Hi Nadine, I have been watching this thread with interest, since I am the author of the TableCleaner plugin that others recommended. I will be honest and say that I developed TableCleaner, not in the spirit of open source, but because I wanted to solve the problems associated with working with tables imported from Word. And, I wanted to make some money doing it. That is the beauty of free enterprise: I can earn a living developing software that solves problems for people and makes their jobs easier.
I too would be embarrassed by saying, "Please sir, I want some more." But that is only because you don't see value in what you are asking for. If you did, you might say, "Please sir, for a small investment, I can make dramatic gains in my productivity." I don't know of any manager that isn't interested in getting more productivity out of his people. Since I starting working with FrameMaker automation 12 years ago, I have been amazed at the huge return on investment that even a small amount of automation can bring. As workforces shrink and the amount of work we have to do expands, automation is more important now than ever. Even with ever more powerful computers, it is mind-boggling how much tedious and error prone "by hand" work we still do when working on documentation. This is the kind of work that takes us away from our primary responsibilities. I am sure it sounds self-serving, but many of my clients will tell you that automation has helped them tremendously. Respectfully, Rick Quatro Carmen Publishing Inc. 585-659-8267 rick at frameexpert.com *** Frame Automation blog at http://frameautomation.com As for plug-ins, I think it's great that people can come up with plug-ins to fill in the gaps (pardon the pun) in FM. It's the spirit of open source, but with a price tag. A lot of plug-ins aren't free. I would find it embarrassing to constantly have to go to my manager with my cap in hand saying, "Please, sir, I want some more." Nadine