Framemaker vs XMetal for structured authoring

[Andersen, Verner Engell VEA]

Hi
I currently use unstructured Framemaker for pdf output. I single-source
my content - and via Webworks Publisher I output to context-sensitive
help in Webworks help format.
 
My 5 colleagues use Word and output to pdf for printing. We plan to go
structured and are considering whether we should use Framemaker or
XMetal.
 
Do any of you know where I can find an unbiased comparison of the two
tools?
 
I have been told that the major disadvantage of using Framemaker is that
you are required to save in binary format to keep the
Framemaker-specific XML processing instructions (pls). If you store in
xml-format you cannot retrieve and maintain conditional text. Callouts
on drawings (the graphics tool in Framemaker) will be rasterized, and
even paragraph styles can be discarded if you save a document as XML.
 
What are the implications of sacrificing saving documents as XML? 
 
Another advantage in favor of XMetal should be that it has
vendor-supported integration with most content management systems (CMS).
Apparently XMetal seems to be the best choice. 
 
What are your comments?
 
Thanks,
 
Verner



Radiometer Medical ApS 
Akandevej 21 
2700 Bronshoj 
Denmark 
Phone: +45 38 27 38 27 
CVR: 27 50 91 85 
www.radiometer.com
For the latest trends in acute care testing, go to Radiometer's knowledge site 
www.acutecaretesting.org





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Re: Framemaker vs XMetal for structured authoring

[Yves Barbion]

Hi Verner

Michael has already given you some excellent answers (as always).

You find my comments below 


On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 10:04 AM, Andersen, Verner Engell VEA 
verner.ander...@radiometer.dk wrote:

 Hi
 I currently use unstructured Framemaker for pdf output. I single-source
 my content - and via Webworks Publisher I output to context-sensitive
 help in Webworks help format.

 My 5 colleagues use Word and output to pdf for printing. We plan to go
 structured and are considering whether we should use Framemaker or
 XMetal.

 Do any of you know where I can find an unbiased comparison of the two
 tools?


 If you google FrameMaker +XMetaL + comparison, you will find
a couple of good comparisons done by Scriptorium, for example:
http://www.slideshare.net/Scriptorium/dita-support-in-framemaker-and-xmetal-presentation

 However, if you want to go structured, I can also advise you to
go DITA. And if you go DITA, I would also include DITA-FMx in the
comparison. DITA-FMx is a FrameMaker plugin developed by Leximation and in
my experience the only viable option to author DITA-structured content in
FrameMaker 7.2, 8 or 9. You can find a comparison between FM8 DITA and
DITA-Fmx 1.0 here:
http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/featurecomparison.html
Leximation is currently also working on beta versions of DITA-FMx 1.1 with
an impressive list of new features:
http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/beta.php



 I have been told that the major disadvantage of using Framemaker is that
 you are required to save in binary format to keep the
 Framemaker-specific XML processing instructions (pls).



 Like Michael said, this is simply not true. The DITA topics we
author in FrameMaker are valid XML files, not structured binary .fm files.
We use multiple DITA-aware XML editors, including DITA-FMx, XMetaL, oXygen
and Syntext Serna and the files remain valid as they are edited in each of
these programs. This allows us to use the best features of each program, for
example work on graphics and tables in FM+DITA-FMx, but use the ditamap
editor or plain text view of XMetaL.



 If you store in
 xml-format you cannot retrieve and maintain conditional text.


 Like Michael said, you would use attributes to conditionalize text
segments. And with DITA-FMx, you can apply ditaval as conditions, which is
very handy if you generate a FM book from your ditamap and then save your FM
book as a PDF.



 Callouts
 on drawings (the graphics tool in Framemaker) will be rasterized


 Indeed, callouts need to be done differently in XML. But again,
DITA-FMx can help here because beta 2 of DITA-FMx 1.1 supports graphic
overlay objects: You can now add callouts and other graphic overlay objects
to images in FrameMaker and have them round-trip to DITA and back (source:
http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/beta.php).


 , and
 even paragraph styles can be discarded if you save a document as XML.


 As Michael said, no room for paragraph (or character) styles in
XML, i.e. at least not in your authoring templates. When you're authoring
XML content, it doesn't matter what font is being used, or how the indent
and spacing of your paragraphs look like. In other words, you move from
WYSIWYG authoring to WYSIOO (What You See is One Option), which takes a bit
of getting used to for many authors. See also:
http://www.scriptorium.com/palimpsest/2008/11/wysiwar.html
You do use paragraph and character styles, however, in your publishing
templates (or stylesheets). There, you specify that a title element in a
section gets the paragraph tag title1, for example, and you specify all
the properties of that paragraph tag (using the good old Paragraph Designer
in FM).



 What are the implications of sacrificing saving documents as XML?


 Like Michael said, you need to have good reasons to go
structured. You may have an authoring process in place where some people
author content in FrameMaker and others (SMEs) in Word and you publish this
content as PDF and WebWorks Help. This may work great (WebWorks ePublisher
accepts Word, FM and even ditamaps and topics as input format). If so, don't
change. We still have a lot of customers who are happily single-sourcing
with this setup.

