Re: [Framers] ExtendScript for save as text, for Git usage ?

[Scott Prentice]

I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

While MIF is a wonderful format for an ASCII description of a FM file, 
it's really not intended for human consumption. First off, it's not 
linear. Each FM object is defined in a section, and within that section 
the objects are declared in reasonably orderly fashion, but it's really 
complicated to jump from one object to another (as happens from 
paragraphs to tables). Also, within a section, say the main body of 
content, you may notice that the strings aren't always complete. You can 
have a sentence fragment that ends in the middle of a word .. then 
continues in the next block. This makes it really hard to search for 
things since they may be split.


What you want is some sort of MIF-normalizer, that can make it more user 
friendly. But, I don't think that really exists. There is a tool called 
MIF-Muncher (http://www.stc-carolina.org/MIF+Muncher) .. that helps with 
scanning for various objects in a MIF .. but I don't know that it'll 
work on a modern system. I made a tool that converts MIF into MIFML (an 
XML representation of a MIF) and back, but that doesn't make it any 
easier to read.


MIFs are great but can also be a very scary place to hang out for much 
time.  :o


Cheers,
...scott


On 6/7/16 5:17 PM, Monique Semp wrote:

Do you really find it useful to diff MIF files very often?


Well, I haven't done it yet because it'd involve so much extra manual 
work. But what I'd like to be able to do is simply scroll through the 
commit list in my Git client (SourceTree on Windows) and have the 
diffs show automatically, just as they do for source code. And with 
MIF files, that'd be possible.


I have noticed, though, that the MIF files are *much* larger than the 
corresponding FM files (a 197 KB FM file became a 952 KB MIF file!), 
so now that I see this, I might rethink it.


But as one more tool to make it easier to see what's been done to a 
particular file, in a way that's not even possible in the 
FM/FrameMaker view, I'd really like to try it.


-Monique

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Re: [Framers] ExtendScript for save as text, for Git usage ?

[Robert Lauriston]

There is or at least used to be a third-party product that did that
with .fm files. I saw it at a trade show years ago.

On Tue, Jun 7, 2016 at 5:17 PM, Monique Semp  wrote:
>> Do you really find it useful to diff MIF files very often?
>
>
> Well, I haven't done it yet because it'd involve so much extra manual work.
> But what I'd like to be able to do is simply scroll through the commit list
> in my Git client (SourceTree on Windows) and have the diffs show
> automatically, just as they do for source code. And with MIF files, that'd
> be possible.
>
> I have noticed, though, that the MIF files are *much* larger than the
> corresponding FM files (a 197 KB FM file became a 952 KB MIF file!), so now
> that I see this, I might rethink it.
>
> But as one more tool to make it easier to see what's been done to a
> particular file, in a way that's not even possible in the FM/FrameMaker
> view, I'd really like to try it.
>
> -Monique
>
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Re: [Framers] ExtendScript for save as text, for Git usage ?

[Monique Semp]

Do you really find it useful to diff MIF files very often?


Well, I haven't done it yet because it'd involve so much extra manual work. 
But what I'd like to be able to do is simply scroll through the commit list 
in my Git client (SourceTree on Windows) and have the diffs show 
automatically, just as they do for source code. And with MIF files, that'd 
be possible.


I have noticed, though, that the MIF files are *much* larger than the 
corresponding FM files (a 197 KB FM file became a 952 KB MIF file!), so now 
that I see this, I might rethink it.


But as one more tool to make it easier to see what's been done to a 
particular file, in a way that's not even possible in the FM/FrameMaker 
view, I'd really like to try it.


-Monique

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Re: [Framers] Grouping books, generated lists, and cross-references

[Eric_Isaacson]

In case anyone was curious, I was able to get what I wanted to work from 
within Frame 12. By adding a folder to one book, populating that folder 
with the individual files of the second book, and then generating a 
postscript file (and then a PDF), I got cross-book cross-references with 
no generated list or page number oddities. 

One weird thing I discovered, however, was that I have to set the PDF 
Setup options every time I generate the PS file. I don't encounter this 
behavior with other books without added folders that I work on.


Eric Isaacson
Product Literature Manager
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc.
selinc.com
- Forwarded by Eric Isaacson/SEL on 05/31/2016 01:13 PM -

> Do the cross-reference links work between the two separate PDFs before
> you add them to the portfolio? The PDFs have to be in the same
> relative directories as the .book files, so it's best to have the
> .book files in the same directory.
> 
> Years ago all the .fm files in both books had to be open when I
> generated cross-linked PDFs, though I think Adobe fixed that bug.
> 
> I've never created a PDF Portfolio. Maybe someone else can address
> cross-reference links between two PDFs in a portfolio.
> 
> On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 9:17 AM,   
wrote:
> > when I tried what you suggested,
> > those cross-book cross-references still do not work. Fyi, we are using
> > Acrobat XI.
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Re: [Framers] FrameScript to purge catalogs?

[Craig Ede]

Monique,

If you start with a template set for single sided pages, be sure to set the 
template for double-sided to delete the phantom master page that will exist on 
the other master page.

Also, you can use File > Utilities > Create and Apply formats to bring out 
hidden para and char formats that exist. If this creates a format in the para 
or char catalog you will have to look for where it exists and get rid of the 
place where it lives.

Craig


From: Monique Semp 
Sent: Monday, June 6, 2016 7:06 PM
To: Craig Ede; framers
Subject: Re: [Framers] FrameScript to purge catalogs?

> If you want a clean template you have to purge all these of any defaults
> that are set for (at least) these eight container types: Page Layouts
> (Body, Master and Reference) , Paragraph Formats , Character Formats ,
> Table Formats , Object Styles , Color Definitions , User Variable
> Definitions , Cross-ref Formats

Ah, I was just about there, but had missed the Object Styles. (Well, I don't
have any, but I didn't even remember to look.)

An oddity I found that might help someone else: to get to the custom
"Running H/F " variables, you have to be viewing the master pages.

I also found (by saving as MIF and opening the MIF in a text editor) that
there were entities for the PDF Job Options and for  several 
elements (a LOR, a lingering alphabetical list of the paragraphs that I'd
deleted via FrameMaker's GUI, a TOC). So I deleted them from the MIF and, in
FrameMaker, saved the MIF as the "template_empty" FM file to use as the
basis for "focused templates", such as for conditions and doc titles.

Thanks for confirming the list of objects to "clean",
-Monique

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