 Cc: framers@lists.frameusers.com
 Subject: Re: Character switching FM/Distiller
 
 Hi Penelope and Kenneth,
 
 Thank you for your help. I regret to be late in replying. 
 Usually replies move the thread into the Inbox of my Gmail, 
 but this time it did not. I just started looking in my Sent 
 Mail because of the thread
 (header) Confused about hexadecimal Codes, and then I saw a 
 couple of replies to my posting.
 
 
 Kenneth:
 You are absolutely right. This is not a Distiller problem. I 
 would rather think this is has to do with the PS driver. The 
 character prints as intended on any non-postscript printer, 
 but on a PostScript printer and to PDF it prints incorrectly.
 
 Penelope:
 It would have set me on the right track if I had read it 
 eariler. :-( But the Confused... thread lead me to study 
 the online manual:
 FrameMaker Character Sets where I saw that there is no 
 entry for the circled roman 2, which must be rated as a bug. 
 However, the sans-serif circled 2 has an entry, as referred 
 to in your reply.
 
 ADOBE:
 I think Adobe should really make a separate revision/upgrade 
 to this part of FM for all versions 7.x at least, or if this 
 is, as I am starting to suspect, a PostScript driver fault, 
 to revise the Adobe PostScript driver, and have this solved 
 in the FrameMaker.next (as Bernard prefers to call the next version).
 
 Thanks again and God bless,
 
 Bodvar
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RE: Character switching FM/Distiller

[Steve Rickaby]

At 08:25 -0700 21/5/07, Dov Isaacs wrote:

For what it is worth, there is no such thing as an Adobe PostScript Driver, 
at least for the current versions of Windows. The driver used for the Adobe 
PDF PostScript printer driver instance and for most printers supporting 
PostScript is in fact the PSCRIPT5 driver distributed and maintained by 
Microsoft as part of  Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and 
Windows Vista.

How very interesting. At least on our obsolete Mac FrameMaker installations we 
get a genoooiyne Adobe-branded Ps printer driver (or such is my interpretation 
of the fact that it's called 'AdobePS', shows an Adobe logo in the print 
dialog, and says 'Adobe Systems Incorporated' when you request file info on it).

-- 
Steve
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Re: Character switching FM/Distiller

[Bodvar Bjorgvinsson]

On 5/21/07, Dov Isaacs [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

For what it is worth, there is no such thing as an
Adobe PostScript Driver, at least for the current
versions of Windows. The driver used for the Adobe PDF
PostScript printer driver instance and for most printers
supporting PostScript is in fact the PSCRIPT5 driver
distributed and maintained by Microsoft as part of
Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and
Windows Vista. Although Adobe worked with Microsoft to
originally develop that driver nearly eight years ago,
Microsoft has had full responsibility for it ever since.


I stand corrected. :-)



The problems with FrameMaker's poor character set support
cannot be readily solved without full Unicode support.
You will NOT see such support in any FrameMaker 7.x (or
earlier) versions.

- Dov



Not too good news for FM 7 owners/users, Dov. Hopefully FM 8 will have
the full Unicode support.

Thanks for the info.

Bodvar
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RE: Character switching FM/Distiller

[Dov Isaacs]

I did say Windows, not Macintosh, as well as the particular
versions of Windows!

- Dov 

 -Original Message-
 From: Steve Rickaby [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
 Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 8:38 AM
 To: Dov Isaacs; Bodvar Bjorgvinsson; Penelope Perkins
 Cc: framers@lists.frameusers.com
 Subject: RE: Character switching FM/Distiller
 
 At 08:25 -0700 21/5/07, Dov Isaacs wrote:
 
 For what it is worth, there is no such thing as an Adobe 
 PostScript Driver, at least for the current versions of 
 Windows. The driver used for the Adobe PDF PostScript printer 
 driver instance and for most printers supporting PostScript 
 is in fact the PSCRIPT5 driver distributed and maintained by 
 Microsoft as part of  Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 
 Server 2003, and Windows Vista.
 
 How very interesting. At least on our obsolete Mac FrameMaker 
 installations we get a genoooiyne Adobe-branded Ps printer 
 driver (or such is my interpretation of the fact that it's 
 called 'AdobePS', shows an Adobe logo in the print dialog, 
 and says 'Adobe Systems Incorporated' when you request file 
 info on it).
 
 -- 
 Steve
 
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Re: Getting data from xml into Frame was, Do I need to jump into the Structured FM pool?

[Scott Prentice]

Hi Carrie...

For starters, you should get ahold of an XML diff tool (just google xml 
diff, and you'll see lots of options) so you can determine exactly what 
has changed between versions of this XML file. You should be able to get 
one of your developers to write an XSLT transformation that would 
generate a list of the parameters in the file, and you can compare that 
list to a TOC list generated from your Frame file .. this will let you 
determine what's missing or extra.


In an ideal world, you might consider authoring the descriptions of 
the parameters and fields in XML (in Frame or another XML editor), then 
run an XSLT transformation on the descriptions file and the file 
provided by development to generate the source for your final 
documentation. You'd just open the generated file in Frame (after 
setting up a structure application), and it would be ready to print. The 
EDD could be set up to render any missing descriptions with a big red 
MISSING DESCRIPTION note, in which case you'd add that to the 
descriptions file and regenerate.


Obviously this would take some time and money to set up, but in the long 
run will probably save a lot. Just having the ability to easily diff the 
versions of the XML file will probably be a big improvement though.


Good luck!

...scott

Scott Prentice
Leximation, Inc.
www.leximation.com
+1.415.485.1892



Carrie Baker wrote:

Slightly connected to this.
We have Frame 7.2, not structured and are doing fine.
We are a small (understaffed) department of 2 half time writers.
There is one very large chapter of a user guide which is based on
information from the programmers .xml file.
Their xml file consists of a list of parameters with various
explanations about them. This file is used by the application.
As writers we need to list all of these parameters and explain them.
Documentation began when the list was a very small list. The SME gave
us a word file which was eventually converted to Frame with the
information the users required.
Since then everything has grown a lot.
The xml file now contains a over 2000 parameters.
Various tech writers worked on it over the years and at some point a
lot of parameters were missed out.
For every product release a large number of parameters are added to 
the list.

The problem I am facing is how to identify the parameters that are
currently missing from the Frame file, and in the future how to
smoothly make sure the file is kept up to date. As new features are
developed RD tell us which parameters are added, but if parameters
are changed or removed we do not really have a way of tracking.
RD tried to give us an Excel file (i.e. they opened their xml file in
Excel and saved it for us), but it actually messed up the
information, since there were also sub groups of parameters (e.g.
parameter x contains the following 50 fields, then each field appeared
as a stand alone parameter).

As is mentioned below, Frame knows how to talk to xml, so what I am
looking for is whether someone can tell me, how I can make my
alphabetical list in FrameMaker (which I am willing to turn into a
table or something else), talk directly to the xml list to see what is
missing from my list and in future easily identify what to add.
However, the entire content of the 2 lists are not identical, since
the Frame file (or user guide) has to give the user a full explanation
of the meaning of each parameter, which the .xml file does not do.

(or what can I ask RD to do to help us, as each time they only give
us this messed up Excel file)

(Oh and my boss does not want to spend too much time on this!)
__

Marcus wrote

Structure can certainly help - if you store your manuals in XML all the
manual work can be eliminated. Chances are your bug tracking system can
export reports in XML. An XSLT stylesheet can very easily replace the
existing version of this information so when next you open the 
document in

FrameMaker, the data is all updated.

Of course, this open up myriad possibilities for customisation of the bug
information - separation of code and interface bugs, ordering by severity
for developers and date for managers, whatever you can imagine.

The point is that generating this information is best accomplished by 
your
bug tracking software, not by FrameMaker. It can generate a report of 
open
bugs, so why would you want to do exactly that in FrameMaker? You may 
want

to dump it all into FrameMaker and conditionally display it - providing
different views for different audiences is very much part of what
FrameMaker should be responsible for.

Probably the biggest gain that you can get out of XML is the ability to
make your information span applications, but to do so you obviously need
to look wider than FrameMaker. You're doing software manuals by the sound
of it, so you presumably have access to programmers. If I was you, the
first step would be sit down with a couple of them and see 

Re: Getting data from xml into Frame was, Do I need to jump into the Structured FM pool?

[Scott Prentice]

XSLT is a scripting language for processing XML files. See .. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xslt


XSLT is not a Frame-specific language, and if your developers use XML 
very much, someone is bound to be able to write a simple XSLT script to 
generate a list of parameters/fields .. something that might look very 
similar to a TOC that you would generate from Frame. With this you'd be 
able to do a visual compare between your FM TOC and the TOC generated 
from the XML file.


...scott


Carrie Baker wrote:

As I hoped I am getting some interesting answers.
However, since I have not worked on structured Frame yet, and am not
so famailiar with the terminology, can you explain was an XSLT
transformation is?

On 5/21/07, Scott Prentice wrote:

Hi Carrie...

For starters, you should get ahold of an XML diff tool (just google xml
diff, and you'll see lots of options) so you can determine exactly what
has changed between versions of this XML file. You should be able to get
one of your developers to write an XSLT transformation that would
generate a list of the parameters in the file, and you can compare that
list to a TOC list generated from your Frame file .. this will let you
determine what's missing or extra.