 I have been using unstructured FM for more than 15 years (gosh,
I'm feeling very old now!) and I still enjoy authoring the odd unstructured
FM doc every now and then. The added value of XML and DITA to me has been:
* More and better reuse options using DITA conrefs
* More publishing options using the DITA Open Toolkit, WebWorks ePublisher
and some other great new publishing tools
* Easier ways to deliver content to our customers. No more FrameMaker vs.
Word discussions (yay!)
* New, exciting ways to do collaborative content development




 Another advantage in favor of XMetal should be that it has
 vendor-supported integration with most content management systems (CMS).


 See also:
http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/webinar.php



 Apparently XMetal seems to be the best choice.


 XMetaL is definitely a good 

Re: Framemaker vs XMetal for structured authoring

[Writer]

I haven't used XMetal, but we do use FM9 to author DITA XML, and 
ePublisher (XML adapter) to create online help. We author XML files and 
ditamaps in FM9. To create PDFs, we save our ditamaps as composite FM 
books, which works fine. After the books are generated, we apply 
templates to the FM files to make them look the way we want. From there, 
we generate our PDF files. However, WebWorks (ePublisher) says that it 
plans to create a PDF output that you can format from within ePublisher. 
If this works the way that I expect, we can generate all of our outputs 
through ePublisher.

If you choose FM, do get FM9. It handles DITA much better than FM8.

You cannot use callouts in graphics, but I think this is true of any 
DITA XML.
We use attribute values and ditaval files instead of conditional text to 
perform conditional filtering.
DITA/FM has its own paragraph styles, but you can make them look 
however you want by editing the underlying templates and EDD files.
CMS is not a consideration for us (yet), so I cannot answer to that.

Nadine

Andersen, Verner Engell VEA wrote:
 Hi
 I currently use unstructured Framemaker for pdf output. I single-source
 my content - and via Webworks Publisher I output to context-sensitive
 help in Webworks help format.
  
 My 5 colleagues use Word and output to pdf for printing. We plan to go
 structured and are considering whether we should use Framemaker or
 XMetal.
  
 Do any of you know where I can find an unbiased comparison of the two
 tools?
  
 I have been told that the major disadvantage of using Framemaker is that
 you are required to save in binary format to keep the
 Framemaker-specific XML processing instructions (pls). If you store in
 xml-format you cannot retrieve and maintain conditional text. Callouts
 on drawings (the graphics tool in Framemaker) will be rasterized, and
 even paragraph styles can be discarded if you save a document as XML.
  
 What are the implications of sacrificing saving documents as XML? 
  
 Another advantage in favor of XMetal should be that it has
 vendor-supported integration with most content management systems (CMS).
 Apparently XMetal seems to be the best choice. 
  
 What are your comments?
  
 Thanks,
  
 Verner
 


 Radiometer Medical ApS 
 Akandevej 21 
 2700 Bronshoj 
 Denmark 
 Phone: +45 38 27 38 27 
 CVR: 27 50 91 85 
 www.radiometer.com
 For the latest trends in acute care testing, go to Radiometer's knowledge 
 site www.acutecaretesting.org



 

 Please be advised that this email may contain confidential information.
  If you are not the intended recipient, please do not read, copy or
 re-transmit this email.  If you have received this email in error,
 please notify us by email by replying to the sender and by telephone
 (call us collect at +1 202-828-0850) and delete this message and any
 attachments.  Thank you in advance for your cooperation and assistance.

 In addition, Danaher and its subsidiaries disclaim that the content of
 this email constitutes an offer to enter into, or the acceptance of, 
 any
 contract or agreement or any amendment thereto; provided that the
 foregoing disclaimer does not invalidate the binding effect of any
 digital or other electronic reproduction of a manual signature that is
 included in any attachment to this email.
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What Affects the Security Settings In Distiller?

[Fei Min Lorente]

I'm using FrameMaker 7.2 and Adobe Acrobat 6.0. The last batch of
manuals that I produced on the build machine had different security
settings from the ones I normally use, and I'm not quite sure why. I
have been working on the build machine to produce some PDF files from
Word, but didn't deliberately change any security settings. The
FrameMaker-to-PDF production is handled by Python scripts and invokes
the FDK, but there's been no changes to the scripts. I've used these
scripts repeatedly without affecting the security settings.
 
On my computer, I've noticed that if I generate a PDF from say, Visio,
and I remove the security, then I have to set it again when I'm saving a
FrameMaker file to PDF. However, I'm pretty sure that no one else was
generating PDFs on the build machine in the two-week period during which
those security settings changed. Also, since I ran the books from
scripts, I didn't have any opportunity to change the security settings
through any dialogue box.
 
We recently had to do a repair on the Adobe PDF print driver on the
build machine. Would that have had an effect on the security setting?
 
If we can't find the source of the change, does anyone have any
suggestions as to how we can make sure we have the right security
settings when we produce the manuals on the build machine using the
scripts? We have Timesavers, in case that will help.
 
