Reason for changed document

["Thomas Michanek" <thomas.michanek@xxxxxxxxx>]

Framers,
As you may know, a document may become "dirty" (in need of change)
just after you've opened it and before you have made any changes
to the contens. This is indicated by an asterisk in the page number
field in the status bar, and you'll be prompted to save the file
when closing it, even though you've made no changes.

The usual reason for this is that the setting "Suppress Automatic
Updating" is turned off (see Edit > Update References > Commands
> Suppress Automatic Updating). Therefore, as soon as you open
the document, cross-refs and text insets are automatically updated,
resulting in a changed status. You can ignore these changes.

I've just discovered another not so evident reason for the "dirty"
status on opening. I have documents that don't contain any cross-
refs, text insets or other links, but they do contain graphics
imported by reference. The name of the folder for the graphics
was recently changed in the file system. This is what happened:

1. After renaming the folder, I opened a document which imports
   graphics from the folder. Of course, I got the "Missing file"
   dialog, browsed to the renamed folder, and choose to update
   all paths in the document.

2. Next, I opened another document which also imports graphics
   from the same folder. However, since I've just redirected FM
   to the renamed folder, FM apparently remembered this and didn't
   open the "Missing file" dialog. Instead, FM silently updated
   the paths of the actually missing graphics to the renamed folder.
   The file thus became "dirty" without any messages or prompts.

It was only beacuse I knew this second document didn't contain
any references that I realized that the document really was in
need of saving. Otherwise, the file paths would have been wrong.

There's a real downside to this "silent helping" by FM (a la Word):
I happen to have documents that import graphics with the same
filename as the above mentioned documents, but placed in different
folders. If these folders have been renamed too, FM will silently
update the paths to the previously browsed-to folder. This folder
does contain the same graphic filename, but it's the wrong folder!
Saving the document will incorrectly change the paths, and you'll
never notice the error...

Did anyone follow me, and have you experienced the same?

_____________________________________________
Thomas Michanek, FrameMaker/UNIX/MIF expert
Technical Communicator, Uppsala, Sweden
mailto:Thomas.Michanek@xxxxxxxxx
http://go.to/framers/       (updated April 7)
_____________________________________________



** To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxx **
** with "unsubscribe framers" (no quotes) in the body.   **