In an ideal world, you might consider authoring the descriptions of
the parameters and fields in XML (in Frame or another XML editor), then
run an XSLT transformation on the descriptions file and the file
provided by development to generate the source for your final
documentation. You'd just open the generated file in Frame (after
setting up a structure application), and it would be ready to print. The
EDD could be set up to render any missing descriptions with a big red
MISSING DESCRIPTION note, in which case you'd add that to the
descriptions file and regenerate.

Obviously this would take some time and money to set up, but in the long
run will probably save a lot. Just having the ability to easily diff the
versions of the XML file will probably be a big improvement though.

Good luck!

...scott

Scott Prentice
Leximation, Inc.
www.leximation.com
+1.415.485.1892



Carrie Baker wrote:
 Slightly connected to this.
 We have Frame 7.2, not structured and are doing fine.
 We are a small (understaffed) department of 2 half time writers.
 There is one very large chapter of a user guide which is based on
 information from the programmers .xml file.
 Their xml file consists of a list of parameters with various
 explanations about them. This file is used by the application.
 As writers we need to list all of these parameters and explain them.
 Documentation began when the list was a very small list. The SME gave
 us a word file which was eventually converted to Frame with the
 information the users required.
 Since then everything has grown a lot.
 The xml file now contains a over 2000 parameters.
 Various tech writers worked on it over the years and at some point a
 lot of parameters were missed out.
 For every product release a large number of parameters are added to
 the list.
 The problem I am facing is how to identify the parameters that are
 currently missing from the Frame file, and in the future how to
 smoothly make sure the file is kept up to date. As new features are
 developed RD tell us which parameters are added, but if parameters
 are changed or removed we do not really have a way of tracking.
 RD tried to give us an Excel file (i.e. they opened their xml file in
 Excel and saved it for us), but it actually messed up the
 information, since there were also sub groups of parameters (e.g.
 parameter x contains the following 50 fields, then each field appeared
 as a stand alone parameter).

 As is mentioned below, Frame knows how to talk to xml, so what I am
 looking for is whether someone can tell me, how I can make my
 alphabetical list in FrameMaker (which I am willing to turn into a
 table or something else), talk directly to the xml list to see what is
 missing from my list and in future easily identify what to add.
 However, the entire content of the 2 lists are not identical, since
 the Frame file (or user guide) has to give the user a full explanation
 of the meaning of each parameter, which the .xml file does not do.

 (or what can I ask RD to do to help us, as each time they only give
 us this messed up Excel file)

 (Oh and my boss does not want to spend too much time on this!)
 __

 Marcus wrote

 Structure can certainly help - if you store your manuals in XML 
all the
 manual work can be eliminated. Chances are your bug tracking system 
can

 export reports in XML. An XSLT stylesheet can very easily replace the
 existing version of this information so when next you open the
 document in
 FrameMaker, the data is all updated.

 Of course, this open up myriad possibilities for customisation of 
the bug
 information - separation of code and interface bugs, ordering by 
severity

 for developers and date for managers, 

Unresolved text insets and relinking images

[Natalie Bircher]

I need to move frame files and get unresolved text insets after I regenerate
and end up having to re-link them all. Is there a way to keep these linked,
or am I stuck importing them again?

Also, we moved our library of images (don't ask why!) and now I have to
re-link all the images. Any suggestions to make this less tedious and  keep
me from getting carpal tunnel? 

 

I have two issues that have resulted because of having to move Frame files.
The first one is that I have to re-link all the images because it was
decided to move the image catalog to another server. Is there an easier
way to do this? The second issue is that I get unresolved text insets for
the canned warnings we use. I have to re-import these too. This is
extremely tedious and hard on the mousing wrist! Any suggestions?

 

 

Natalie Bircher

Technical Writer

BackStreet Media

Phone: 320-843-4337 

Fax: 320-842-4236

Email:  mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 

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Re: Unresolved text insets and relinking images

[Art Campbell]

If you have to move FM files around, always try to use Bruce foster's
Archive plugin to collect all components that a book or file requires.

Otherwise, always try to set up the directory structure so that the
files are in the same relative paths before and after...

Art


On 5/21/07, Natalie Bircher [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

I need to move frame files and get unresolved text insets after I regenerate
and end up having to re-link them all. Is there a way to keep these linked,
or am I stuck importing them again?

Also, we moved our library of images (don't ask why!) and now I have to
re-link all the images. Any suggestions to make this less tedious and  keep
me from getting carpal tunnel?



I have two issues that have resulted because of having to move Frame files.
The first one is that I have to re-link all the images because it was
decided to move the image catalog to another server. Is there an easier
way to do this? The second issue is that I get unresolved text insets for
the canned warnings we use. I have to re-import these too. This is
extremely tedious and hard on the mousing wrist! Any suggestions?





Natalie Bircher

Technical Writer

BackStreet Media

Phone: 320-843-4337

Fax: 320-842-4236

Email:  mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]



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--
Art Campbell [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 ... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent
  and a redheaded girl. -- Richard Thompson
No disclaimers apply.
DoD 358
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Re: Unresolved text insets and relinking images

[Zoe Lawson]

You should be able to save your files as a .mif file, and do a search and 
replace for the paths, too. 

Look for something like:

ImportObFileDI `u\u\c\directoryc\ImageFile'
ImportObFile `../../directory/ImageFile'

Where Directory is the folder your image is in, and ImageFile the name of the 
image file. (the number of u\ etc. will vary depending on your relative 
paths).

If you fix one image, then save as .mif, you can compare the fixed image path 
to the old paths, and play with search and replace.

It's still pretty manual, but less carpel tunnel. I'm sure you can find 
something similar for text insets. (I don't have any right now to check)

NOTE: I haven't tried this particular tip for a while, so I may have forgotten 
a step or two.

HTH,

Zoë

On 5/21/07, Natalie Bircher [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 I need to move frame files and get unresolved text insets after I regenerate
 and end up having to re-link them all. Is there a way to keep these linked,
 or am I stuck importing them again?







 

Need Mail bonding?
Go to the Yahoo! Mail QA for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users.
http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=listsid=396546091
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RE: Unresolved text insets and relinking images

[Van Boening, Tammy]

Framescript! I had to relink several hundred text insets once and it was
either a tedious one by one manual process, or use the best $200 ever
and buy Framescript and get Rick Quatro to write a script that did this
relinking with like two clicks. It was a dream.

TVB 


Tammy L. Van Boening
Senior Technical Writer
Fiserv Insurance Solutions 
Property and Casualty Division
303-729-7733
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
***
Keep smiling, at least until you get your own way.

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
] On Behalf Of Natalie Bircher
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 2:51 PM
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Unresolved text insets and relinking images

I need to move frame files and get unresolved text insets after I
regenerate and end up having to re-link them all. Is there a way to keep
these linked, or am I stuck importing them again?

Also, we moved our library of images (don't ask why!) and now I have to
re-link all the images. Any suggestions to make this less tedious and
keep me from getting carpal tunnel? 

 

I have two issues that have resulted because of having to move Frame
files.
The first one is that I have to re-link all the images because it was
decided to move the image catalog to another server. Is there an
easier
way to do this? The second issue is that I get unresolved text insets
for the canned warnings we use. I have to re-import these too. This is
extremely tedious and hard on the mousing wrist! Any suggestions?

 

 

Natalie Bircher

Technical Writer

BackStreet Media

Phone: 320-843-4337 

Fax: 320-842-4236

Email:  mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

 

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iserv.com

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Tool to convert tables to paragraphs?

[Pat Christenson]

Does anyone know of a FrameMaker plug-in that will convert tables to  
paragraphs throughout a book or directory?


Thanks.

Pat
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Re: Getting data from xml into Frame was, Do I need to jump into the Structured FM pool?

[Carrie Baker]

As I hoped I am getting some interesting answers.
However, since I have not worked on structured Frame yet, and am not
so famailiar with the terminology, can you explain was an XSLT
transformation is?

On 5/21/07, Scott Prentice [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Hi Carrie...

For starters, you should get ahold of an XML diff tool (just google xml
diff, and you'll see lots of options) so you can determine exactly what
has changed between versions of this XML file. You should be able to get
one of your developers to write an XSLT transformation that would
generate a list of the parameters in the file, and you can compare that
list to a TOC list generated from your Frame file .. this will let you
determine what's missing or extra.

In an ideal world, you might consider authoring the descriptions of
the parameters and fields in XML (in Frame or another XML editor), then
run an XSLT transformation on the descriptions file and the file
provided by development to generate the source for your final
documentation. You'd just open the generated file in Frame (after
setting up a structure application), and it would be ready to print. The
EDD could be set up to render any missing descriptions with a big red
MISSING DESCRIPTION note, in which case you'd add that to the
descriptions file and regenerate.

Obviously this would take some time and money to set up, but in the long
run will probably save a lot. Just having the ability to easily diff the
versions of the XML file will probably be a big improvement though.

Good luck!

...scott

Scott Prentice
Leximation, Inc.
www.leximation.com
+1.415.485.1892



Carrie Baker wrote:
 Slightly connected to this.
 We have Frame 7.2, not structured and are doing fine.
 We are a small (understaffed) department of 2 half time writers.
 There is one very large chapter of a user guide which is based on
 information from the programmers .xml file.
 Their xml file consists of a list of parameters with various
 explanations about them. This file is used by the application.
 As writers we need to list all of these parameters and explain them.
 Documentation began when the list was a very small list. The SME gave
 us a word file which was eventually converted to Frame with the
 information the users required.
 Since then everything has grown a lot.
 The xml file now contains a over 2000 parameters.
 Various tech writers worked on it over the years and at some point a
 lot of parameters were missed out.
 For every product release a large number of parameters are added to
 the list.
 The problem I am facing is how to identify the parameters that are
 currently missing from the Frame file, and in the future how to
 smoothly make sure the file is kept up to date. As new features are
 developed RD tell us which parameters are added, but if parameters
 are changed or removed we do not really have a way of tracking.
 RD tried to give us an Excel file (i.e. they opened their xml file in
 Excel and saved it for us), but it actually messed up the
 information, since there were also sub groups of parameters (e.g.
 parameter x contains the following 50 fields, then each field appeared
 as a stand alone parameter).

