Hello everybody!

I will use Adobe FrameMaker 12 in author mode in an upcomming project, and I will continue testing it for two more weeks. As I am new to XML and document creation, I finished an online tutorial about XML and started now to create a document. I entered all files in one directory, then tested & corrected the contents with oXygen XML Author 16. Now, I opened the same files under FrameMaker 12 and have a lot of errors. As XML is a standard, I think that my code is not the problem. Do you have an idea why one & the same documents are evaluated differently by the two tools?

Thank you for your suggestions!

Note: As ist is not possible to upload a ZIP file, I add two images to show the problem.

[Moved from Scripting forum by moderator]

Hello FrameMaker Gurus.

I've been working as a lone writer for a software company for many years. We have a 1300 page product manual that was originally authored in unstructured FrameMaker. We then use WebWorks to generate "Webhelp" that is both hosted online publically and installable with the software. You can see it here:

http://www.tableausoftware.com/currentonlinehelp

In preparation for multiple writers as well as multiple products, I have since converted the content to structured XML using the DITA DTD. I still author in Structured FrameMaker working from the XML files. I am now considering my options for how to generate the final output. My problem with webhelp templates is that the output is a framed help system connected by javascript links. That format makes it difficult to get the help pages to be indexed by search engines because they cannot get into the frames and if they do they cannot follow the javascript links. Further, webhelp output is isolated from our other UA content on the corporate website (e.g., knowledge base articles, forums, etc.). Our customers need to be able to search across all of these resources. The webhelp is a stand alone system with its own search. Additionally, we would like to have more cross linking into the help pages from other sources. The framed webhelp seems to make those deep dive links difficult. Finally, the look and feel of most webhelp (even with a fair amount of CSS/customization) is clunky at best. 1999 called, they want their help system back.

My thinking is that in order to get a help system that is easily indexable by search engines and integrates with our other content (managed by Drupal), I will have to generate unframed HTML pages that have the TOC built into the pages. Then I can either point a search appliance at it to unify Drupal content and help content in a single search or I can import the HTML into Drupal as part of my publish process. The HTML pages would be generated using the DITA open toolkit and custom XSLT stylesheets to do the transform.

Those pieces are outside of my technical skill level and would require a lot of time and money to put together. Before going down that route, I am trying to learn what other people do once they've gotten to an XML source using Structured FrameMaker. Does everyone just generate webhelp and be happy with it? If so, are they using DITA open toolkit or are they using other tools? How do they solve the search problems associated with webhep?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. I don't want to dig down a hole of custom development to design the perfect help pages before I know that the solution is not already out there.

Thanks,

Erin

We have a lot of tables, that we'd like to maintain outside of FrameMaker (we're using FM9).  I've been trying to figure out the best way to do it, and using the Import>File>Convert option seems like the best.

However, my question is what is best practice for the type of files we use?  At first it seemed like using Excel and saving as a .csv or tab-delimited text file would be easiest.  But there doesn't seem to be a .csv convert option and setting "," as the delimiter means we can't use commas inside the cell content.  And it seems to import tab-delimited cells that contain a comma inside quotes.

It seems like the other option would be to use HTML for the table content.  We are new to all this stuff, so using HTML would add to the learning curve, but I can push it through if it's best practice/will make the cleanest conversions.  Or is there a way to use Excel that converts cleanly that I just haven't figured out?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Still researching feasability of adding S1000D into our doc production and management.  Does anyone know if FM 9 Server's Common Source Database will EFFECTIVELY manage S1000D modules? The product description mentions a CSDB, but really doesn't nail it down definitively and sales just doesn't have the background to provide a concrete answer either.   I've researched and found some 3rd party vendors who do for standard FM 9 (which we are currently using), but their prices don't matchup well with ROI.  FM server does, if it will effectively manage S1000D modules.

Eric G.

In FDK development, I want to access registry to get information.

