Porting DOS Text Files into FrameMaker

[Chuck Hastings <cwh2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Free Framers,

Last Saturday I posted a problem on Free Framers.
I got back prompt responses from nine members
so far, and I've thanked them by direct email.
The response from the Free Framers community
was marvelous.

My original email is at the end of this one, for
reference.  My specific issue is porting files
created by PCWrite into FrameMaker.  PCWrite
puts a Return  (which is an extra, in FrameMaker)
at the end of every line of text;  and I need to
scrub those out, without affecting the desired
end-of-paragraph returns.  So I need to be
able to search for Returns.

I had thought that my question might border on
the simpleminded  `Doi!'  category.  However,
the tone of the responses which I got back did
not imply any such thing.  Basically three
different technical solutions were offered;  and
I'm passing these along herewith, since most of
the replies which came to me weren't addressed
to the complete   framers@omsys.com   list.

(1)  Returns may be stated as \p or as \h, in the
      Search and Replace dialogue boxes.  Adobe
      does actually disclose this, but it's in a very
      inconspicuous table under the heading
      `Searching for special characters and non-
      printing symbols.'  In my FrameMaker 5.5.6
      white manual, that's on page 58, in Chapter 3,
      `Word Processing.'  In Tom Neuberger's
      5.5.6  (`Mastering FrameMaker 5')  book,
      the table is bigger and more obvious and is
      on page 282 in Chapter 11,  `Editing Text.'
      It's probably also in my other FrameMaker
      books, but those are the two that I use most.
      The majority of folks who responded to my
      question steered me to this approach.


(2) There is a British program, ClipCache Plus;
      Sheila Vaughnn believes that it will do what
      I need done, efficiently.  I haven't tried it out
      yet, but hope to do so soon.  For info, click

      http://www.xrayz.co.uk/clipcache/?page=default


(3)  If I go directly from PCWrite text to FrameMaker,
      by importing rather than by copy-and-paste,
      the following recipe is proposed by Esmond Pitt:

      "Use File->Import->File directly from a plain .txt file
      rather than cut&paste or whatever your present process
      is. Choose successively 'copy into document', 'as text',
      and 'merge lines into paragraphs'. This does exactly what
      you want, as long as there is a blank line between para-
      graphs in the source."

      Unfortunately, my PCWrite text doesn't meet the
      condition of having that blank line, so things have to
      get less simple if I use this approach.  My text files
      are novel manuscripts, and paragraphs are indented
      by five character spaces rather than set off by blank
      lines.  PCWrite has a simple option which I use to
      render everything as double-spaced, as is required
      for standard-format novel manuscripts.


To use method  (1), there needs to be a special character
that can be used as a placeholder for TWO Returns in
sequence in the text file, so that ALL Returns can then
be excised as soon as that replacement has been made.
Next, all occurrences of that single character are replaced
by single Returns.  I had proposed ¥ as a suitable special
character;  my computer makes ¥ either as ALT157 or
as ALT0165, using numbers from the numeric keypad.
Apparently the first of these isn't a standard encoding,
although it works just fine for me.  However, a probably-
better choice was suggested by Scott Ramos:   @@@
This one should never occur legitimately in text, for any
reason that I can think of.

Chuck Hastings      cwh2@earthlink.net


======================================
MY ORIGINAL POSTING OF THE PROBLEM:


Esteemed FrameMaker Sages,

When not doing technical writing with FrameMaker
to earn my keep, I'm sometimes writing novels.  I've
published one, FUBAR, through Xlibris Corporation
of Philadelphia, a Print-on-Demand house affiliated
with Random House.

For years I've used an oldie-but-goodie DOS-based
authoring tool, PCWrite, to write fiction.  PCWrite
is fast, user-friendly, robust, and productive, and has
the best spellchecker which I've ever used.  I can
port PCWrite text into FrameMaker  (or, ugh, into
MSWord)  easily enough, by using the Netscape
Messenger email text editor.  That's not my problem.

But there is just one little ornery gotcha:  PCWrite puts
a Return character at the end of every line of text.  There is
a way to deal with these extra Return characters using MSWord;
but I'd rather avoid using MSWord, because it's unstable and
does unwanted things to my text whenever I'm not looking.
However, I haven't yet figured out a way to make FrameMaker
strip all of these extra Return characters out, except by doing
so manually  (which is tedious, bigtime).

The basic automatic-software logic is to search for single
Return characters, and delete those.  Double Return
characters  (corresponding to real end-of-paragraph marks
in PCWrite)  are then replaced with some totally-funky
character which presumably will never arise otherwise
for any legitimate reason;  ¥  (ALT 157)  might for
instance be a satisfactory choice.  Then the final step
is to replace all the ¥s with single Return characters.

Now for the sticky $64K question:  How can I make
FrameMaker detect those extra Return Characters
in text?

I've experimented with Edit --> Find, but haven't found
the right gambit yet.  FrameMaker just tells me that
I need to have put some text into the Find dialogue box,
and ignores the Return character which I actually did
put in there using copy-and-paste.

What obvious common-sense strategy am I missing?

Thanks in advance for your wise, helpful suggestions.







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