 As is mentioned below, Frame knows how to talk to xml, so what I am
 looking for is whether someone can tell me, how I can make my
 alphabetical list in FrameMaker (which I am willing to turn into a
 table or something else), talk directly to the xml list to see what is
 missing from my list and in future easily identify what to add.
 However, the entire content of the 2 lists are not identical, since
 the Frame file (or user guide) has to give the user a full explanation
 of the meaning of each parameter, which the .xml file does not do.

 (or what can I ask RD to do to help us, as each time they only give
 us this messed up Excel file)

 (Oh and my boss does not want to spend too much time on this!)
 __

 Marcus wrote

 Structure can certainly help - if you store your manuals in XML all the
 manual work can be eliminated. Chances are your bug tracking system can
 export reports in XML. An XSLT stylesheet can very easily replace the
 existing version of this information so when next you open the
 document in
 FrameMaker, the data is all updated.

 Of course, this open up myriad possibilities for customisation of the bug
 information - separation of code and interface bugs, ordering by severity
 for developers and date for managers, whatever you can imagine.

 The point is that generating this information is best accomplished by
 your
 bug tracking software, not by FrameMaker. It can generate a report of
 open
 bugs, so why would you want to do exactly that in FrameMaker? You may
 want
 to dump it all into FrameMaker and conditionally display it - providing
 different views for different audiences is very much part of what
 FrameMaker should be responsible for.

 Probably the biggest gain that you can get out of XML is the 

Framescript Question

[Gutierrez, Anita]

Hi all -- 
 
Framescript question--Frame 7.0p579, FrameScript 4.1R2.
 
I have a script that moves through a book and sets the left margin of
each graphic to a certain distance based on the context of the anchored
frame.  The basic logic is: If the preceding paragraph tag is A, set the
margin to X.  If it's B, set it to Y ... and so on.  This part works
great.
 
I now have a book that requires individual inspection of each graphic.
I need to see it to know whether to change it.  The problem is that when
my existing script runs, it doesn't bring each anchored frame into view
in the Frame window.  All I see is the first page of the document and a
bunch of flickering as the graphics are changed.  Is there a way to get
the focus of the window to change as part of the script, so that I just
click Yes or No for each frame?  I'd rather not have to scroll manually
to each anchored frame.
 
Thanks for any wisdom!
Anita
 
 
 
 
Anita Maria Gutierrez
Principal Curriculum Developer
Sage Software
15195 NW Greenbrier Parkway
Beaverton, Oregon 97006
(503) 439-7286
 
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Re: FW: Adobe CEO interview (Marcus Carr)

[liviabemail-tech]

This is all really good reading.

From: Marcus Carr [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC: 
To: Framers List [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 10:15:01 +1000
Subject: Re: FW: Adobe CEO interview

 
Hi Dan,

Daniel Emory wrote:

 It’s estimated that 40% of the US adult population is non-literate,
 which means they don’t read books or newspapers. This has been
 accompanied by a rapid decline in the ability of college students to
 write a half-way decent paragraph in English. The California State
 College system, the largest in the nation, takes almost any applicant
 who got through high-school degree with half-way decent grades. But
 about 40% of its first year students are not capable of doing 
 college-level work, and thus their first year is dominated by
 remedial classes in English, Math and other subjects they should have
 mastered in high school.
 
 These declines all coincide with the growth of the internet, and the
 shift from obtaining knowledge from paper books to learning from
 feeble snippets of on-line text. The blogosphere, dominated by those
 who are at least competent in the English language, consists mainly
 of opinions unsupported by any factual basis.

Although I feel that what you are saying may well have merit, I'm 
reluctant to jump to any conclusions too quickly. A favourite example of 
misdirected causality is the inexplicable reduction in crime for young 
males in New York city. Politicians claimed for years that it was due to 
their tough on crime policy, yet the drop surpassed that of cities 
with similar policies. Eventually someone figured out that it coincided 
with abortion being made more freely available - less children being 
born into poor homes where they weren't wanted translated into fewer 
boys thinking crime was the way up and girls thinking pregnancy was. Of 
course it's not conclusive, but it's as plausible as the mismatched 
tough on crime line...

There could be an element of that in your reasoning, I feel. Whether 
information is to be delivered on paper or on screen doesn't predispose 
it to being written at a certain level of quality. Whether it's being 
delivered electronically or on paper, there will *always* be a need for 
people who are able to write clearly. Some information is too critical 
to risk misinterpretation.

It's certainly true that there's a lot of poor writing on the internet, 
but that's partly because there's so much information. Take this posting 
as a case in point - I don't claim to write with any particular 
proficiency, but you're reading it because it landed in your email. Had 
it not, it's extremely unlikely that we'd be exchanging letters about 
this topic, if for no other reason than the fact that we didn't realise 
the other was interested in it.

 When you read tomes from the 1990’s extolling the promise of
 hypertext to change the way people think and use information, (I
 recommend the “Hypertext/Hypermedia Handbook by Berk and Devlin), you
 begin to realize that it’s promise was still-born. The hypertext
 pioneers envisioned a rich panoply of link types that would create
 hypertexts which were true “searchable mazes” Frame Technology,
 beginning in FrameMaker 4, added a rich variety of hypertext link 
 types which would have realized that original vision.

True, but linking is difficult. It's easy if the ends of all of the 
links reside in your domain, but how do you know if the point within a 
document owned by someone else still means what it did when you first 
pointed at it? It's tough enough for a link to even know whether the 
document still exists, let alone how it might degrade gracefully to 
another resource, how to determine the impact of the missing link on the 
viability of the rest of the document, etc. It's still relatively early 
days and linking is one of the key components of a rich internet, so 
it's getting plenty of attention.

 When Adobe took over FrameMaker, it could have carried out that
 vision by implementing all of the FrameMaker link types in PDF. It
 failed to do so. And so, the HTML standard, with only the most
 primitive hypertext link type, became the standard. There was some
 hope that the XML standard would have rich linking capabilities. It
 added a few additional link types, but nowhere near enough to realize
 the original promise of hypertext.

You certainly could be on to something with that - one of the ways that 
FrameMaker could be kept relevant would be to concentrate heavily on 
linking, including to documents outside of the current book. PDF would 
provide a great platform for that - it might even be enough to increase 
the use of PDF on the internet. (They'd want to make loading a PDF 
quicker and less obvious first though.)

 Getting back to what I state in the first two paragraphs above, I
 maintain that the ability to acquire in-depth knowledge of a subject
 is a discipline which is difficult to master. And I have no doubt
 that well-written, well-organized paper books, particularly on
 

Re: Tool to convert tables to paragraphs?

[Syed Zaeem Hosain]

Hi, Pat.

Pat Christenson wrote:
Does anyone know of a FrameMaker plug-in that will convert tables to 
paragraphs throughout a book or directory?


Hmmm ... doesn't the built-in menu function Table-Convert to Paragraphs in
FrameMaker work for you?

Z
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FW: Adobe CEO interview

[Marcus Carr]

Hi Dan,

Daniel Emory wrote:

> It?s estimated that 40% of the US adult population is non-literate,
> which means they don?t read books or newspapers. This has been
> accompanied by a rapid decline in the ability of college students to
> write a half-way decent paragraph in English. The California State
> College system, the largest in the nation, takes almost any applicant
> who got through high-school degree with half-way decent grades. But
> about 40% of its first year students are not capable of doing 
> college-level work, and thus their first year is dominated by
> remedial classes in English, Math and other subjects they should have
> mastered in high school.
> 
> These declines all coincide with the growth of the internet, and the
> shift from obtaining knowledge from paper books to learning from
> feeble snippets of on-line text. The blogosphere, dominated by those
> who are at least competent in the English language, consists mainly
> of opinions unsupported by any factual basis.

Although I feel that what you are saying may well have merit, I'm 
reluctant to jump to any conclusions too quickly. A favourite example of 
misdirected causality is the inexplicable reduction in crime for young 
males in New York city. Politicians claimed for years that it was due to 
their "tough on crime" policy, yet the drop surpassed that of cities 
with similar policies. Eventually someone figured out that it coincided 
with abortion being made more freely available - less children being 
born into poor homes where they weren't wanted translated into fewer 
boys thinking crime was the way up and girls thinking pregnancy was. Of 
course it's not conclusive, but it's as plausible as the mismatched 
"tough on crime" line...

There could be an element of that in your reasoning, I feel. Whether 
information is to be delivered on paper or on screen doesn't predispose 
it to being written at a certain level of quality. Whether it's being 
delivered electronically or on paper, there will *always* be a need for 
people who are able to write clearly. Some information is too critical 
to risk misinterpretation.

It's certainly true that there's a lot of poor writing on the internet, 
but that's partly because there's so much information. Take this posting 
as a case in point - I don't claim to write with any particular 
proficiency, but you're reading it because it landed in your email. Had 
it not, it's extremely unlikely that we'd be exchanging letters about 
this topic, if for no other reason than the fact that we didn't realise 
the other was interested in it.

