ANN: AXCM 2.0 (formerly ABCM) is released

Finally, after a number of hurdles, AXCM 2.0 has been released. Among other features, this version provides a new ability to construct schemes using XPath expressions, a powerful expansion of conditional evaluation options. It is supported on structured FM 7, 8, and 9 for Windows only. It is still

FM9: Resource manager bugs?

Here here. These limitations are really a problem for any serious FDK developer working on interactive software. I add my voice to the (small) chorus of protest thus far. My personal thoughts are that this is an important issue, because without third-party add-ons, FM would not be nearly the

ANN: WS Utilities (new plugin) released

Hi, We've just released a new plugin called West Street Utilities which currently adds a host of new features for graphics management. These features include the ability to compare graphics in a file system against your FM source files, to see what is used and where. For more information, see:

ANN: West Street Structure Tools 2.0 is released

Hi, West Street Consulting is pleased to announce the release of its Structure Tools plugin, version 2.0. This version includes a new modeless attribute editor that significantly speeds up the process of editing attribute values, with a variety of amenities such as multiple element support,

can a chapter in a book be set to conditional?

Hi Ulrike, You might consider using structured FrameMaker in conjunction with our AXCM plugin. With that, you can conditionalize whole chapters and much more. I do it regularly. I agree with the sentiment that multiple books is cumbersome and error prone. AXCM is completely free... you can read

Garbage characters in FM9

Hi Roger, If you decide to investigate, you might consider taking a look at any plugins you have installed. A single line of missing code from a third-party developer can cause memory to hemorrhage. Lord knows I've been guilty and still am occasionally. Russ

Cross Refs, Structured FM, and WWP

I may have to go with Jeremy on this one (earth tremors for a moment). Quadralay support for structured xrefs has been hit or miss over the years with both the WWP and ePublisher products, and this has been a source of great aggravation for some structured FM users. Coincidentally, I recently

anticipating a move to Structured Frame

Yves (and Milan), I'd like to point out that structured Frame does not necessarily mean topic-based authoring, XML, information mapping, or DITA. You can get lots of benefit from it without any of those things. I think that when you present structured Frame in this light, you misrepresent the

ANN: ABCM and InsetPlus for FM8

Hi, The ABCM and InsetPlus plugins are now available for FM8. They are still free and you can get them at: http://www.weststreetconsulting.com ABCM is still version at 1.0. InsetPlus has been upgraded to 2.0, with some cool new features such as source module tracking. For more information,

Detecting a click in the Structure View

Rick, The only way I've ever done it is to use the generic click notification, then test the active document to see if it is the Structure View. The test I use looks for "Structure View" in the title bar, which I know isn't completely reliable in all instances. Something like this, inside of

structured Frame

Fred, Good summary. I have one thing to add and one disagreement... For the average author, the biggest advantage of structured Frame might be simply the superiority of the authoring environment. It is so much easier to navigate, select, cut/paste, move, and format your content when you have a

structured Frame

Fred, Your points are well-taken and I didn't mean to be confrontational. I just thought that your "return on investment . . . is likely to be rather small" statement might not be completely true. I didn't realize that you were speaking in terms of making a business case. Indeed, it is very,

ANN: InsetPlus 2.1 is now available

Hi, InsetPlus 2.1 for structured FrameMaker is now released, including some important usability enhancements that have made it a much better tool. If you are a current user of the software, I'd encourage you to take a look at it. InsetPlus is free. For more information, visit:

Creating a working generated TOC using Structured Framemaker

Valerie, I have used lots of structured TOCs before, so I'd like to try to help. However, I'm having a little trouble understanding your question, because based on your description, your outcome seems correct to me. You said you ended up with this: the link to the source in the .fm

Creating a working generated TOC using Structured Framemaker

Valerie, Perhaps, then, your XML equivalent is not representative of what you are actually seeing, because that example you provided does put the text inside the desired element. If the text is actually not being wrapped, something is wrong with your conversion table. Note that if you are

Structured FM - XML: using a schema

Hi Wim, My apologies if this has already been answered... I get the digest. Use of a schema is really very similar, but there are some specific constructs that you should use to prevent errors. For example, an xref element must be set up a certain way in the schema, a way that I wouldn't have

FrameMaker DITA and CMS

Hi Gordon, If you want to publish instantly, you'll probably have to build something or pay somebody lots of $$$ to customize something else. There is a conspicuous absence of off-the-shelf, dynamic publishing systems that also support multichannel publishing. There are things like Wiki pages

ANN: InsetPlus 1.0 plugin release

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Framers Digest, Vol 4, Issue 2