Fei Min

---
Fei Min Lorente
Senior Technical Communicator
Medical Division
ON Semiconductor
feimin.lore...@onsemi.com
+1 519 884 9696 ext 2297 | office
+1 519 831 4931 | mobile
+1 519 884 0228 | fax
http://www.onsemi.com http://www.onsemi.com/ 
---

 
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MIF for RoboHelp on the Fritz

[Pinkham, Jim]

Hi, all,
 
I'm suddenly getting a strange new error message in running the MIF for
RoboHelp plug-in, which has worked flawlessly until now. I've run it
within the past week or two with no issues, and I've made few recent
changes to my FM setup. The only recent plug-in I've added was the
SetPrint plug-in, and I believe MIF for RoboHelp has worked since then.
I moved SetPrint.ini and SetPrint.dll out of my Plugins folder just now
and tried again, but still ran into the same error.
 
The message I'm getting is FrameMaker can't create a new file for
writing. The plug-in then refers me to some unspecified online help at
some unspecified location.
 

*   I'm running FM 7.1p116 on a Win XP SP 2 machine.
*   I can still Save As MIF from within Frame, and I'm not seeing
any apparent hiccups in Wash via MIF.
*   When I also try Save Using Mif2Go, I get an error message about
not being able to find the mif2rtf.ini file.
*   I've tried downloading RoboMif.ini again, but it was identifical
to the existing file in my Plugins folder and replacing it made no
impact.

Any ideas will be appreciated. 
 
Thanks,
Jim
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Mif2Go SmartSplit function

[Martha Lee]

Hi All,

I'm using FrameMaker 7.2 and Mif2Go 3.3 to generate OmniHelp. I tried to
invoke the SmartSplit command under [HTMLOptions] to prevent dangling
headings (section title appears all by itself), but it's not working. Most
likely I've got two conflicting settings, but I can't figure out what it
might be. Here's the relevant part of my .ini file:

[HelpContentsLevels]
; Fill in FM head para formats and their level here
Section Title=1
Title=2
Title_top=2
Heading 1=3
Heading 1top=3
Heading 2=4
Heading 2top=4

[HtmlStyles]
Notes=NoSplit
Title=Split
Title_top=Split
Heading 1=Split
Heading 1top=Split
Section Title=Title Trail

[HTMLOptions]
ObjectIDs=All
FileSuffix=.htm
NoFonts=Yes
AlignAttributes=No
AllowOverrides=No
StartingSplit=No
SmartSplit=Yes

SmartSplit works for the Title/Heading 1 combination, but not for the
Section Title/Title combination. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Martha Lee
Documentation Department
Coventor, Inc.
919-854-7500 ext. 120
martha@coventor.com

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Re: Framemaker vs XMetal for structured authoring

[Scott Prentice]

Just to repeat what Yves said .. if you're using DITA-FMx 1.1, you *can* 
actually use graphic overlay objects (callouts etc.) .. and this 
provides you the same level of DITA support in FM7.2, 8, and 9.

If you're interested in seeing DITA-FMx and a CMS (XDocs) .. check out 
the webinar tomorrow ..

http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/webinar.php

Cheers,

...scott

Scott Prentice
Leximation, Inc.
www.leximation.com
+1.415.485.1892



Writer wrote:
 I haven't used XMetal, but we do use FM9 to author DITA XML, and 
 ePublisher (XML adapter) to create online help. We author XML files and 
 ditamaps in FM9. To create PDFs, we save our ditamaps as composite FM 
 books, which works fine. After the books are generated, we apply 
 templates to the FM files to make them look the way we want. From there, 
 we generate our PDF files. However, WebWorks (ePublisher) says that it 
 plans to create a PDF output that you can format from within ePublisher. 
 If this works the way that I expect, we can generate all of our outputs 
 through ePublisher.

 If you choose FM, do get FM9. It handles DITA much better than FM8.

 You cannot use callouts in graphics, but I think this is true of any 
 DITA XML.
 We use attribute values and ditaval files instead of conditional text to 
 perform conditional filtering.
 DITA/FM has its own paragraph styles, but you can make them look 
 however you want by editing the underlying templates and EDD files.
 CMS is not a consideration for us (yet), so I cannot answer to that.

 Nadine

 Andersen, Verner Engell VEA wrote:
   
 Hi
 I currently use unstructured Framemaker for pdf output. I single-source
 my content - and via Webworks Publisher I output to context-sensitive
 help in Webworks help format.
  
 My 5 colleagues use Word and output to pdf for printing. We plan to go
 structured and are considering whether we should use Framemaker or
 XMetal.
  
 Do any of you know where I can find an unbiased comparison of the two
 tools?
  
 I have been told that the major disadvantage of using Framemaker is that
 you are required to save in binary format to keep the
 Framemaker-specific XML processing instructions (pls). If you store in
 xml-format you cannot retrieve and maintain conditional text. Callouts
 on drawings (the graphics tool in Framemaker) will be rasterized, and
 even paragraph styles can be discarded if you save a document as XML.
  