> When you read tomes from the 1990?s extolling the promise of
> hypertext to change the way people think and use information, (I
> recommend the ?Hypertext/Hypermedia Handbook by Berk and Devlin), you
> begin to realize that it?s promise was still-born. The hypertext
> pioneers envisioned a rich panoply of link types that would create
> hypertexts which were true ?searchable mazes? Frame Technology,
> beginning in FrameMaker 4, added a rich variety of hypertext link 
> types which would have realized that original vision.

True, but linking is difficult. It's easy if the ends of all of the 
links reside in your domain, but how do you know if the point within a 
document owned by someone else still means what it did when you first 
pointed at it? It's tough enough for a link to even know whether the 
document still exists, let alone how it might degrade gracefully to 
another resource, how to determine the impact of the missing link on the 
viability of the rest of the document, etc. It's still relatively early 
days and linking is one of the key components of a rich internet, so 
it's getting plenty of attention.

> When Adobe took over FrameMaker, it could have carried out that
> vision by implementing all of the FrameMaker link types in PDF. It
> failed to do so. And so, the HTML standard, with only the most
> primitive hypertext link type, became the standard. There was some
> hope that the XML standard would have rich linking capabilities. It
> added a few additional link types, but nowhere near enough to realize
> the original promise of hypertext.

You certainly could be on to something with that - one of the ways that 
FrameMaker could be kept relevant would be to concentrate heavily on 
linking, including to documents outside of the current book. PDF would 
provide a great platform for that - it might even be enough to increase 
the use of PDF on the internet. (They'd want to make loading a PDF 
quicker and less obvious first though.)

> Getting back to what I state in the first two paragraphs above, I
> maintain that the ability to acquire in-depth knowledge of a subject
> is a discipline which is difficult to master. And I have no doubt
> that well-written, well-organized paper books, particularly on
> difficult subjects, will continue to be the best way to acquire real,
> in-depth knowledge of a subject, and subsequently serve its owner as
> a 

FW: Adobe CEO interview

[Marcus Carr]

Peter Gold wrote:

> If legible cursive writing was the sole measurement of ability, I'd
> be in the same boat as many doctors - floating off to oblivion.

Me too - it takes me longer to read my shopping list than to get my 
groceries... ;-)

> However, I'd qualify Marcus' comment about using one's phone for
> complex calculations. If you don't have the knowledge to derive a
> statement of a need for calculating a solution by using observation,
> experience, and analytic thinking, and lack the knowledge to present
> the problem statement to the calculating device, then, unless the
> device itself has the intelligence to do it for you, and is willing
> to do it (think "I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that") it's whether it's
> the original calculus (stones used as counters), abaci, or iPhones,
> it's useless.

Yes, I agree with that, and I suspect that Dan may as well. (Dan, I hope 
I don't misrepresent your opinion in this post - I mean "Dan" 
metaphorically rather than personally.) The thing that's changing is 
that the internet is providing those devices, so we're able to get 
correct answers without really understanding what the question was.

Take a mortgage calculator - you can pick a mortgage product, plug in 
the amount that you want to borrow and it will tell you what your 
monthly payments would be. It knows that the product you chose attracts 
an initiation fee and that for the amount that you wish to borrow, the 
bank will give you the mortgage for 25 points less than the standard 
interest rate. At a deeper level, it knows that the repayments are based 
on the assumption that the fee will be paid out of the amount borrowed, 
and numerous other details. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't 
want to know those things - I want to know if I'm in the ballpark.

Dan might question the accuracy of the calculator and the inability to 
cross-check it (especially if he was a Floridian voter... :-) and I 
would agree with him. The average person will lose the ability to do 
these calculations, but in order to create the calculator, someone will 
always have to understand how to do them. The same applies for writing, 
I suspect - most of us will be able to muddle along, but specialist 
writers will always be required.

This does leave us with a gap in our knowledge - we have no choice but 
to trust the calculator because we couldn't figure it out if we wanted 
to. I'm less concerned due to a combination of factors - I don't really 
care in the first place, I'm fairly certain that given the vagaries of 
the bank's policy I wouldn't be able to figure it out anyway and 
finally, I *want* the bank to tell me how much it will be. I can put 
much more faith in an answer that they provided than one that I worked 
out for myself.

> My mother's criticism of the multiplication table matrix printed on
> the back cover of my grade-school composition books was, "You'll
> never learn to multiply by yourself, if you can just look it up!"

Multiplication is an interesting case of abstraction in itself. 
Mathematicians (which I am *not*) regard multiplication to be shorthand 
for addition, but we don't teach that to kids. The question 5x6 can also 
be posed as 5+5+5+5+5+5, but the multiplication version is less verbose, 
so we pretend that they're different operations in order to make it less 
confusing. Well, that and the fact that the addition table matrix would 
have required a substantially bigger back cover...

> One of the sequences bore out the premise that even young kids can 
> figure a lot of this (learning to use the computers to write, look for 
> information and learning to use it) out for themselves, and help others 
> to do it.

It's hard to even imagine the next couple of generations of computer 
users. I'll get out of computers before then - it'll hurt my brain way 
too much trying to keep up with a grade 6 programming class...


Marcus

FW: Adobe CEO interview

[Bodvar Bjorgvinsson]

On 5/18/07, Ann Zdunczyk  wrote:
> It is interesting that I have been hearing about paperless offices for years
> but have yet to see one.

On the news last night there was a story about one of the Baltic
states (Estonia or Latvia, IIRC) complaining that Russia was attacking
their computer systems (which, of course Russia denies!). This state
is probably the only one in the world (or at least the first one) that
went for the paperless office in their government offices.
The CEO of F-Prot (www.fprot.com) commented that sadly it is very easy
to attack and force to a standstill such systems, and that [some of]
the former USSR nations were using this as a political weapon.

I am not going to elaborate about it here, but such attacks can be
very difficult to track, and more so as the attackers usually use
thousands of "sleepers" all over the world for these attacks. There
is, I understand, no solution to the problem in sight.

I do not see a paperless office in the near future. There would have
to be a major change in the Internet system for that to happen --
which might just as well end in doing away with the Internet as such.

Bodvar Bjorgvinsson
-- never pessimistic, even on a Monday.

>
>
> OK my two cents for a Friday.
>
> Have a GREAT weekend everyone.
>
> Z
>
>
> **
> Ann Zdunczyk
> President
> a2z Publishing, Inc.
> Language Layout & Translation Consulting
> Phone: (336)922-1271
> Fax:   (336)922-4980
> Cell:  (336)456-4493
> http://www.a2z-pub.com
> **
>

FrameMaker.next

[Bodvar Bjorgvinsson]

Bill, are you by any chance implying that FramMaker.next will come
with a Sushi support. That would be nice. FM does such a nice thing of
wrapping upp a lots of things anyway! ;-)

Bodvar Bjorgvinsson
-- here to lighten up your Monday morning.


On 5/17/07, Bill Swallow  wrote:
> > As an aside (and just to make Bernard blush, if that's possible), if you
> > ever get a chance to sit in on training or a presentation done by
> > Bernard, DO IT!!!  I have to say that he was my favorite presenter at
> > the conference (or maybe he just had the best and most interesting
> > material...)  You'll learn lots of great information and techniques from
> > him, and be entertained at the same time -- but be sure you've had lots
> > of caffeine so you can keep up.  :-)
>
> Yes, but if you have a chance to eat sushi with Bernard, make sure you
> are at the end where he is ordering from to prevent the draining of
> the entire ocean's population onto your table. ;-) I think we ate more
> sushi at our table (of about 10-12 people) than was eaten that entire
> day by all other patrons. ;-) I'm not complaining by any means. On
> another plus side, the Sapporos kept coming. ;-)
>
> --
> Bill Swallow
> HATT List Owner
> WWP-Users List Owner
> Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
> STC Single-Sourcing SIG Manager
> http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
> avid homebrewer and proud beer snob
> "I see your OOO message and raise you a clue."
> ___
>

Character switching FM/Distiller

[Bodvar Bjorgvinsson]

Hi Penelope and Kenneth,

Thank you for your help. I regret to be late in replying. Usually
replies move the thread into the Inbox of my Gmail, but this time it
did not. I just started looking in my Sent Mail because of the thread
(header) "Confused about hexadecimal Codes", and then I saw a couple
of replies to my posting.


Kenneth:
You are absolutely right. This is not a Distiller problem. I would
rather think this is has to do with the PS driver. The character
prints as intended on any non-postscript printer, but on a PostScript
printer and to PDF it prints incorrectly.

Penelope:
It would have set me on the right track if I had read it eariler. :-(
But the "Confused..." thread lead me to study the online manual:
"FrameMaker Character Sets" where I saw that there is no entry for the
circled roman 2, which must be rated as a bug. However, the sans-serif
circled 2 has an entry, as referred to in your reply.

ADOBE:
I think Adobe should really make a separate revision/upgrade to this
part of FM for all versions 7.x at least, or if this is, as I am
starting to suspect, a PostScript driver fault, to revise the Adobe
PostScript driver, and have this solved in the FrameMaker.next (as
Bernard prefers to call the next version).