Hi Greg, You can indeed invoke the structure generator/conversion table process directly, without going through the menu path. The structure generator is run by an API client, and this client is exposed through ApiCallClient calls, which are possible through FrameScript. I believe it's something

Framers Digest, Vol 9, Issue 24

Hi Ellen, I do generally agree with Matt's suggestion that generatable files usually need not be structured. However, if you do want to automate the structuring process, you can run book updates through my Structure Tools plugin, available as shareware at www.weststreetconsulting.com. It has a

ANN: InsetPlus 2.0 Beta release

A beta version of InsetPlus 2.0, a text inset tool for structured FrameMaker, is now available: http://www.weststreetconsulting.com/WSC_InsetPlus.htm Among several usability enhancements, version 2.0 adds a "conref" mode, which adopts the attribute linking methodology (conref/id) used by XML

Framers Digest, Vol 12, Issue 17

Hi Kai, You can do it with fcodes, as in: static IntT fcodes[] = {KBD_STRIP_FLOWSTRUCTURE}; F_ApiFcodes(sizeof(fcodes)/sizeof(IntT), fcodes); This will invoke it just as if you selected the menu path, so you'll need to set the insertion point in the correct flow ahead of time. You also

Remove Structure (FDK)

Oops. I violated the "RE: Framers Digest" etiquette rule with that last post. Here's a quick post so the topics list will show a response to the original thread. Sorry about that.

ANN: FrameSLT 2.0 Release

West Street Consulting is pleased to announce the release of FrameSLT 2.0, with important new features such as expanded XPath support and Node Wizard Scripting. For more information, please visit www.weststreetconsulting.com. Thank you.

XML to PDF?

Hi Mary, FrameMaker can do this, and in fact, it is one of FrameMaker's great strengths in the structured content arena. Despite what it lacks in other XML features, it can do a bangup PDF from XML or SGML like no other tool, I think. Note, however, that you need to build the translation

Reasons to Structure

Jeremy Griffith, write: You can do the same with paragraph formats, too. But you can do all that in UNstructured docs just as easily as in structured. Maybe *more* easily, when you factor in the time to set up your structure, and to modify it when you make changes, which is major. I've only

Reasons to structure

Jeremy, I don't think that is harsh at all. What I think is harsh is the constant discouragement from learning and professional development from certain members of this list. It is so important for any tech writer to learn about structured content, and I do not think I am any smarter than

Reasons to structure

If you work for a company that doesn't accept qualified recommendations for improvement from its staff, you should keep a resume up-to-date. No company can last too long if it doesn't embrace innovation from the lower levels. I think the truth is, actually, that in the majority of cases, tech

Structured Frame s-l-o-w-l-y opening a document

Trevor, This is my experience with long XML files as well. I'm pretty sure it is caused by the application of formatting by the EDD, which takes some time when it has to evaluate formatting rules element-by-element for 500 pages. It doesn't need to do this for a .FM file, because the

How do you store your information?

Gordon, I think the simple answer is that your storage medium should allow: - Content authoring, management, and reuse - Publishing If you are publishing from FrameMaker exclusively (Save as PDF, Quadralay, etc), then I see no real problem with FrameMaker binaries as being your repository

ANN: ABCM 1.0 Release

Happy New Year. West Street Consulting is pleased to announce the release of the ABCM plugin, a new conditional text replacement tool for structured FrameMaker. With ABCM, you can use your structural attributes to denote and manage conditions, providing a host of benefits such as easier

April 11th Webinar: FrameMaker 11 workspaces and quick edits (incl. "pods")

Hi Maxwell, Sounds like a good webinar to have. While you are on the subject of workspaces and pods, I wanted to bring up an important issue to me - the lack of information on how to make custom FDK dialog boxes (and presumably ExtendScript dialogs as well) that can be added to workspaces. The

FDK documentation links (Subj was "April 11th Webinar: FrameMaker 11...."

Hi Maxwell, Thank you for taking the time to respond. I do have these documents and unfortunately the content is insufficient. However... before I whined one last time, I did some more experimentation and I think I finally figured it out. If it is of any interest to your technical publications

Expand all elements in the Document view

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FDK - Add custom modeless dialog to workspace

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Adding structured files into a book yields the wrong order in the structure

Simon, A book structure representation is typically unreliable until after a book update. Did you try a book update after adding files? Also, related to the previous comment, you should avoid trying to move documents around by moving their root elements in the book structure tree. You should

ANN: WS Utilities 2.00 (FM plugin) release

Hi, No corporate madness here, just a release of v2.00 of our West Street Utilities plugin for FM 8, 9, 10, and 11, structured or unstructured. This release adds a variety of features that make the plugin much more useful than before. To learn more and/or download a fully-functional trial