 What are the implications of sacrificing saving documents as XML? 
  
 Another advantage in favor of XMetal should be that it has
 vendor-supported integration with most content management systems (CMS).
 Apparently XMetal seems to be the best choice. 
  
 What are your comments?
  
 Thanks,
  
 Verner
 


 Radiometer Medical ApS 
 Akandevej 21 
 2700 Bronshoj 
 Denmark 
 Phone: +45 38 27 38 27 
 CVR: 27 50 91 85 
 www.radiometer.com
 For the latest trends in acute care testing, go to Radiometer's knowledge 
 site www.acutecaretesting.org



 

 Please be advised that this email may contain confidential information.
  If you are not the intended recipient, please do not read, copy or
 re-transmit this email.  If you have received this email in error,
 please notify us by email by replying to the sender and by telephone
 (call us collect at +1 202-828-0850) and delete this message and any
 attachments.  Thank you in advance for your cooperation and assistance.

 In addition, Danaher and its subsidiaries disclaim that the content of
 this email constitutes an offer to enter into, or the acceptance of, 
 any
 contract or agreement or any amendment thereto; provided that the
 foregoing disclaimer does not invalidate the binding effect of any
 digital or other electronic reproduction of a manual signature that is
 included in any attachment to this email.

 
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Re: Mif2Go SmartSplit function

[Jeremy H. Griffith]

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:51:32 -0400, Martha Lee martha@coventor.com 
wrote:

Hi All,

I'm using FrameMaker 7.2 and Mif2Go 3.3 to generate OmniHelp. I tried to
invoke the SmartSplit command under [HTMLOptions] to prevent dangling
headings (section title appears all by itself), but it's not working. Most
likely I've got two conflicting settings, but I can't figure out what it
might be. Here's the relevant part of my .ini file:

[HelpContentsLevels]
; Fill in FM head para formats and their level here
Section Title=1
Title=2
Title_top=2
Heading 1=3
Heading 1top=3
Heading 2=4
Heading 2top=4

[HtmlStyles]
Notes=NoSplit
Title=Split
Title_top=Split
Heading 1=Split
Heading 1top=Split
Section Title=Title Trail

[HTMLOptions]
ObjectIDs=All
FileSuffix=.htm
NoFonts=Yes
AlignAttributes=No
AllowOverrides=No
StartingSplit=No
SmartSplit=Yes

SmartSplit works for the Title/Heading 1 combination, but not for the
Section Title/Title combination. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Set Split for your Section Title.  I know, it's at the start,
but you have StartingSplit=No, so it won't split there.  The
thing is, if it doesn't have Split set, SmartSplit pays no
attention to it, sees just one Split for Title, and uses it.

Another reason this can happen is if there is another para in 
between, maybe an empty one, or one used to anchor a graphic
you aren't using.  In that case, you need to set [HTMLStyles]
Delete for the empty para.

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
  jer...@omsys.com  http://www.omsys.com/
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Re: MIF for RoboHelp on the Fritz

[Jeremy H. Griffith]

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:49:12 -0500, Pinkham, Jim 
jim.pink...@voith.com wrote:

*  I can still Save As MIF from within Frame, and I'm not seeing
any apparent hiccups in Wash via MIF.
*  When I also try Save Using Mif2Go, I get an error message about
not being able to find the mif2rtf.ini file.

That will happen if you never used Setup... for the Mif2Go
project.  If you are really using RH, you probably didn't.  ;-)

Wash via MIF doesn't need a project setup, so that always 
works.

It's unlikely that SetPrint is involved.  If the Robo MIF
process writes to a different directory, see if you can 
SaveAs MIF to the same directory.  Sounds like a permission
problem.

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
  jer...@omsys.com  http://www.omsys.com/
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Framemaker vs XMetal for structured authoring

[Andersen, Verner Engell VEA]

Hi
I currently use unstructured Framemaker for pdf output. I single-source
my content - and via Webworks Publisher I output to context-sensitive
help in Webworks help format.

My 5 colleagues use Word and output to pdf for printing. We plan to go
structured and are considering whether we should use Framemaker or
XMetal.

Do any of you know where I can find an unbiased comparison of the two
tools?

I have been told that the major disadvantage of using Framemaker is that
you are required to save in binary format to keep the
Framemaker-specific XML processing instructions (pls). If you store in
xml-format you cannot retrieve and maintain conditional text. Callouts
on drawings (the graphics tool in Framemaker) will be rasterized, and
even paragraph styles can be discarded if you save a document as XML.

What are the implications of sacrificing saving documents as XML? 

Another advantage in favor of XMetal should be that it has
vendor-supported integration with most content management systems (CMS).
Apparently XMetal seems to be the best choice. 

What are your comments?