Thanks again and God bless,

Bodvar


On 5/16/07, Penelope Perkins  wrote:
> Bodvar,
>
> I can confirm this behavior on Win XP, FM 7.2, Acro 7.0. Do you recall
> the issue a number of years ago with Zapf Dingbats and Win2000/XP? To
> get the right characters to both display and print, you had to edit the
> PPD for the printer driver. I thought that might have something to do
> with your problematic circle-2, but I checked the PPD used by Distiller
> 7 and it doesn't even include the line that the fix told you to edit.
> Just out of curiosity, I tried this on a system with Win2000, FM 7.0,
> Acro 5.5, and got the same results, regardless of whether that PPD is
> edited, so it's not a new problem.
>
> Do you have to use the serif numbers? There are sans serif numbers in
> circles starting at ALT+0192; I tested to make sure ALT+0193 really
> produces a circle-2.
>
> BTW, you can see info about the aforementioned issue at
> http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx?50 at 97.JKaTavSAj4d.0@.ef4dc73
>
> Regards,
> Penelope
>
> =
> Penelope Perkins, Senior Technical Writer
> Synergex
> Sacramento, California
> pperkins at synergex.com
>
> > -Original Message-
> > From:
> > framers-bounces+pperkins=synergex.com at lists.frameusers.com
> > [mailto:framers-bounces+pperkins=synergex.com at lists.frameusers
> .com] On Behalf Of Bodvar Bjorgvinsson
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 6:48 AM
> > To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
> > Subject: Character switching FM/Distiller
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I am trying to use Zapf Dingbats (that has never failed me!) to
> > display and print a.o. the digit 2 in a ring. The FM shortcut is
> > CTRL-q - (dash) or ALT-0173.
> >
> > The weird thing is that in both instances (using CTRL-q - (dash) and
> > ALT-0173) or by copy - pasting from the character map, the character
> > shows correctly in FM 7.2 but after distilling, the pdf shows the hand
> > holding pen turning left.
> > Both characters are using the dash, according to the character map,
> > with the difference that the hand is hard dash and the 2 circled is
> > the soft dash.
> >
> > Any ideas? Will I need to use the circled numbers from Wingdings 1?
> >
> > I have no problems with the circled "1".
> >
> > Bodvar Bjorgvinsson,
> > Supervisor Publishing,
> > Air Atlanta Icelandic.
> > ___
> >
> >
>

XML - graphics - import - solved

[Allen, Richard (Raytheon)]

Hi

Problem solved.

I have been working on this, on and off, for the past two months.  Turns
out that the XML application I set-up from the existing and working SGML
application is case sensitive.  I though I had accounted for all case
issues of elements and attributes.  The last piece was the case for
attributes in the read/write rules.  Problem solved.

Thanks

Richard


Hi Richard...

Maybe you could describe what the problem is. I'm assuming that the file

isn't opening properly .. but what kind of errors are you getting? Do 
you have a structapp defined for this XML doctype?

>
> I have been trying to open up a XML document in FrameMaker 7.2 which
> contains graphic entities.  I am at a los as to what I am missing.
The
> graphics are declared at the top of the XML document instance.  The
> structure of the XML document instance is valid.
>
> Anyone have a hint as to what I might look at to resolve this?
>

Getting data from xml into Frame was, Do I need to jump into the Structured FM pool?

[Carrie Baker]

Slightly connected to this.
We have Frame 7.2, not structured and are doing fine.
We are a small (understaffed) department of 2 half time writers.
There is one very large chapter of a user guide which is based on
information from the programmers .xml file.
Their xml file consists of a list of parameters with various
explanations about them. This file is used by the application.
As writers we need to list all of these parameters and explain them.
Documentation began when the list was a very small list. The SME gave
us a word file which was eventually converted to Frame with the
information the users required.
Since then everything has grown a lot.
The xml file now contains a over 2000 parameters.
Various tech writers worked on it over the years and at some point a
lot of parameters were missed out.
For every product release a large number of parameters are added to the list.
The problem I am facing is how to identify the parameters that are
currently missing from the Frame file, and in the future how to
smoothly make sure the file is kept up to date. As new features are
developed R tell us which parameters are added, but if parameters
are changed or removed we do not really have a way of tracking.
R tried to give us an Excel file (i.e. they opened their xml file in
Excel and saved it for us), but it actually messed up the
information, since there were also sub groups of parameters (e.g.
parameter x contains the following 50 fields, then each field appeared
as a stand alone parameter).

As is mentioned below, Frame knows how to talk to xml, so what I am
looking for is whether someone can tell me, how I can make my
alphabetical list in FrameMaker (which I am willing to turn into a
table or something else), talk directly to the xml list to see what is
missing from my list and in future easily identify what to add.
However, the entire content of the 2 lists are not identical, since
the Frame file (or user guide) has to give the user a full explanation
of the meaning of each parameter, which the .xml file does not do.

(or what can I ask R to do to help us, as each time they only give
us this messed up Excel file)

(Oh and my boss does not want to spend too much time on this!)
__

Marcus wrote

"Structure can certainly help - if you store your manuals in XML all the
manual work can be eliminated. Chances are your bug tracking system can
export reports in XML. An XSLT stylesheet can very easily replace the
existing version of this information so when next you open the document in
FrameMaker, the data is all updated.

Of course, this open up myriad possibilities for customisation of the bug
information - separation of code and interface bugs, ordering by severity
for developers and date for managers, whatever you can imagine.

The point is that generating this information is best accomplished by your
bug tracking software, not by FrameMaker. It can generate a report of open
bugs, so why would you want to do exactly that in FrameMaker? You may want
to dump it all into FrameMaker and conditionally display it - providing
different views for different audiences is very much part of what
FrameMaker should be responsible for.

Probably the biggest gain that you can get out of XML is the ability to
make your information span applications, but to do so you obviously need
to look wider than FrameMaker. You're doing software manuals by the sound
of it, so you presumably have access to programmers. If I was you, the
first step would be sit down with a couple of them and see if you have the
resources to develop a scalable, robust system. I recommend against the
"toe in the water" approach - I've seen too many people spending too much
time trying to gradually improve them into the system that they knew they
wanted but weren't brave enough to embark on in the first place.

Measure twice, cut once and have fun!"


Marcus
_
Carrie Baker
carriebak at gmail.com

PDF Content reuse with Frame + DITA?

[Linda G. Gallagher]

I've admittedly missed the beginning of this thread, but I would like to
comment on this:



I've used this plug-in with conditions, and it does work to essentially
apply a condition to index markers. You can also use variables in index
entries with Index Tools Pro. 

I'm just a satisfied user.


~
Linda G. Gallagher
TechCom Plus, LLC
lindag at techcomplus dot com
www.techcomplus.com
303-450-9076 or 800-500-3144
User guides, online help, FrameMaker and
WebWorks ePublisher templates




-Original Message-
From: framers-bounces+lindag=techcomplus@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+lindag=techcomplus.com at lists.frameusers.com] On
Behalf Of Scott Prentice
Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2007 3:20 PM
To: Jeremy H. Griffith
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Re: PDF Content reuse with Frame + DITA?

Thanks Jeremy .. good point! Now that I read what I wrote, I can see how 
it could be misunderstood. I meant that even if you do duplicate and 
conditionalize markers just to change one word in that marker, it will 
become a mess to manage.  :)

The Index Tools Pro plugin claims to provide for "conditional index 
entries" .. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but it may perhaps 
make the process of conditionalizing individual markers easier. Our 
plugin, MarkerTools, lets you insert a custom "building block" into 
markers which maps to variables that are defined in your document .. in 
essence allowing you to have variables within markers (not possible 
without the plugin). This can give you a type of conditional control 
within a marker (especially when used in conjunction with BookVars).

..scott


Jeremy H. Griffith wrote:
> On Sun, 20 May 2007 13:30:45 -0700, Scott Prentice wrote:
>
>   
>> It's a good practice to avoid conditional content within 
>> index entries .. it's one thing to include/exclude a marker 
>> in a specific output, but if you start messing with words 
>> within a marker, you'll go nuts.
>> 
>
> It's not only good practice, it's the law.  ;-)
>
> Frame *implements* conditional text using markers.  So it's
> flat-out impossible to conditionalize *within* a marker.
> As Scott says, the closest you can get to that is:
>
>   
>> you'd need to create duplicate markers with different text, 
>> and conditionalize each marker accordingly. However this 
>> is difficult to maintain ...
>> 
>
>
> -- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
> http://www.omsys.com/
>
>
>
>
>   

___


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Character switching FM/Distiller

[Dov Isaacs]

For what it is worth, there is no such thing as an
"Adobe PostScript Driver," at least for the current
versions of Windows. The driver used for the Adobe PDF
PostScript printer driver instance and for most printers
supporting PostScript is in fact the PSCRIPT5 driver
distributed and maintained by Microsoft as part of 
Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and
Windows Vista. Although Adobe worked with Microsoft to
originally develop that driver nearly eight years ago,
Microsoft has had full responsibility for it ever since.

The problems with FrameMaker's poor character set support
cannot be readily solved without full Unicode support.
You will NOT see such support in any FrameMaker 7.x (or
earlier) versions.

