Structured FrameMaker and MS Word XML Import
David Versdahl wrote: > We are embarking on a new project with a new 1200 page book. There are two > audiences for this book. One is a subset of the other. The request is that > we base this book on a single MS Word document that is maintained by one or > engineers at different sites. The content is constantly changing with the > addition of new material and the excising of outdated information. So you're a large company with big publications containing frequently changing data maintained by distributed editors? You seriously need a collaborative authoring environment. My company sells PageSeeder (http://www.pageseeder.com) - with it, you would: o get the distributed authors to update the data through a Word-like interface running in a web browser, so requiring no client-side software, o when they finish, you'd save the data as XML and load it into FrameMaker. This would provide you with full auditability and security, as well as the opportunity for the authors (and anyone else they may care to invite) to carry on threaded discussions within the documents, all carried out through whatever email client they choose to use. It's all about using the right tool for the job. You shouldn't have too much trouble convincing a semiconductor company of that. -- Regards, Marcus Carr email: mcarr at allette.com.au ___ Allette Systems (Australia) www:http://www.allette.com.au ___ "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Einstein
Structured FrameMaker and MS Word XML Import
David Versdahl wrote: We are embarking on a new project with a new 1200 page book. There are two audiences for this book. One is a subset of the other. The request is that we base this book on a single MS Word document that is maintained by one or engineers at different sites. The content is constantly changing with the addition of new material and the excising of outdated information. So you're a large company with big publications containing frequently changing data maintained by distributed editors? You seriously need a collaborative authoring environment. My company sells PageSeeder (http://www.pageseeder.com) - with it, you would: o get the distributed authors to update the data through a Word-like interface running in a web browser, so requiring no client-side software, o when they finish, you'd save the data as XML and load it into FrameMaker. This would provide you with full auditability and security, as well as the opportunity for the authors (and anyone else they may care to invite) to carry on threaded discussions within the documents, all carried out through whatever email client they choose to use. It's all about using the right tool for the job. You shouldn't have too much trouble convincing a semiconductor company of that. -- Regards, Marcus Carr email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Allette Systems (Australia) www:http://www.allette.com.au ___ "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Einstein ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send list messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Re: Structured FrameMaker and MS Word XML Import
On Thu, 3 Aug 2006 15:00:20 -0700, "David Versdahl" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >We are embarking on a new project with a new 1200 page book. There are two >audiences for this book. One is a subset of the other. The request is that >we base this book on a single MS Word document that is maintained by one or >engineers at different sites. That's asking for trouble. Word is simply incapable of handling complex 1200-page documents, or even simple 1000-page documents. It's in enough trouble with simple 300-page documents... ;-) >The content is constantly changing with the >addition of new material and the excising of outdated information. The >preference is to keep this a FrameMaker document so, we would take this Word >document and import it in some fashion into FrameMaker. The traditional >import function is impractical and tedious in this instance. Consider turning the problem around. Get the original material into FrameMaker, preferably as a book consisting of perhaps eight chapter files, whatever fits the doc structure. Then you can readily generate a single PDF. When you need to furnish it to the engineers in Word, use Mif2Go to produce the Word doc; many members of this list do that, and we don't know of a better way (truly, even if it is our product ;-). You will get a set of Word docs, not just one (one per chapter file), but that's what you need if anyone wants to edit it in Word. And you can force Track Changes on, so you can easily see what was altered and copy/paste it (as PLAIN TEXT) back into the FrameMaker doc. That way, your writer maintains control of doc integrity, which we consider very important. You don't want any old tweak made by a reviewer to go into the master FrameMaker doc without any authorial review, now do you? HTH! -- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.omsys.com/ ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send list messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Structured FrameMaker and MS Word XML Import
On Thu, 3 Aug 2006 15:00:20 -0700, "David Versdahl" wrote: >We are embarking on a new project with a new 1200 page book. There are two >audiences for this book. One is a subset of the other. The request is that >we base this book on a single MS Word document that is maintained by one or >engineers at different sites. That's asking for trouble. Word is simply incapable of handling complex 1200-page documents, or even simple 1000-page documents. It's in enough trouble with simple 300-page documents... ;-) >The content is constantly changing with the >addition of new material and the excising of outdated information. The >preference is to keep this a FrameMaker document so, we would take this Word >document and import it in some fashion into FrameMaker. The traditional >import function is impractical and tedious in this instance. Consider turning the problem around. Get the original material into FrameMaker, preferably as a book consisting of perhaps eight chapter files, whatever fits the doc structure. Then you can readily generate a single PDF. When you need to furnish it to the engineers in Word, use Mif2Go to produce the Word doc; many members of this list do that, and we don't know of a better way (truly, even if it is our product ;-). You will get a set of Word docs, not just one (one per chapter file), but that's what you need if anyone wants to edit it in Word. And you can force Track Changes on, so you can easily see what was altered and copy/paste it (as PLAIN TEXT) back into the FrameMaker doc. That way, your writer maintains control of doc integrity, which we consider very important. You don't want any old tweak made by a reviewer to go into the master FrameMaker doc without any authorial review, now do you? HTH! -- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc. http://www.omsys.com/
Structured FrameMaker and MS Word XML Import
Hello Everyone, Currently we use standard FrameMaker to produce large (800-1000 page) extremely technical documents. We begin them from scratch using input from a wide variety of engineering sources. As a part of the book there are many Visio images and a tremendous diversity of tables, equations, and cross references. We are embarking on a new project with a new 1200 page book. There are two audiences for this book. One is a subset of the other. The request is that we base this book on a single MS Word document that is maintained by one or engineers at different sites. The content is constantly changing with the addition of new material and the excising of outdated information. The preference is to keep this a FrameMaker document so, we would take this Word document and import it in some fashion into FrameMaker. The traditional import function is impractical and tedious in this instance. Our initial thought is to take the Word document and save it as XML, develop an appropriate schema, and then import this XML into a structured FrameMaker application. My question to you is whether or not this is a reasonable approach. Will it work? If it will, what are the gotchas? Or, should we take the Word XML output and work exclusively with an XML editor that ports to PDF (our primary output)? Your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated. Sincerely, David Versdahl Technical Writer, SR Cypress Semiconductor ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send list messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Structured FrameMaker and MS Word XML Import
Hello Everyone, Currently we use standard FrameMaker to produce large (800-1000 page) extremely technical documents. We begin them from scratch using input from a wide variety of engineering sources. As a part of the book there are many Visio images and a tremendous diversity of tables, equations, and cross references. We are embarking on a new project with a new 1200 page book. There are two audiences for this book. One is a subset of the other. The request is that we base this book on a single MS Word document that is maintained by one or engineers at different sites. The content is constantly changing with the addition of new material and the excising of outdated information. The preference is to keep this a FrameMaker document so, we would take this Word document and import it in some fashion into FrameMaker. The traditional import function is impractical and tedious in this instance. Our initial thought is to take the Word document and save it as XML, develop an appropriate schema, and then import this XML into a structured FrameMaker application. My question to you is whether or not this is a reasonable approach. Will it work? If it will, what are the gotchas? Or, should we take the Word XML output and work exclusively with an XML editor that ports to PDF (our primary output)? Your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated. Sincerely, David Versdahl Technical Writer, SR Cypress Semiconductor
