Re: Is it possible to work with MIF instead of FM

[jeremy@xxxxxxxxx (Jeremy H. Griffith)]

On Wed, 7 Apr 1999 09:05:12 -0400, rinch@inficon.com wrote:

>Our software group takes the .FM files for a software User Guide, converts them
>to MIF, and employs the Omnisys filter to create Help files.
>
>The software group asked if it is possible to work only in MIF. That is, can
>technical writers set up the User Guide "book" using MIF files, not FM files?
>
>I hope to try this later today. In the meantime, any thoughts or concerns you
>may have would be greatly appreciated.

You need use the .fm files; otherwise you will run into problems with the
Book file, which knows about files with the .fm extension.  Oddly enough,
we've found that you can use MIF files that are (mis)named as .fm just
fine... but still, for normal operations, we recommend .fm not .mif.  We
can't advise depending on undocumented "features" in real production.

However, there's a better way.  The software group also has FrameMaker,
right?  They should use the new FDK GUI for mif2rtf, which handles the
fm-to-MIF part automatically.  Even better, it will convert the whole
book in one shot, from the Book file.  It sounds like they have overlooked
this feature; please have them contact us if they have any doubts about
how to use it.  We're posting this to the list because we have quite a
few customers here, and others may have overlooked it too...

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
  (jeremy@omsys.com)  http://www.omsys.com/

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