Thanks,

Verner



Radiometer Medical ApS 
Akandevej 21 
2700 Bronshoj 
Denmark 
Phone: +45 38 27 38 27 
CVR: 27 50 91 85 
www.radiometer.com
For the latest trends in acute care testing, go to Radiometer's knowledge site 
www.acutecaretesting.org





Please be advised that this email may contain confidential information.
 If you are not the intended recipient, please do not read, copy or
re-transmit this email.  If you have received this email in error,
please notify us by email by replying to the sender and by telephone
(call us collect at +1 202-828-0850) and delete this message and any
attachments.  Thank you in advance for your cooperation and assistance.

In addition, Danaher and its subsidiaries disclaim that the content of
this email constitutes an offer to enter into, or the acceptance of, 
any
contract or agreement or any amendment thereto; provided that the
foregoing disclaimer does not invalidate the binding effect of any
digital or other electronic reproduction of a manual signature that is
included in any attachment to this email.

Framemaker vs XMetal for structured authoring

[Yves Barbion]

Hi Verner

Michael has already given you some excellent answers (as always).

You find my comments below 


On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 10:04 AM, Andersen, Verner Engell VEA <
verner.andersen at radiometer.dk> wrote:

> Hi
> I currently use unstructured Framemaker for pdf output. I single-source
> my content - and via Webworks Publisher I output to context-sensitive
> help in Webworks help format.
>
> My 5 colleagues use Word and output to pdf for printing. We plan to go
> structured and are considering whether we should use Framemaker or
> XMetal.
>
> Do any of you know where I can find an unbiased comparison of the two
> tools?


 If you google "FrameMaker" +"XMetaL" + "comparison", you will find
a couple of good comparisons done by Scriptorium, for example:
http://www.slideshare.net/Scriptorium/dita-support-in-framemaker-and-xmetal-presentation

 However, if you want to "go structured", I can also advise you to
"go DITA". And if you "go DITA", I would also include DITA-FMx in the
comparison. DITA-FMx is a FrameMaker plugin developed by Leximation and in
my experience the only viable option to author DITA-structured content in
FrameMaker 7.2, 8 or 9. You can find a comparison between FM8 DITA and
DITA-Fmx 1.0 here:
http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/featurecomparison.html
Leximation is currently also working on beta versions of DITA-FMx 1.1 with
an impressive list of new features:
http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/beta.php


>
> I have been told that the major disadvantage of using Framemaker is that
> you are required to save in binary format to keep the
> Framemaker-specific XML processing instructions (pls).



> Like Michael said, this is simply not true. The DITA topics we
author in FrameMaker are valid XML files, not structured binary .fm files.
We use multiple DITA-aware XML editors, including DITA-FMx, XMetaL, oXygen
and Syntext Serna and the files remain valid as they are edited in each of
these programs. This allows us to use the best features of each program, for
example work on graphics and tables in FM+DITA-FMx, but use the ditamap
editor or plain text view of XMetaL.



> If you store in
> xml-format you cannot retrieve and maintain conditional text.


> Like Michael said, you would use attributes to conditionalize text
segments. And with DITA-FMx, you can apply ditaval as conditions, which is
very handy if you generate a FM book from your ditamap and then save your FM
book as a PDF.



> Callouts
> on drawings (the graphics tool in Framemaker) will be rasterized


> Indeed, callouts need to be done differently in XML. But again,
DITA-FMx can help here because beta 2 of DITA-FMx 1.1 "supports "graphic
overlay objects: You can now add callouts and other graphic overlay objects
to images in FrameMaker and have them round-trip to DITA and back" (source:
http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/beta.php).


> , and
> even paragraph styles can be discarded if you save a document as XML.


> As Michael said, "no room for paragraph (or character) styles in
XML", i.e. at least not in your "authoring templates". When you're authoring
XML content, it doesn't matter what font is being used, or how the indent
and spacing of your paragraphs look like. In other words, you move from
WYSIWYG authoring to WYSIOO (What You See is One Option), which takes a bit
of "getting used to" for many authors. See also:
http://www.scriptorium.com/palimpsest/2008/11/wysiwar.html
You do use paragraph and character styles, however, in your "publishing
templates" (or stylesheets). There, you specify that a  element in a
 gets the paragraph tag "title1", for example, and you specify all
the properties of that paragraph tag (using the good old Paragraph Designer
in FM).


>
> What are the implications of sacrificing saving documents as XML?


>> Like Michael said, you need to have good reasons to "go
structured". You may have an authoring process in place where some people
author content in FrameMaker and others (SMEs) in Word and you publish this
content as PDF and WebWorks Help. This may work great (WebWorks ePublisher
accepts Word, FM and even ditamaps and topics as input format). If so, don't
change. We still have a lot of customers who are happily single-sourcing
with this setup.

>> I have been using unstructured FM for more than 15 years (gosh,
I'm feeling very old now!) and I still enjoy authoring the odd unstructured
FM doc every now and then. The added value of XML and DITA to me has been:
* More and better reuse options using DITA conrefs
* More publishing options using the DITA Open Toolkit, WebWorks ePublisher
and some other great new publishing tools
* Easier ways to deliver content to our customers. No more "FrameMaker vs.
Word" discussions (yay!)
* New, exciting ways to do collaborative content development


>
>
> Another advantage in favor of XMetal should be that it has
> vendor-supported integration with most content management systems (CMS).