- Dov


> -Original Message-
> From: Bodvar Bjorgvinsson
> Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 3:39 AM
> To: Penelope Perkins
> Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Subject: Re: Character switching FM/Distiller
> 
> Hi Penelope and Kenneth,
> 
> Thank you for your help. I regret to be late in replying. 
> Usually replies move the thread into the Inbox of my Gmail, 
> but this time it did not. I just started looking in my Sent 
> Mail because of the thread
> (header) "Confused about hexadecimal Codes", and then I saw a 
> couple of replies to my posting.
> 
> 
> Kenneth:
> You are absolutely right. This is not a Distiller problem. I 
> would rather think this is has to do with the PS driver. The 
> character prints as intended on any non-postscript printer, 
> but on a PostScript printer and to PDF it prints incorrectly.
> 
> Penelope:
> It would have set me on the right track if I had read it 
> eariler. :-( But the "Confused..." thread lead me to study 
> the online manual:
> "FrameMaker Character Sets" where I saw that there is no 
> entry for the circled roman 2, which must be rated as a bug. 
> However, the sans-serif circled 2 has an entry, as referred 
> to in your reply.
> 
> ADOBE:
> I think Adobe should really make a separate revision/upgrade 
> to this part of FM for all versions 7.x at least, or if this 
> is, as I am starting to suspect, a PostScript driver fault, 
> to revise the Adobe PostScript driver, and have this solved 
> in the FrameMaker.next (as Bernard prefers to call the next version).
> 
> Thanks again and God bless,
> 
> Bodvar

Character switching FM/Distiller

[Steve Rickaby]

At 08:25 -0700 21/5/07, Dov Isaacs wrote:

>For what it is worth, there is no such thing as an "Adobe PostScript Driver," 
>at least for the current versions of Windows. The driver used for the Adobe 
>PDF PostScript printer driver instance and for most printers supporting 
>PostScript is in fact the PSCRIPT5 driver distributed and maintained by 
>Microsoft as part of  Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and 
>Windows Vista.

How very interesting. At least on our obsolete Mac FrameMaker installations we 
get a genoooiyne Adobe-branded Ps printer driver (or such is my interpretation 
of the fact that it's called 'AdobePS', shows an Adobe logo in the print 
dialog, and says 'Adobe Systems Incorporated' when you request file info on it).

-- 
Steve

Character switching FM/Distiller

[Bodvar Bjorgvinsson]

On 5/21/07, Dov Isaacs  wrote:
> For what it is worth, there is no such thing as an
> "Adobe PostScript Driver," at least for the current
> versions of Windows. The driver used for the Adobe PDF
> PostScript printer driver instance and for most printers
> supporting PostScript is in fact the PSCRIPT5 driver
> distributed and maintained by Microsoft as part of
> Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and
> Windows Vista. Although Adobe worked with Microsoft to
> originally develop that driver nearly eight years ago,
> Microsoft has had full responsibility for it ever since.

I stand corrected. :-)

>
> The problems with FrameMaker's poor character set support
> cannot be readily solved without full Unicode support.
> You will NOT see such support in any FrameMaker 7.x (or
> earlier) versions.
>
> - Dov
>

Not too good news for FM 7 owners/users, Dov. Hopefully FM 8 will have
the full Unicode support.

Thanks for the info.

Bodvar

Character switching FM/Distiller

[Dov Isaacs]

I did say Windows, not Macintosh, as well as the particular
versions of Windows!

- Dov 

> -Original Message-
> From: Steve Rickaby [mailto:srickaby at wordmongers.demon.co.uk] 
> Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 8:38 AM
> To: Dov Isaacs; Bodvar Bjorgvinsson; Penelope Perkins
> Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Subject: RE: Character switching FM/Distiller
> 
> At 08:25 -0700 21/5/07, Dov Isaacs wrote:
> 
> >For what it is worth, there is no such thing as an "Adobe 
> PostScript Driver," at least for the current versions of 
> Windows. The driver used for the Adobe PDF PostScript printer 
> driver instance and for most printers supporting PostScript 
> is in fact the PSCRIPT5 driver distributed and maintained by 
> Microsoft as part of  Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 
> Server 2003, and Windows Vista.
> 
> How very interesting. At least on our obsolete Mac FrameMaker 
> installations we get a genoooiyne Adobe-branded Ps printer 
> driver (or such is my interpretation of the fact that it's 
> called 'AdobePS', shows an Adobe logo in the print dialog, 
> and says 'Adobe Systems Incorporated' when you request file 
> info on it).
> 
> -- 
> Steve
> 

Getting data from xml into Frame was, Do I need to jump into the Structured FM pool?

[Scott Prentice]

Hi Carrie...

For starters, you should get ahold of an XML diff tool (just google "xml 
diff", and you'll see lots of options) so you can determine exactly what 
has changed between versions of this XML file. You should be able to get 
one of your developers to write an XSLT transformation that would 
generate a list of the parameters in the file, and you can compare that 
list to a "TOC" list generated from your Frame file .. this will let you 
determine what's missing or extra.

In an ideal world, you might consider authoring the "descriptions" of 
the parameters and fields in XML (in Frame or another XML editor), then 
run an XSLT transformation on the "descriptions" file and the file 
provided by development to generate the source for your final 
documentation. You'd just open the generated file in Frame (after 
setting up a structure application), and it would be ready to print. The 
EDD could be set up to render any missing descriptions with a big red 
"MISSING DESCRIPTION" note, in which case you'd add that to the 
descriptions file and regenerate.

Obviously this would take some time and money to set up, but in the long 
run will probably save a lot. Just having the ability to easily diff the 
versions of the XML file will probably be a big improvement though.

Good luck!

...scott

Scott Prentice
Leximation, Inc.
www.leximation.com
+1.415.485.1892



Carrie Baker wrote:
> Slightly connected to this.
> We have Frame 7.2, not structured and are doing fine.
> We are a small (understaffed) department of 2 half time writers.
> There is one very large chapter of a user guide which is based on
> information from the programmers .xml file.
> Their xml file consists of a list of parameters with various
> explanations about them. This file is used by the application.
> As writers we need to list all of these parameters and explain them.
> Documentation began when the list was a very small list. The SME gave
> us a word file which was eventually converted to Frame with the
> information the users required.
> Since then everything has grown a lot.
> The xml file now contains a over 2000 parameters.
> Various tech writers worked on it over the years and at some point a
> lot of parameters were missed out.
> For every product release a large number of parameters are added to 
> the list.
> The problem I am facing is how to identify the parameters that are
> currently missing from the Frame file, and in the future how to
> smoothly make sure the file is kept up to date. As new features are
> developed R tell us which parameters are added, but if parameters
> are changed or removed we do not really have a way of tracking.
> R tried to give us an Excel file (i.e. they opened their xml file in
> Excel and saved it for us), but it actually messed up the
> information, since there were also sub groups of parameters (e.g.
> parameter x contains the following 50 fields, then each field appeared
> as a stand alone parameter).
>
> As is mentioned below, Frame knows how to talk to xml, so what I am
> looking for is whether someone can tell me, how I can make my
> alphabetical list in FrameMaker (which I am willing to turn into a
> table or something else), talk directly to the xml list to see what is
> missing from my list and in future easily identify what to add.
> However, the entire content of the 2 lists are not identical, since
> the Frame file (or user guide) has to give the user a full explanation
> of the meaning of each parameter, which the .xml file does not do.
>
> (or what can I ask R to do to help us, as each time they only give
> us this messed up Excel file)
>
> (Oh and my boss does not want to spend too much time on this!)
> __
>
> Marcus wrote
>
> "Structure can certainly help - if you store your manuals in XML all the
> manual work can be eliminated. Chances are your bug tracking system can
> export reports in XML. An XSLT stylesheet can very easily replace the
> existing version of this information so when next you open the 
> document in
> FrameMaker, the data is all updated.
>
> Of course, this open up myriad possibilities for customisation of the bug
> information - separation of code and interface bugs, ordering by severity
> for developers and date for managers, whatever you can imagine.
>
> The point is that generating this information is best accomplished by 
> your
> bug tracking software, not by FrameMaker. It can generate a report of 
> open
> bugs, so why would you want to do exactly that in FrameMaker? You may 
> want
> to dump it all into FrameMaker and conditionally display it - providing
> different views for different audiences is very much part of what
> FrameMaker should be responsible for.
>
> Probably the biggest gain that you can get out of XML is the ability to
> make your information span applications, but to do so you obviously need
> to look wider than FrameMaker. You're doing software manuals by the sound

Getting data from xml into Frame was, Do I need to jump into the Structured FM pool?

[Scott Prentice]

XSLT is a "scripting" language for processing XML files. See .. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xslt

XSLT is not a Frame-specific language, and if your developers use XML 
very much, someone is bound to be able to write a simple XSLT script to 
generate a list of parameters/fields .. something that might look very 
similar to a TOC that you would generate from Frame. With this you'd be 
able to do a visual compare between your FM TOC and the "TOC" generated 
from the XML file.

