Re: a script for a combersome process?

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

> But, if I save as MIF I don't need any of the format or colour
definitions.

You don't? Can you explain for what purposes you want to create a MIF?
For instance, if you create a MIF file to be able to open it in a
previous version of FM, you certainly need all formats.

> FM can create a perfectly valid binary from very rudimentary MIF. If
> rudimentary/minimalist MIF can go in, why can't it come out?

If you open a "rudimentary" MIF (without formats and pages, for instance),
all the necessary extra information is created from default settings.
You have virtually no control over the appearance, formatting and
settings of the resulting document.

If you already have a FM document with defined appearance, formatting
and settings, why would you want to loose all that information?
Why not save as text to simply remove all formatting and layout?

To give a few examples of problems with your approach:
If you have tables in your document, there is no way to save the tables
without saving the corresponding table formats.
If you have cross-references with page information, you would need to
retain page layout and page breaks.
If you have formatted paragraphs, you can actually skip the paragraph
format definitions, but then all these formatting settings must be
repeated for each paragraph instance, which would *increase* the size
of the MIF file instead of reducing it. (Again, if you don't need
the text formatting, save as text)

I'm not saying you're "wrong" in any way, I just don't understand
the intention or benefit of a "castrated" MIF file or how you expect
it to work correctly in a general case (a complex document).


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Thomas Michanek, FrameMaker/UNIX/MIF expert
Technical Writer, Uppsala, Sweden
mailto:Thomas.Michanek@telia.com
http://go.to/framers/
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