StringT GetDirInfoFromReg()
{
   HKEY hKey;      
    CharT       SubKeyName[]= "SOFTWARE\\airport raw data";      
     CharT      ValueName[] = "template"; 
  CharT keyValue[64];
  IntT i;
       
     BYTE        ValueData[64];      
     DWORD       Buffer; 
  StringT  key=NULL;
       
     //open key   
     if(RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,SubKeyName,0,KEY_ALL_ACCESS,&hKey) !=ERROR_SUCCESS)      
     {      
         printf(      "Error:        Regedit        cannot        be        opened! ");      
     }      
     else      
     {      
     //read key value      
     Buffer=sizeof(ValueData);      
     if(RegQueryValueEx(hKey,ValueName,0,NULL,ValueData,&Buffer)==ERROR_SUCCESS)      
     {
          //Convert ValueDate  to StringT

    key=(StringT)ValueData//***************************Error:I can not get the right data.

     RegCloseKey(hKey);      
     }      
           
     }

  return key;

}

I don't know how to convert byte to StringT.

Hello,

I currently have about 150 pages fm file, which were orginally unstructured but I managed to make a working structure to it. It has mainly tables, which have crossreferences, images, graphics, inner tables and stuff, so about normal technical document. Reason why I'm structuring it and turning to XML is that we have some other XML file from where we will add data to this document and currently that is done by hand and we want to do it my machine. Those things are done by magic of programmers who can speak better c-related languages than English.

I can make XML from this fine, so that XML that is created is valid and structure looks like it is copied fine to XML. Inner tables, images and graphics are currently inside anchored frames as graphics elements, since they were something similar in unstructured document and read/write rules transform them to EPS images, since inner tables don't work as SVG, which I would otherwise prefer, because it is also XML and those anchored frames have some crossreference links to document's other parts. SVG would be also easier to handle in programming (or so I think) than EPS. If anyone can think better way to do these, I'm open for suggestions.

Issue currently is that when I open this created XML in FrameMaker, it first loads about half an hour (computer is Intel T2500 2GHz, 2GB RAM, XP Pro SP3 laptop and FM is version 10) and then shows 9 pages of error logs about "framemaker cannot insert the table cell (Cell) at the current position" and then document is shown as 600 to 1000 pages "masterpiece" where first 150 pages looks normal but after that first page is shown again and tables are shown like one column in page. One would suggest that if file is created by FrameMaker, FrameMaker would open it normally, but apparently that is not the case.

Read/write -rules look currently like this: (if it helps at all)

element "Table" {

     is fm table element "Table";

}

element "TableHead" {

     is fm table heading element "TableHead";

}

element "TableBody" {

     is fm table body element "TableBody";

}

element "Row" {

    is fm table row element "Row";

}

element "Cell" {

    is fm table cell element "Cell";

}

element "HRef" is fm cross-reference element "HRef";

element "Row" {

     is fm table row element "ROW";

}

element "Cell" is fm table cell element "CELL";

element "Graphic" {

     is fm graphic element;

     writer anchored frame {

          export to file "$(entity).eps" as "EPS";

          specify size in pt;

     }

}

element "Equation" {

     is fm equation element;

     writer equation export to file "$(entity).eps" as "EPS";

}

There are some things that might look weird for some people. There are some conditional text in FM file and without rules like

element "Cell" is fm table cell element "CELL";

XML wouldn't be valid against DTD.

I would appreciate any help. I can also provide some other files here, but due NDA reasons, real document is No-Go, but I think if structure is needed to see, DTD is fine.

I'm authoring in structured FM 10 using a DITA 1.2 application on Windows 7, but working with FM documents rather than XML files. I was having problems updating cross-references in my existing (structured FM 7.2) files after upgrading to FM 10 -- FM was changing all xref formats to DITA Default Format, which blew away all of my defined formats. So I opened one of the standard structured templates included with FM 10 (DITA_1.2/app/technicalContent/template/topic.template.fm), thinking that I set up my structured application incorrectly.