>>> 

Framemaker vs XMetal for structured authoring

[Writer]

I haven't used XMetal, but we do use FM9 to author DITA XML, and 
ePublisher (XML adapter) to create online help. We author XML files and 
ditamaps in FM9. To create PDFs, we save our ditamaps as composite FM 
books, which works fine. After the books are generated, we apply 
templates to the FM files to make them look the way we want. From there, 
we generate our PDF files. However, WebWorks (ePublisher) says that it 
plans to create a PDF output that you can format from within ePublisher. 
If this works the way that I expect, we can generate all of our outputs 
through ePublisher.

If you choose FM, do get FM9. It handles DITA much better than FM8.

You cannot use callouts in graphics, but I think this is true of any 
DITA XML.
We use attribute values and ditaval files instead of conditional text to 
perform conditional filtering.
DITA/FM has its own "paragraph styles", but you can make them look 
however you want by editing the underlying templates and EDD files.
CMS is not a consideration for us (yet), so I cannot answer to that.

Nadine

Andersen, Verner Engell VEA wrote:
> Hi
> I currently use unstructured Framemaker for pdf output. I single-source
> my content - and via Webworks Publisher I output to context-sensitive
> help in Webworks help format.
>  
> My 5 colleagues use Word and output to pdf for printing. We plan to go
> structured and are considering whether we should use Framemaker or
> XMetal.
>  
> Do any of you know where I can find an unbiased comparison of the two
> tools?
>  
> I have been told that the major disadvantage of using Framemaker is that
> you are required to save in binary format to keep the
> Framemaker-specific XML processing instructions (pls). If you store in
> xml-format you cannot retrieve and maintain conditional text. Callouts
> on drawings (the graphics tool in Framemaker) will be rasterized, and
> even paragraph styles can be discarded if you save a document as XML.
>  
> What are the implications of sacrificing saving documents as XML? 
>  
> Another advantage in favor of XMetal should be that it has
> vendor-supported integration with most content management systems (CMS).
> Apparently XMetal seems to be the best choice. 
>  
> What are your comments?
>  
> Thanks,
>  
> Verner
> 
>
>
> Radiometer Medical ApS 
> Akandevej 21 
> 2700 Bronshoj 
> Denmark 
> Phone: +45 38 27 38 27 
> CVR: 27 50 91 85 
> www.radiometer.com
> For the latest trends in acute care testing, go to Radiometer's knowledge 
> site www.acutecaretesting.org
>
>
>
> 
>
> Please be advised that this email may contain confidential information.
>  If you are not the intended recipient, please do not read, copy or
> re-transmit this email.  If you have received this email in error,
> please notify us by email by replying to the sender and by telephone
> (call us collect at +1 202-828-0850) and delete this message and any
> attachments.  Thank you in advance for your cooperation and assistance.
>
> In addition, Danaher and its subsidiaries disclaim that the content of
> this email constitutes an offer to enter into, or the acceptance of, 
> any
> contract or agreement or any amendment thereto; provided that the
> foregoing disclaimer does not invalidate the binding effect of any
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>   

What Affects the Security Settings In Distiller?

[Fei Min Lorente]

I'm using FrameMaker 7.2 and Adobe Acrobat 6.0. The last batch of
manuals that I produced on the build machine had different security
settings from the ones I normally use, and I'm not quite sure why. I
have been working on the build machine to produce some PDF files from
Word, but didn't deliberately change any security settings. The
FrameMaker-to-PDF production is handled by Python scripts and invokes
the FDK, but there's been no changes to the scripts. I've used these
scripts repeatedly without affecting the security settings.

On my computer, I've noticed that if I generate a PDF from say, Visio,
and I remove the security, then I have to set it again when I'm saving a
FrameMaker file to PDF. However, I'm pretty sure that no one else was
generating PDFs on the build machine in the two-week period during which
those security settings changed. Also, since I ran the books from
scripts, I didn't have any opportunity to change the security settings
through any dialogue box.

We recently had to do a repair on the Adobe PDF print driver on the
build machine. Would that have had an effect on the security setting?

If we can't find the source of the change, does anyone have any
suggestions as to how we can make sure we have the right security
settings when we produce the manuals on the build machine using the
scripts? We have Timesavers, in case that will help.

Fei Min

---
Fei Min Lorente
Senior Technical Communicator
Medical Division
ON Semiconductor
feimin.lorente at onsemi.com
+1 519 884 9696 ext 2297 | office
+1 519 831 4931 | mobile
+1 519 884 0228 | fax
http://www.onsemi.com  
---

MIF for RoboHelp on the Fritz

[Pinkham, Jim]

Hi, all,

I'm suddenly getting a strange new error message in running the MIF for
RoboHelp plug-in, which has worked flawlessly until now. I've run it
within the past week or two with no issues, and I've made few recent
changes to my FM setup. The only recent plug-in I've added was the
SetPrint plug-in, and I believe MIF for RoboHelp has worked since then.
I moved SetPrint.ini and SetPrint.dll out of my Plugins folder just now
and tried again, but still ran into the same error.

