Re: FrameMaker to Word or RTF

[Thomas Neuburger <thomasn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is interesting, Jeremy, but I'm a little confused. If I use Frame for 
authoring and mif2go for WinHelp RTF generation, do I lose my Xref 
interlinks within the resulting help system? Your comments below seem to 
imply that, though I may not be reading it correctly.

Best,

Tom Neuburger

Jeremy H. Griffith wrote:

>On Wed, 24 May 2000 11:46:27 -0500, Mary Holder <mholder@mesahq.com> wrote:
>
> >I'm using FM 5.5.6 on NT 4.0 and Word 2000. I imported a Word 2000 document
> >(including tables and graphics) into FrameMaker and now I need to return it
> >to Word format. Sometimes I can do this and sometimes not: either frame
> >encounters some type of error, or it just hangs up.
> >
> >Does anyone have any experience in doing this type of conversion? What might
> >be the problem(s) I'm encountering? Thanks for your help. BTW, if I can't
> >resolve this issue quickly, we have to go back to Word company-wide (ugh),
> >so I really need some help. Thanks in advance.
>
>The quickest and easiest way we know of to produce Word docs from FrameMaker
>is to use our Mif2Go plug-in, which generates Word RTF (as well as WinHelp,
>HTML, HTML Help, JavaHelp, and XML).  It's $295 for a single-seat license.
>We don't have a demo, but will run one sample file; for more details, see:
>   http://www.omsys.com/
>and please be sure to read the page on sample files before sending us one...
>
>You should know that the Word RTF we produce is intended for use by reviewers
>who lack FrameMaker, rather than for use in ongoing document development. So
>the xrefs and autonumbers in it are plain text, not "active"; Word is so very
>different from FrameMaker in these respects that live references are just not
>reliable.  Similarly, since Word lacks many of FrameMaker's layout features,
>like sideheads, we emulate the original appearance using methods that would
>be hard, if not impossible, for an editor to duplicate within Word itself.
>Graphics placement is also likely to change in unexpected ways if much text
>is added or deleted from the Word document.  Word is not Frame.
>
>This also means that it's best not to use a workflow that depends on importing
>modified Word documents back into FrameMaker.  It just won't work.  You will
>need to review any corrections made in the Word doc (Word's revision-tracking
>methods are very good for that), then make the corresponding fixes in Frame.
>If necessary, you can copy from Word and paste *as plain text* in FrameMaker,
>but you don't want to infect your Frame doc with Word formatting...
>
>We hope this illuminates some of the issues you will encounter, and wish you
>the best of luck!
>
>-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.


Mastering FrameMaker
Foundation: Building Sentence Skills
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/Author%3DThomas%20Neuburger/>


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