Re: Scripting FrameMaker

[Bill Briggs <web@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 1:37 PM -0400 27/10/00, Larry Kollar wrote:
>> The MIFfing example isn't locked, unless he locked it inadvertently.
>
>True, but it's a compiled script rather than a standalone app -- so
>I think my advice still applies:

Yes, he has to open it, recompile it, and then save it. I would assume
since it's nor saved as an application that he would have done so at least
once, but I should know by now that making assumptions is a bad idea.


>>Since the Finder is generally always running, you can launch FrameMaker 6
>>getting the Finder to call it by it's application file id, as follows. ...
>>
>>tell application "Finder"
>>open application file id "Fm60"
>>end tell
>
>Coooool. I never tried that, and I can see where that would make
>certain standalone scripts easier to pass around.

 Indeed. It's a way to make source locked stand-alone AppleScript
applications that you can take to another machine and use without opening
and recompiling. It's an often useful trick.


>But would it
>apply to situations where you already have FM open, with the book
>or document you want to work on in the foreground? (Most of the
>Frame-related AppleScripts I've written make that assumption,
>since I launch them from Frame's Scripts menu.)

 Not necessary then. If you have FrameMaker open and are using the scripts
menu you're okay because it knows where running applications are. But if
FrameMaker is part of a workflow and you have to launch it at some point as
the script works, then the is a very good way to do it. The one thing to
watch out for is if you have two versions of FrameMaker with the same
creator code (maybe 5.5.0 and 5.5 3 - I can't recall if they were the same,
but I think they were all Fm55 or Fb55 for the SGML variant) then it will
launch the most recently installed version. This typically isn't a problem,
but it's a factoid that can sometimes explain the otherwise unexplainable.
It's obscure enough that I wouldn't mention it except that it has come up
on the scripting lists sometimes.

- web



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