Re: text source options for Frame

[Dave Truman <Dave.Truman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You wrote:
> I'm evaluating options for authoring in a text-based format (MML, XML,
> HTML) that we can convert to Frame. I've tested the Filtrix filter, and
> am somewhat disappointed in its ability to retain tagging (character
> formats, xrefs) when converting HTML to Frame.
> 
> I'd like a bi-directional conversion tool that can go from a text format
> to Frame, and back again (during edit cycles) without losing all the
> various markers and tags. I'm using WWP to export to HTML, and ideally
> I'd like to reverse the process so our HTML files can go back to Frame.
> Is this a pie in the sky?
> 
> So is there anyone out there who is authoring in text and has
> successfully converted to Frame?

Two-way conversion (also called "round tripping") is a bit of a holy grail.
If you think about it, it's quite a tough problem -- most any "conversion"
from a format like FrameMaker to something else "loses" something, that is,
things that the output format doesn't store. Take HTML for example. The HTML
you'd generate (using Filtrix, WebWorks, or even Frame's SaveAs HTML filter)
writes out everything that HTML can do, but drops what it can't deal with
(such as cross reference markers, index markers, conditional text,
variables, table format definitions, and so on). So if you bring that HTML
back into Frame, you don't get all those things, things that are likely
important to your document..  No filtering tool in the world can get around
this inherent limitation..

(XML or SGML are about the closest theoretical options I know of, but I
haven't done much with either to know how painful or workable these options
may be..)

..
What I'm wondering is what you're trying to accomplish. If I had to guess,
I'd say you want to enable people to edit your content who don't use
FrameMaker (such as programmers, managers, etc.).  So you write a draft
chapter, put it out in a "text format" for review/editing, and bring in the
edited content back into Frame..

About the only purely text-based formats you could really use this way are
MIF or MML (MML is more "human-readable")..

But I'd be concerned about editorial process, ownership, resolution of
conflicting edits, tracking who made what edit in any kind of collaborative
authoring scenario.. So much so that I'd consider foregoing a text format
and using something like Word or Acrobat..

Word's a good option for this. You can setup a simple style sheet with the
formats named the same as your Frame template. You can work initially in
Word, or work in Frame and convert it to Word for editing. Using Word's
review and change tracking features, people can collaboratively bang on the
content. When it's done, import to Frame, apply your template, and fix up
the minor issues. Images and tables can be a bit of a pain, and it kind of
limits Frame to more of a "long document page layout tool", but it's a
workable system for what I think you want.

Acrobat can be used for this too, but it's a lot more limited, and doesn't
quite do what I think you want, which is completely enable third parties to
work on the actual text. At any rate, you'd need full acrobat, or at least
the reader with some purchasable "reviewing" plugin. 

Hope that helps.. 

dave
--
Dave Truman                            Email: dave.truman@everypath.com
 Technical Publications Manager        Phone: 416.366.6425 x732
  Everypath                           Mobile: 416.200.2292
  49 Ontario St., 7th floor, Box 24      Fax: 416.643.4832
  Toronto, Ontario, M5A 2V1              Web: http://www.everypath.com
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