...scott


Carrie Baker wrote:
> As I hoped I am getting some interesting answers.
> However, since I have not worked on structured Frame yet, and am not
> so famailiar with the terminology, can you explain was an XSLT
> transformation is?
>
> On 5/21/07, Scott Prentice wrote:
>> Hi Carrie...
>>
>> For starters, you should get ahold of an XML diff tool (just google "xml
>> diff", and you'll see lots of options) so you can determine exactly what
>> has changed between versions of this XML file. You should be able to get
>> one of your developers to write an XSLT transformation that would
>> generate a list of the parameters in the file, and you can compare that
>> list to a "TOC" list generated from your Frame file .. this will let you
>> determine what's missing or extra.
>>
>> In an ideal world, you might consider authoring the "descriptions" of
>> the parameters and fields in XML (in Frame or another XML editor), then
>> run an XSLT transformation on the "descriptions" file and the file
>> provided by development to generate the source for your final
>> documentation. You'd just open the generated file in Frame (after
>> setting up a structure application), and it would be ready to print. The
>> EDD could be set up to render any missing descriptions with a big red
>> "MISSING DESCRIPTION" note, in which case you'd add that to the
>> descriptions file and regenerate.
>>
>> Obviously this would take some time and money to set up, but in the long
>> run will probably save a lot. Just having the ability to easily diff the
>> versions of the XML file will probably be a big improvement though.
>>
>> Good luck!
>>
>> ...scott
>>
>> Scott Prentice
>> Leximation, Inc.
>> www.leximation.com
>> +1.415.485.1892
>>
>>
>>
>> Carrie Baker wrote:
>> > Slightly connected to this.
>> > We have Frame 7.2, not structured and are doing fine.
>> > We are a small (understaffed) department of 2 half time writers.
>> > There is one very large chapter of a user guide which is based on
>> > information from the programmers .xml file.
>> > Their xml file consists of a list of parameters with various
>> > explanations about them. This file is used by the application.
>> > As writers we need to list all of these parameters and explain them.
>> > Documentation began when the list was a very small list. The SME gave
>> > us a word file which was eventually converted to Frame with the
>> > information the users required.
>> > Since then everything has grown a lot.
>> > The xml file now contains a over 2000 parameters.
>> > Various tech writers worked on it over the years and at some point a
>> > lot of parameters were missed out.
>> > For every product release a large number of parameters are added to
>> > the list.
>> > The problem I am facing is how to identify the parameters that are
>> > currently missing from the Frame file, and in the future how to
>> > smoothly make sure the file is kept up to date. As new features are
>> > developed R tell us which parameters are added, but if parameters
>> > are changed or removed we do not really have a way of tracking.
>> > R tried to give us an Excel file (i.e. they opened their xml file in
>> > Excel and saved it for us), but it actually messed up the
>> > information, since there were also sub groups of parameters (e.g.
>> > parameter x contains the following 50 fields, then each field appeared
>> > as a stand alone parameter).
>> >
>> > As is mentioned below, Frame knows how to talk to xml, so what I am
>> > looking for is whether someone can tell me, how I can make my
>> > alphabetical list in FrameMaker (which I am willing to turn into a
>> > table or something else), talk directly to the xml list to see what is
>> > missing from my list and in future easily identify what to add.
>> > However, the entire content of the 2 lists are not identical, since
>> > the Frame file (or user guide) has to give the user a full explanation
>> > of the meaning of each parameter, which the .xml file does not do.
>> >
>> > (or what can I ask R to do to help us, as each time they only give
>> > us this messed up Excel file)
>> >
>> > (Oh and my boss does not want to spend too much time on this!)
>> > __
>> >
>> > Marcus wrote
>> >
>> > "Structure can certainly help - if you store your manuals in XML 
>> all the
>> > manual work can be eliminated. Chances are your bug tracking system 
>> can
>> > export reports in XML. An XSLT stylesheet can very easily replace 

Unresolved text insets and relinking images

[Natalie Bircher]

I need to move frame files and get unresolved text insets after I regenerate
and end up having to re-link them all. Is there a way to keep these linked,
or am I stuck importing them again?

Also, we moved our library of images (don't ask why!) and now I have to
re-link all the images. Any suggestions to make this less tedious and  keep
me from getting carpal tunnel? 



I have two issues that have resulted because of having to move Frame files.
The first one is that I have to re-link all the images because it was
decided to move the image catalog to another server. Is there an "easier"
way to do this? The second issue is that I get unresolved text insets for
the "canned" warnings we use. I have to re-import these too. This is
extremely tedious and hard on the mousing wrist! Any suggestions?





Natalie Bircher

Technical Writer

BackStreet Media

Phone: 320-843-4337 

Fax: 320-842-4236

Email:   natalieb at backstreetmedia.com

Unresolved text insets and relinking images

[Art Campbell]

If you have to move FM files around, always try to use Bruce foster's
Archive plugin to collect all components that a book or file requires.

Otherwise, always try to set up the directory structure so that the
files are in the same relative paths before and after...

Art


On 5/21/07, Natalie Bircher  wrote:
> I need to move frame files and get unresolved text insets after I regenerate
> and end up having to re-link them all. Is there a way to keep these linked,
> or am I stuck importing them again?
>
> Also, we moved our library of images (don't ask why!) and now I have to
> re-link all the images. Any suggestions to make this less tedious and  keep
> me from getting carpal tunnel?
>
>
>
> I have two issues that have resulted because of having to move Frame files.
> The first one is that I have to re-link all the images because it was
> decided to move the image catalog to another server. Is there an "easier"
> way to do this? The second issue is that I get unresolved text insets for
> the "canned" warnings we use. I have to re-import these too. This is
> extremely tedious and hard on the mousing wrist! Any suggestions?
>
>
>
>
>
> Natalie Bircher
>
> Technical Writer
>
> BackStreet Media
>
> Phone: 320-843-4337
>
> Fax: 320-842-4236
>
> Email:   natalieb at 
> backstreetmedia.com
>
>
>
> ___
>
>
> You are currently subscribed to Framers as art.campbell at gmail.com.
>
> Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com
> or visit 
> http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/art.campbell%40gmail.com
>
> Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit
> http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
>


-- 
Art Campbell art.campbell at 
gmail.com
  "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent
   and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson
 No disclaimers apply.
 DoD 358

Unresolved text insets and relinking images

[Zoe Lawson]

You should be able to save your files as a .mif file, and do a search and 
replace for the paths, too. 

Look for something like:

directoryImageFile'>


Where Directory is the folder your image is in, and ImageFile the name of the 
image file. (the number of  etc. will vary depending on your relative 
paths).

If you fix one image, then save as .mif, you can compare the fixed image path 
to the old paths, and play with search and replace.

It's still pretty manual, but less carpel tunnel. I'm sure you can find 
something similar for text insets. (I don't have any right now to check)

NOTE: I haven't tried this particular tip for a while, so I may have forgotten 
a step or two.

HTH,

Zo?

On 5/21/07, Natalie Bircher  wrote:
> I need to move frame files and get unresolved text insets after I regenerate
> and end up having to re-link them all. Is there a way to keep these linked,
> or am I stuck importing them again?









Need Mail bonding?
Go to the Yahoo! Mail Q for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users.
http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list=396546091

Unresolved text insets and relinking images

[Van Boening, Tammy]

Framescript! I had to relink several hundred text insets once and it was
either a tedious one by one manual process, or use the best $200 ever
and buy Framescript and get Rick Quatro to write a script that did this
relinking with like two clicks. It was a dream.

TVB 


Tammy L. Van Boening
Senior Technical Writer
Fiserv Insurance Solutions 
Property and Casualty Division
303-729-7733
tammy.vanboening at fiserv.com
***
Keep smiling, at least until you get your own way.

-Original Message-
From: framers-bounces+tammy.vanboening=fiserv@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+tammy.vanboening=fiserv.com at lists.frameusers.com
] On Behalf Of Natalie Bircher
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 2:51 PM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Unresolved text insets and relinking images

I need to move frame files and get unresolved text insets after I
regenerate and end up having to re-link them all. Is there a way to keep
these linked, or am I stuck importing them again?

Also, we moved our library of images (don't ask why!) and now I have to
re-link all the images. Any suggestions to make this less tedious and
keep me from getting carpal tunnel? 



I have two issues that have resulted because of having to move Frame
files.
The first one is that I have to re-link all the images because it was
decided to move the image catalog to another server. Is there an
"easier"
way to do this? The second issue is that I get unresolved text insets
for the "canned" warnings we use. I have to re-import these too. This is
extremely tedious and hard on the mousing wrist! Any suggestions?





Natalie Bircher

Technical Writer

BackStreet Media

Phone: 320-843-4337 

Fax: 320-842-4236

Email:  
natalieb at backstreetmedia.com



___


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Tool to convert tables to paragraphs?

[Pat Christenson]

Does anyone know of a FrameMaker plug-in that will convert tables to  
paragraphs throughout a book or directory?

Thanks.

Pat

change bars -- how to turn off

[Alison Carrico]

And make sure that change bars aren't included in any para or char style
sheets.  

-Original Message-
From:
framers-bounces+acarrico=adamsglobalization.com at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+acarrico=adamsglobalization.com at lists.frameusers
.com] On Behalf Of Matt Sullivan
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 12:32 PM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: change bars -- how to turn off

Try the Format/Document/Change Bars dialog & check the Clear All Change
Bars
option...



-Matt Sullivan



GRAFIX Training, Inc.

An Adobe Authorized Training Center

www.grafixtraining.com

888 882-2819 

-Original Message-
From: framers-bounces+matt=grafixtraining@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+matt=grafixtraining.com at lists.frameusers.com] On
Behalf Of nancy carpenter
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 10:04 AM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: change bars -- how to turn off



Help!  Does anyone know how to turn off change bars?  They are appearing
in
a document that I am editing today.  A few years ago, I used change bars
on
this file and removed all the bars.  I edited this file a few months ago
and they did not appear.  Today, they appear.  I looked at the Format /
Change Bars dialog box, and Automatic Change Bars is not checked.  I
also
tried removing the bar using Format / Style / Change Bars, but it has no
effect.

Nancy Carpenter
Lead Technical Writer
GENCO Supply Chain Solutions
100 Papercraft Park
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
15238___


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m

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Getting data from xml into Frame was, Do I need to jump into the Structured FM pool?

