Comments on Moving to Structured FrameMaker

This article is in process and will be release in one form but grow over time to another. This serves as an "extensible" article, and will grow as the author has time to add comments, advice, and procedures to it.

About Conversion Tables

Turning a FrameMaker Document Inside Out

An old trick here at Bright Path Solutions has been, when reviewing client documents for EDD creation, is to do the following:

Open one of the client's files.

We would then have a document that has elements where the paragraph tags used to be, with names that match the paragraph tags. This allows us to see the paragraph tags easily-rather than having to view the tags one at a time through the document.

It would also allow us to generate an EDD based on the paragraphs actually used in the document (File > Structure Tools > Export Element Catalog as EDD). On this, note a few things:

This is not a good way to build a structure, as you end up with a structure based on styles/formatting setup. This is not a logicalstructure for publishing.

It is a good way to get a bunch of elements made quickly if you want a jump start on your EDD-just be sure you adjust it and combine things to end up with an EDD that creates a LOGICAL structure.

In FrameMaker 7.2, Adobe adjusted the conversion table feature. In older versions of FrameMaker, when you hit step 5, you would have a completely unformatted document and everything would be using a Body paragraph. Now at version 7.2, the formatting is retained at Step 5...AND, when you export the element catalog, FrameMaker not only makes your elements but also lists the name of the paragraph format (which at this point in this set of steps will match the element name).

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Comments on Moving to Structured FrameMaker by Kay Whatley (Ethier), Senior Trainer & Consultant at Bright Path Solutions Extensibility and This Article This article is in process and will be release in one form but grow over time to another. This serves as an "extensible" article, and will grow as the author has time to add comments, advice, and procedures to it. About Conversion Tables This section will be added later. Turning a FrameMaker Document Inside Out An old trick here at Bright Path Solutions has been, when reviewing client documents for EDD creation, is to do the following: Open one of the client's files. 2 Generate a conversion table (File > Structure Tools > Generate Conversion Table). 3 Save the default conversion table that FrameMaker has created, but do not close the file. 4 Switch back to the client's file, which should still be open (Alt-Tab allows you to switch easily between open FrameMaker files on a Windows PC). 5 Structure the document using the default conversion table (File > Utilies > Structure Current Document and choose the open conversion table). We would then have a document that has elements where the paragraph tags used to be, with names that match the paragraph tags. This allows us to see the paragraph tags easily-rather than having to view the tags one at a time through the document. It would also allow us to generate an EDD based on the paragraphs actually used in the document (File > Structure Tools > Export Element Catalog as EDD). On this, note a few things: This is not a good way to build a structure, as you end up with a structure based on styles/formatting setup. This is not a logicalstructure for publishing. It is a good way to get a bunch of elements made quickly if you want a jump start on your EDD-just be sure you adjust it and combine things to end up with an EDD that creates a LOGICAL structure. In FrameMaker 7.2, Adobe adjusted the conversion table feature. In older versions of FrameMaker, when you hit step 5, you would have a completely unformatted document and everything would be using a Body paragraph. Now at version 7.2, the formatting is retained at Step 5...AND, when you export the element catalog, FrameMaker not only makes your elements but also lists the name of the paragraph format (which at this point in this set of steps will match the element name). More on this topic will be added to this article as time allows. Best practices for creating your Document Structure More to come. In the meantime, you might check out our structure whitepaper or Kurt Ament's book on single sourcing.

Bright Path Solutions PO Box 14265 Research Triangle Park NC 27709-4265	Telephone: 1.919.244.8559 New URL: www.brightpathsolutions.com Bright Path Solutions is a woman-owned small business, incorporated in North Carolina USA. We are Mallett Technical Communications Corporation.