The message I'm getting is "FrameMaker can't create a new file for
writing." The plug-in then refers me to some unspecified online help at
some unspecified location.


*   I'm running FM 7.1p116 on a Win XP SP 2 machine.
*   I can still Save As MIF from within Frame, and I'm not seeing
any apparent hiccups in Wash via MIF.
*   When I also try Save Using Mif2Go, I get an error message about
not being able to find the mif2rtf.ini file.
*   I've tried downloading RoboMif.ini again, but it was identifical
to the existing file in my Plugins folder and replacing it made no
impact.

Any ideas will be appreciated. 

Thanks,
Jim

Mif2Go SmartSplit function

[Martha Lee]

Hi All,

I'm using FrameMaker 7.2 and Mif2Go 3.3 to generate OmniHelp. I tried to
invoke the SmartSplit command under [HTMLOptions] to prevent dangling
headings (section title appears all by itself), but it's not working. Most
likely I've got two conflicting settings, but I can't figure out what it
might be. Here's the relevant part of my .ini file:

[HelpContentsLevels]
; Fill in FM head para formats and their level here
Section Title=1
Title=2
Title_top=2
Heading 1=3
Heading 1top=3
Heading 2=4
Heading 2top=4

[HtmlStyles]
Notes=NoSplit
Title=Split
Title_top=Split
Heading 1=Split
Heading 1top=Split
Section Title=Title Trail

[HTMLOptions]
ObjectIDs=All
FileSuffix=.htm
NoFonts=Yes
AlignAttributes=No
AllowOverrides=No
StartingSplit=No
SmartSplit=Yes

SmartSplit works for the Title/Heading 1 combination, but not for the
Section Title/Title combination. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Martha Lee
Documentation Department
Coventor, Inc.
919-854-7500 ext. 120
martha.lee at coventor.com

Framemaker vs XMetal for structured authoring

[Scott Prentice]

Just to repeat what Yves said .. if you're using DITA-FMx 1.1, you *can* 
actually use graphic overlay objects (callouts etc.) .. and this 
provides you the same level of DITA support in FM7.2, 8, and 9.

If you're interested in seeing DITA-FMx and a CMS (XDocs) .. check out 
the webinar tomorrow ..

http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/webinar.php

Cheers,

...scott

Scott Prentice
Leximation, Inc.
www.leximation.com
+1.415.485.1892



Writer wrote:
> I haven't used XMetal, but we do use FM9 to author DITA XML, and 
> ePublisher (XML adapter) to create online help. We author XML files and 
> ditamaps in FM9. To create PDFs, we save our ditamaps as composite FM 
> books, which works fine. After the books are generated, we apply 
> templates to the FM files to make them look the way we want. From there, 
> we generate our PDF files. However, WebWorks (ePublisher) says that it 
> plans to create a PDF output that you can format from within ePublisher. 
> If this works the way that I expect, we can generate all of our outputs 
> through ePublisher.
>
> If you choose FM, do get FM9. It handles DITA much better than FM8.
>
> You cannot use callouts in graphics, but I think this is true of any 
> DITA XML.
> We use attribute values and ditaval files instead of conditional text to 
> perform conditional filtering.
> DITA/FM has its own "paragraph styles", but you can make them look 
> however you want by editing the underlying templates and EDD files.
> CMS is not a consideration for us (yet), so I cannot answer to that.
>
> Nadine
>
> Andersen, Verner Engell VEA wrote:
>   
>> Hi
>> I currently use unstructured Framemaker for pdf output. I single-source
>> my content - and via Webworks Publisher I output to context-sensitive
>> help in Webworks help format.
>>  
>> My 5 colleagues use Word and output to pdf for printing. We plan to go
>> structured and are considering whether we should use Framemaker or
>> XMetal.
>>  
>> Do any of you know where I can find an unbiased comparison of the two
>> tools?
>>  
>> I have been told that the major disadvantage of using Framemaker is that
>> you are required to save in binary format to keep the
>> Framemaker-specific XML processing instructions (pls). If you store in
>> xml-format you cannot retrieve and maintain conditional text. Callouts
>> on drawings (the graphics tool in Framemaker) will be rasterized, and
>> even paragraph styles can be discarded if you save a document as XML.
>>  
>> What are the implications of sacrificing saving documents as XML? 
>>  
>> Another advantage in favor of XMetal should be that it has
>> vendor-supported integration with most content management systems (CMS).
>> Apparently XMetal seems to be the best choice. 
>>  
>> What are your comments?
>>  
>> Thanks,
>>  
>> Verner
>> 
>>
>>
>> Radiometer Medical ApS 
>> Akandevej 21 
>> 2700 Bronshoj 
>> Denmark 
>> Phone: +45 38 27 38 27 
>> CVR: 27 50 91 85 
>> www.radiometer.com
>> For the latest trends in acute care testing, go to Radiometer's knowledge 
>> site www.acutecaretesting.org
>>
>>
>>
>> 
>>
>> Please be advised that this email may contain confidential information.
>>  If you are not the intended recipient, please do not read, copy or
>> re-transmit this email.  If you have received this email in error,
>> please notify us by email by replying to the sender and by telephone
>> (call us collect at +1 202-828-0850) and delete this message and any
>> attachments.  Thank you in advance for your cooperation and assistance.
>>
>> In addition, Danaher and its subsidiaries disclaim that the content of
>> this email constitutes an offer to enter into, or the acceptance of, 
>> any
>> contract or agreement or any amendment thereto; provided that the
>> foregoing disclaimer does not invalidate the binding effect of any
>> digital or other electronic reproduction of a manual signature that is
>> included in any attachment to this email.
>>
>> 