I know I must be missing something simple, but this is what happens when I create and update a cross-reference:

1. Using the unmodified structured  template and the unmodified DITA 1.2 application that comes with FM 10, add an fm-xref element.
2. Using the DITA-Cross-Reference dialog box, create the xref (doesn't  matter if it's an internal or external xref).
3. Select See_Title_and_Page xref format. Xref looks fine in the source document.
4. Select Edit > Update Reference, and select All Cross-References.
   

When I click Update, FM updates the xref but changes the xref format to DITA Default Format. I can see that the See_Title_and_Page format included in the template uses the <$paratext> building block instead of <$elemtext>, but  I can't delete or modify this format and I can't create a new xref format, either, since the DITA  Cross-Reference dialog box doesn't give me those options.

However, if I create a new FM book and add this file to it, and then  select Edit > Update Book, and select All Cross-References, FM  updates the xref and maintains the xref format I chose.

So, why does updating a file remove the selected formats from all xrefs and replace them with DITA Default Format, while updating a book does what I'd expect (and what FM has always done)? And why can't I modify an xref format using the template/DITA 1.2 application that comes with FM10?

Thanks for any assistance.

  --Steve

We translated a structured FM10 file from ENG into ZHO (simplified Chinese). After compiling the book, I wanted to open the files and all Chinese charcters have been replaced by a '?' mark. What we did wrong? Do we have to do some special settings locally? Please let me know your suggestions. Thanks

I need to create an Army Depot-Level maintenance manual using MIL-STD-2361 in structured FrameMaker. Does anyone know where I might find a template/EDD for this? If not, can anyone direct me to just the plain DTD? I will be creating XML and PDF files for output.

Thank you!

I've been working with FM for a little while now and have gradually picked up how to manipulate EDDs and such to do what I want. I've also learned a bit about output templates and how to work with them. But here's the thing that's driving me crazy:

I make changes to a template; I make sure to import the EDD into it; I can test that EDD formatting within the template and it works. I then attempt to create output from a DITA map, and the EDD formatting does not appear.

I have seen similar topics in this forum, but in those cases it seems to be a case of the OP forgetting to import the EDD into their templates. I know I have done this, and repeatedly at that. I also know that FM is looking at the template I created, because I can see other changes I've been making to the paragraph formats n the template.

I've imported the same EDD into every output template I can find (I have backups of the originals), and the formatting still does not seem to take.

Oh, and the EDDs used to import with errors, so I fixed those. They now import cleanly.

I also want to reiterate this: My EDD formatting works in the template itself.

In case it's relevant, the formatting I'm particularly interested in at this point adds a small graphic frame from the template reference page before each note tag; the graphic varies depending on the note tag's attribute. I'd like to figure out how to get that graphic into the side head, but that's another topic. First things first.

What am I doing wrong?

I am familiar with FrameMaker. However, I have never used structured FrameMaker or DITA. I am just starting a new project and need to make recommendations.

Hi,

I know there's a solution to this somehow via scripting - problem is, I have no clue so far about FM scripting

We're using the standard XML API for our structure and everything works out fine, except one thing that we stumbled over.

When creating a TOC in FM11 based on XML files within a book, we're receiving good results (pages are referenced correctly). As long as it doesn't come down to jump marks.

FM11 doesn't create the correct jump marks for the TOC entries. After an analysis, this is because the unique IDs for the referenced elements are non-existant (they're required and declared as UniqueID in the DTD and EDD, but not set automatically). Therefor FM11 points his jump marks towards the nearest element with an unique ID.

This behavior points me to two questions:

1. can I get FM11 to create unique IDs upon creation of the TOC (same way it creates the IDs when using XRef)? or

2. what can I do to get FM11 to create unique IDs automatically on insertion of an element, that requires an ID?

