Re: ghost fonts in table tags

["Snavely, Deborah" <dsnavely@xxxxxxxx>]

I replied to Rhea:

Rhea,

I don't know about good, but here's an idea about the tables; a good point
that I hadn't considered. 

*	Create a document file from the clean template.
*	For every table tag you want to keep, insert a table into the file. 
*	Once those tables are in place, delete ALL the table tags.
*	Put cursor in first table, open the table designer dialog, and
create the tag anew (using, of course, the identical tag name used in your
templates).
*	Repeat for each table tag.
*	Delete the tables, save the file to a temporary name, and test IT as
your new template. 
*	If it works, replace the old template doc (archive it somewhere for
safekeeping...).

That should get rid of the ghost tags in embedded in the new-table
properties for table tags, because when you create the table tags new (one
of the steps I use when building templates), they pick up only the
properties of the existing table (including number of columns and rows for
default format, so consider well while you're at it; here's a chance to
polish templates, a tempting but sometimes distracting opportunity).

Good luck!

Deborah Snavely 

> ----------
> From: 	Rhea Tolman[SMTP:rtolman@interbase.com]
> Sent: 	Thursday, January 07, 1999 4:09 PM
> To: 	Snavely, Deborah
> Cc: 	'framers@omsys.com'
> Subject: 	Re: cleaning out old fonts
> 
> Deborah, thanks for the advice. Unfortunately, I've had "Remember
> Missing Fonts" unchecked for some time. That gets rid of
> everything except old fonts in tables. You sound like you really
> know your stuff. Got any other ideas?
> 
> I've also followed Jay Smith's advice (thank you Jay!): I've
> double-checked that the old, unused tags that have the unwanted
> fonts REALLY don't exist anywhere in the doc--Body, Reference, or
> Master pages. Then I've re-created the four or five old tags that
> turn up in the MIF with the old fonts but I've re-created them
> using current fonts and definitions and done Update All. Looking
> in the MIF, I found that those tags STILL had the old fonts.
> 
> All occurrences of these tags/fonts are in tables. As far as I can
> tell, they're being used to create "ghost" columns. I've got
> three-column tables that have 8 or more columns defined in the
> MIF! And the ghost columns have, of course, the ghost tags and
> ghost fonts. I'm feeling pretty haunted 'long about now. 
> 
> These ancient tags and fonts seem to be locked away in parts of
> the table that don't really exist. I'm pretty good with
> FrameMaker, I've used it for years and I like it a lot. And
> generally I have a fairly good time solving problems. But this one
> has really got me. I'm trying to clean up the templates and doc
> set so that we can distribute them to contractors and outsources.
> I'm almost there. All I have to do is bust the ghosts.
> 
> Thanks to all...
> 
> Rhea
> Lead Technical Writer, InterBase Software Corp.
> 
> 
> "Snavely, Deborah" wrote:
> > 
> > Rhea,
> > 
> > >What to do? I can't search for either the tags or the fonts in the
> > >native FrameMaker file, because they're not accessible in that
> > >form. The MIF file is intricate, and I'm not at all confident that
> > >I could remove the unwanted font calls without munging the file.
> > >And, there are a LOT of them. These are old docs. They've been
> > >around.
> > >
> > >FWIW, I'm using FrameMaker 5.5.2 on NT4 with Adobe Type Manager
> > >Deluxe. I think that the docs have always been on Wintel
> > >platforms.
> > 
> > On any version of Frame (4.0 and up for Mac, 5.5 and up for Windows)
> that
> > offers the "Remember Missing Fonts" preference, you can quickly remove
> any
> > truly unused font names with the following simple procedure (per file,
> but
> > it's fairly quick):
> > 
> > 1. With the file closed/ open Frame Preferences and un-check Remember
> > Missing Fonts.
> > 2. Open the file or files you want to clean up, respond to the dialog
> box
> > about missing fonts, then save and close the file/s.
> > 3. Open the file/s a second time to check that you do NOT get the
> missing
> > fonts dialog again.
> > 4. When you're done with all files (or for the day, I don't recommend
> > leaving Frame Prefs set this way for any length of time), open Prefs and
> > check Remember Missing Fonts.
> > 
> > As always, do one or two test files to make sure this procedure does
> what
> > you want. Note that uncataloged paragraphs or characters on reference
> and
> > master pages may contain fonts not in your current styles but could
> cause
> > some past-style fonts (ghosts, I call 'em) to remain in your document.
> > Cleaning up document templates to delete such ghosts is a fine art, and
> an
> > action I recommend whenever you make major style changes to
> dept/corporate
> > docs (you're using templates, yes?). Once ghost fonts and other elements
> are
> > gone, there are two or three fairly clean ways to apply the new styles
> to
> > older documents being revised or updated. For new docs, it's almost
> always
> > easiest to clone a blank template or boilerplate (based on the current
> > template) and assemble docs from there.
> > 
> 
> 

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