Mif2Go SmartSplit function

[Jeremy H. Griffith]

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:51:32 -0400, "Martha Lee"  
wrote:

>Hi All,
>
>I'm using FrameMaker 7.2 and Mif2Go 3.3 to generate OmniHelp. I tried to
>invoke the SmartSplit command under [HTMLOptions] to prevent dangling
>headings (section title appears all by itself), but it's not working. Most
>likely I've got two conflicting settings, but I can't figure out what it
>might be. Here's the relevant part of my .ini file:
>
>[HelpContentsLevels]
>; Fill in FM head para formats and their level here
>Section Title=1
>Title=2
>Title_top=2
>Heading 1=3
>Heading 1top=3
>Heading 2=4
>Heading 2top=4
>
>[HtmlStyles]
>Notes=NoSplit
>Title=Split
>Title_top=Split
>Heading 1=Split
>Heading 1top=Split
>Section Title=Title Trail
>
>[HTMLOptions]
>ObjectIDs=All
>FileSuffix=.htm
>NoFonts=Yes
>AlignAttributes=No
>AllowOverrides=No
>StartingSplit=No
>SmartSplit=Yes
>
>SmartSplit works for the Title/Heading 1 combination, but not for the
>Section Title/Title combination. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Set Split for your Section Title.  I know, it's at the start,
but you have StartingSplit=No, so it won't split there.  The
thing is, if it doesn't have Split set, SmartSplit pays no
attention to it, sees just one Split for Title, and uses it.

Another reason this can happen is if there is another para in 
between, maybe an empty one, or one used to anchor a graphic
you aren't using.  In that case, you need to set [HTMLStyles]
Delete for the empty para.

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

MIF for RoboHelp on the Fritz

[Jeremy H. Griffith]

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:49:12 -0500, "Pinkham, Jim" 
 wrote:

>*  I can still Save As MIF from within Frame, and I'm not seeing
>any apparent hiccups in Wash via MIF.
>*  When I also try Save Using Mif2Go, I get an error message about
>not being able to find the mif2rtf.ini file.

That will happen if you never used Setup... for the Mif2Go
project.  If you are really using RH, you probably didn't.  ;-)

Wash via MIF doesn't need a project setup, so that always 
works.

It's unlikely that SetPrint is involved.  If the Robo MIF
process writes to a different directory, see if you can 
SaveAs MIF to the same directory.  Sounds like a permission
problem.

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

Bookmap

[Bertrand Lefort]

Hello,

I am a new user of Framemaker. We are currently implementing Framemaker and 
DITA to manage or systems documentation for users.

I have a question concerning the creation of complete book structure with cover 
page, TOC, content... 
I found one way with standard ditamap but it seems that bookmap would be better 
for us, I cannot figure how to use it.

1) Using the documentation, we found a first way to do it : We built a first 
complete documentation with success using ditamap and ditaval to create a 
composite FM documents. Then we created a book and add the file, add a cover 
page (unstructured) and a TOC (unstructured). Everything seems to works well, 
we will have to rebuild the composite FM documents each time we make an update 
to a concept or a file. Ok

2) I use FM 9, which comes with bookmap. In the concept, bookmap seems perfect 
for us, but I do not really understand how to use it. I can create a bookmap, 
set a title, define parts, chapters, add references to my file. I found the 
structure great because attributes allows us to add metadata for this book. 
After this point I do not understand where to go:

- TOC : I found that I can add a frontmatter, then a booklist and then a TOC. 
Fm requires a file for the toc. 

- creating my first book with bookmap : I have no idea what is the next step. 
When I create the FM composite document, FM use the same template 
(topic.template I think) and create a XML DITA file but I lost all the 
information of my bookmap.

I was in the idea that I will have a more complex structure that will integrate 
DITA structure inside a book structure which will have its own template to 
output title, chapters information ... but it seems it does not work like that.

Can someone help me to find the right path ?

Thank you for your help.


Bertrand


Bertrand Lefort

Webmestre et programmeur | Webmaster and developer
University of Ottawa
550, rue Cumberland, pi?ce 066 | 550, Cumberland Street, room 056
Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5

T?l. | Phone : 613 562 5800 x 1857
T?l?c. | Fax. : 613 562 5206

http://www.uOttawa.ca/

Universit? d'Ottawa | University of Ottawa
L'Universit? canadienne | Canada's university

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