Hi, Does anyone have a set of metrics that they use to estimate the time required to convert a FrameMaker 8 document to an MS Word equivalent?
My experience has been that saving a Frame file to rtf is fairly quick, with reasonable conversion of text and layout. But after that you need to do the following post-processing for each Frame file: * Recreate xrefs and hyperlinks * Re-insert index markers (after first removing whatever it is they are converted to) * Re-insert variables (or the Word equivalent) * Re-apply some colours * Convert the paragraph style names (if the Word and Frame templates use different ones) * Remove odd blank paragraphs * Possibly recapture graphics and re-apply callouts * Tweak paragraph formats - like removing extra line spacing * Edit tables so that row heights are not fixed and better fit the cell contents The conversion and basic tidying seems to take about a minute a page (no variable or index marker insertion), and each xref takes about a minute to re-add; so a 50 page file with 2 xrefs a page would be at least 150 minutes of work. Does this seem right to you? Then one needs to: * Weld the individual files together into a Word file * Sort out page and paragraph numbering. * Add a TOC and index I've not done these. Are they problematic? Are there any other major steps that I have omitted? Will any third-party tools simplify the job? Thanks for any advice you can give! Ian Saunders Syntellect Inc, UK