Re: Automatic Backups in FrameMaker

[Richard Lippincott <rlippinc -at- BEV -dot- ETN -dot- COM>]

Paul MacGyver asked:

>For those of you who use FrameMaker, do you have Frame configured to
>do automatic backups for each document? If so, why?

We do not have Frame configurd for automatic backups where I work.  The reason
is much as you have stated.  We do frequent tape backups, and have had high
reliability of the system (so far!), and the automatic backup documents
would end up taking up more space.

On the other hand....

There's a specific problem that we haven't encountered here, but I did have
come up frequently while doing contract work earlier this year.  It deals with
imported graphics.  For reasons I never fully understood, Frame would sometimes
do nasty things to graphics in anchored frames.  We'd suddenly see the image
turn to a "grey box." (Lots of us have seen that, I know.)  If the graphic was
imported by reference, though, Frame would suddenly and maliciously go to the
original graphic file, reach into the file, and trash the file. And not just
the graphic on the page I was viewing, -all- graphics in that Frame file.

You read that correctly.  Frame would destroy files separate from the Frame
document file, even if those files were located in a different directory than
theFrame document.  (Frame tech support, BTW, assured me that "this could
not be happening."  It happened more than once.)

In those cases, I was sometimes able to save a day's work by reverting to the
back-up, -if- I could exit without saving before Frame automatically updated
the auto backup file.

If you have the slightest hint of this problem, go with the autobackup feature.
If not, then balance the possible loss against the consumption of hard drive
space.

Rick Lippincott
Eaton Semiconductor
rlippinc -at- bev -dot- etn -dot- com