Cheers Gorly

To whom it may concern,

Recently I keep having a problem with FrameMaker 11 and the application would crush and close. The error message I got is like this: 

Here is the txt file FrameMaker generated:

I searched in your website and could not find an answer. Please help me solving this problem,

Thank you so much,

Lisa

I'm still trying to get to grips with some DITA Frame basics and another piece of info that I would like to have is how to get the ditamap to use a custom css when it is output to xhtml with the DITA OT. Is there any simple non-super-techie way to do this without having to learn how to hack the ANT programs?

Under the StructureTools menu, there is an Import CSS styles item, but I can't find instructions on how to use it accessible to my level.

Also, is there a way to apply a company stylesheet to the Responsive html output generated with the new Publish tool? I realize the two provided templates can be modified element by element, but it does mean a lot of modification, and it would be cool if we could just invoke the stylesheets that already govern our web site so that the output could match.

Thanks to anyone who can help,

Elisa Roselli

Cambridge Imaging Systems

Newbee here.

Is there a way to save a ditamap from Vasont to a FM book with components and have it create a book with all the topics instead of Chapters? I would like to have one large book with chapter headings but with separate files for all the topics. Is this possible? What I get now is FM book with chapters where the files are combined into chapters.

I am using FM 12. I am extracting the ditamap and topic files from Vasont, and want to edit them as FM files and then load them back to Vasont. I do not have the plugin for FM to vasont.  Anyone have an idea of the cost of those extensions?

Thanks,

Bob

I have a paragraph that contains a number of inline elements, such as a <link> and a <uicontrol>. When these are only separated by a whitespace (which is significant in this case, as it separates the characters in the <link> from the characters in the <uicontrol>, the XML file produced by FM has replaced the whitespace with a carriage return, which of course disappears as it is supposed to be meaningless in XML.

I have tried to set the "preserve line breaks" rule on the enclosing <p> element but, apart from the fact that this is not what I intend to do, it does not make any difference on the whitespace between the two inline elements.

Is there any way to make FM not perform this obvious mistake? Or do I really have to use ExtendScript to first change the whitespace to a special <whitespace> character, so that this is kept in the XML output and can then be changed back into a regular whitespace by my XSLT (which I need in any case). Kind of ugly but it would work. If there is an easier way to do this, please tell me about it.

Ciao

Jang

Hi All,

Using structured FM 11 on Windows 7.

I need a way to round-trip paragraph format tags. I know it is easy to assign them on import with the EDD, but I'm not sure how to save them on export.

I was hoping the read/write rules could contain something along the lines of:

attribute "paraFormat" is fm property paragraph format tag;

I figure it can probably be done with ExtendScript or a custom API, but I would rather avoid these if possible.

Thanks!
Trevor

We have a process for typesetting large amounts of text which involves importing SGML content into FM11, and then importing formats and element definitions onto that content.

We recently upgraded from using FM6, and with that previous version of FrameMaker, when the content contained an unusual entity (e.g. a letter i with a macron above it), the system would default to using a different font in which we had the correct symbol for the entity. Unfortunately we cannot work out how to get FM11 to replicate this, so end up with question marks replacing the entity.

We do not currently use a Structure Application or DTD, and have a very simple default.rw file:

fm version is "11.0";

/*

* Include all ISO entity mapping rules.

*/

#include "isoall.rw"

element "Paddr" is fm footnote element;

element "Paddrstart" is fm footnote element;

What is the best way to get FM11 to recognise that these entities need to use a different font? I've tried looking in the various online documentation pdfs, but couldn't see how to solve this problem.

Thanks

Katy

Getting an error while generating TOC in structured framemaker 11

Hi,

I'm very new to DITA, I understand XML but am looking to create more documents using it and DITA/Framemaker seems the way to go.

Is it possible to create a document that looks through all of the topics in a folder then creates a new topic from those (essentially a summary), pulling out certain elements?

I'm looking at a timesaving mechanism, so that I can have lots of folders with subjects in each (ie - several topics) then be able to quickly create either summary sheets or note sheets from that content

Many thanks

John.