[Carrie Baker]

As I hoped I am getting some interesting answers.
However, since I have not worked on structured Frame yet, and am not
so famailiar with the terminology, can you explain was an XSLT
transformation is?

On 5/21/07, Scott Prentice  wrote:
> Hi Carrie...
>
> For starters, you should get ahold of an XML diff tool (just google "xml
> diff", and you'll see lots of options) so you can determine exactly what
> has changed between versions of this XML file. You should be able to get
> one of your developers to write an XSLT transformation that would
> generate a list of the parameters in the file, and you can compare that
> list to a "TOC" list generated from your Frame file .. this will let you
> determine what's missing or extra.
>
> In an ideal world, you might consider authoring the "descriptions" of
> the parameters and fields in XML (in Frame or another XML editor), then
> run an XSLT transformation on the "descriptions" file and the file
> provided by development to generate the source for your final
> documentation. You'd just open the generated file in Frame (after
> setting up a structure application), and it would be ready to print. The
> EDD could be set up to render any missing descriptions with a big red
> "MISSING DESCRIPTION" note, in which case you'd add that to the
> descriptions file and regenerate.
>
> Obviously this would take some time and money to set up, but in the long
> run will probably save a lot. Just having the ability to easily diff the
> versions of the XML file will probably be a big improvement though.
>
> Good luck!
>
> ...scott
>
> Scott Prentice
> Leximation, Inc.
> www.leximation.com
> +1.415.485.1892
>
>
>
> Carrie Baker wrote:
> > Slightly connected to this.
> > We have Frame 7.2, not structured and are doing fine.
> > We are a small (understaffed) department of 2 half time writers.
> > There is one very large chapter of a user guide which is based on
> > information from the programmers .xml file.
> > Their xml file consists of a list of parameters with various
> > explanations about them. This file is used by the application.
> > As writers we need to list all of these parameters and explain them.
> > Documentation began when the list was a very small list. The SME gave
> > us a word file which was eventually converted to Frame with the
> > information the users required.
> > Since then everything has grown a lot.
> > The xml file now contains a over 2000 parameters.
> > Various tech writers worked on it over the years and at some point a
> > lot of parameters were missed out.
> > For every product release a large number of parameters are added to
> > the list.
> > The problem I am facing is how to identify the parameters that are
> > currently missing from the Frame file, and in the future how to
> > smoothly make sure the file is kept up to date. As new features are
> > developed R tell us which parameters are added, but if parameters
> > are changed or removed we do not really have a way of tracking.
> > R tried to give us an Excel file (i.e. they opened their xml file in
> > Excel and saved it for us), but it actually messed up the
> > information, since there were also sub groups of parameters (e.g.
> > parameter x contains the following 50 fields, then each field appeared
> > as a stand alone parameter).
> >
> > As is mentioned below, Frame knows how to talk to xml, so what I am
> > looking for is whether someone can tell me, how I can make my
> > alphabetical list in FrameMaker (which I am willing to turn into a
> > table or something else), talk directly to the xml list to see what is
> > missing from my list and in future easily identify what to add.
> > However, the entire content of the 2 lists are not identical, since
> > the Frame file (or user guide) has to give the user a full explanation
> > of the meaning of each parameter, which the .xml file does not do.
> >
> > (or what can I ask R to do to help us, as each time they only give
> > us this messed up Excel file)
> >
> > (Oh and my boss does not want to spend too much time on this!)
> > __
> >
> > Marcus wrote
> >
> > "Structure can certainly help - if you store your manuals in XML all the
> > manual work can be eliminated. Chances are your bug tracking system can
> > export reports in XML. An XSLT stylesheet can very easily replace the
> > existing version of this information so when next you open the
> > document in
> > FrameMaker, the data is all updated.
> >
> > Of course, this open up myriad possibilities for customisation of the bug
> > information - separation of code and interface bugs, ordering by severity
> > for developers and date for managers, whatever you can imagine.
> >
> > The point is that generating this information is best accomplished by
> > your
> > bug tracking software, not by FrameMaker. It can generate a report of
> > open
> > bugs, so why would you want to do exactly that in FrameMaker? You may
> > want
> > 

Framescript Question

[Gutierrez, Anita]

Hi all -- 

Framescript question--Frame 7.0p579, FrameScript 4.1R2.

I have a script that moves through a book and sets the left margin of
each graphic to a certain distance based on the context of the anchored
frame.  The basic logic is: If the preceding paragraph tag is A, set the
margin to X.  If it's B, set it to Y ... and so on.  This part works
great.

I now have a book that requires individual inspection of each graphic.
I need to see it to know whether to change it.  The problem is that when
my existing script runs, it doesn't bring each anchored frame into view
in the Frame window.  All I see is the first page of the document and a
bunch of flickering as the graphics are changed.  Is there a way to get
the focus of the window to change as part of the script, so that I just
click Yes or No for each frame?  I'd rather not have to scroll manually
to each anchored frame.

Thanks for any wisdom!
Anita




Anita Maria Gutierrez
Principal Curriculum Developer
Sage Software
15195 NW Greenbrier Parkway
Beaverton, Oregon 97006
(503) 439-7286

FW: Adobe CEO interview (Marcus Carr)

[liviabemail-t...@yahoo.com]

This is all really good reading.

From: Marcus Carr 
CC: 
To: Framers List 
Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 10:15:01 +1000
Subject: Re: FW: Adobe CEO interview


Hi Dan,

Daniel Emory wrote:

> It?s estimated that 40% of the US adult population is non-literate,
> which means they don?t read books or newspapers. This has been
> accompanied by a rapid decline in the ability of college students to
> write a half-way decent paragraph in English. The California State
> College system, the largest in the nation, takes almost any applicant
> who got through high-school degree with half-way decent grades. But
> about 40% of its first year students are not capable of doing 
> college-level work, and thus their first year is dominated by
> remedial classes in English, Math and other subjects they should have
> mastered in high school.
> 
> These declines all coincide with the growth of the internet, and the
> shift from obtaining knowledge from paper books to learning from
> feeble snippets of on-line text. The blogosphere, dominated by those
> who are at least competent in the English language, consists mainly
> of opinions unsupported by any factual basis.

Although I feel that what you are saying may well have merit, I'm 
reluctant to jump to any conclusions too quickly. A favourite example of 
misdirected causality is the inexplicable reduction in crime for young 
males in New York city. Politicians claimed for years that it was due to 
their "tough on crime" policy, yet the drop surpassed that of cities 
with similar policies. Eventually someone figured out that it coincided 
with abortion being made more freely available - less children being 
born into poor homes where they weren't wanted translated into fewer 
boys thinking crime was the way up and girls thinking pregnancy was. Of 
course it's not conclusive, but it's as plausible as the mismatched 
"tough on crime" line...

There could be an element of that in your reasoning, I feel. Whether 
information is to be delivered on paper or on screen doesn't predispose 
it to being written at a certain level of quality. Whether it's being 
delivered electronically or on paper, there will *always* be a need for 
people who are able to write clearly. Some information is too critical 
to risk misinterpretation.

It's certainly true that there's a lot of poor writing on the internet, 
but that's partly because there's so much information. Take this posting 
as a case in point - I don't claim to write with any particular 
proficiency, but you're reading it because it landed in your email. Had 
it not, it's extremely unlikely that we'd be exchanging letters about 
this topic, if for no other reason than the fact that we didn't realise 
the other was interested in it.

> When you read tomes from the 1990?s extolling the promise of
> hypertext to change the way people think and use information, (I
> recommend the ?Hypertext/Hypermedia Handbook by Berk and Devlin), you
> begin to realize that it?s promise was still-born. The hypertext
> pioneers envisioned a rich panoply of link types that would create
> hypertexts which were true ?searchable mazes? Frame Technology,
> beginning in FrameMaker 4, added a rich variety of hypertext link 
> types which would have realized that original vision.

True, but linking is difficult. It's easy if the ends of all of the 
links reside in your domain, but how do you know if the point within a 
document owned by someone else still means what it did when you first 
pointed at it? It's tough enough for a link to even know whether the 
document still exists, let alone how it might degrade gracefully to 
another resource, how to determine the impact of the missing link on the 
viability of the rest of the document, etc. It's still relatively early 
days and linking is one of the key components of a rich internet, so 
it's getting plenty of attention.

> When Adobe took over FrameMaker, it could have carried out that
> vision by implementing all of the FrameMaker link types in PDF. It
> failed to do so. And so, the HTML standard, with only the most
> primitive hypertext link type, became the standard. There was some
> hope that the XML standard would have rich linking capabilities. It
> added a few additional link types, but nowhere near enough to realize
> the original promise of hypertext.

You certainly could be on to something with that - one of the ways that 
FrameMaker could be kept relevant would be to concentrate heavily on 
linking, including to documents outside of the current book. PDF would 
provide a great platform for that - it might even be enough to increase 
the use of PDF on the internet. (They'd want to make loading a PDF 
quicker and less obvious first though.)

> Getting back to what I state in the first two paragraphs above, I
> maintain that the ability to acquire in-depth knowledge of a subject
> is a discipline which is difficult to master. And I have no doubt
> that well-written, well-organized paper 

Tool to convert tables to paragraphs?

[Syed Zaeem Hosain]

Hi, Pat.

Pat Christenson wrote:
> Does anyone know of a FrameMaker plug-in that will convert tables to 
> paragraphs throughout a book or directory?

Hmmm ... doesn't the built-in menu function "Table->Convert to Paragraphs" in
FrameMaker work for you?

Z