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Re: Converting Word to FrameMaker

Subject: Re: Converting Word to FrameMaker
From: Marie McPartland-Conn <mariem -at- cisco -dot- com>
To: Ginger Moskowitz <ginger -at- aatech -dot- com>, "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 09:21:23 -0400

This is topic near-and-dear to my heart these days, as I am in the middle of putting together a conversion process for my group. (My company was acquired by Cisco this year, so we have to convert to the Cisco standard for doc: Framemaker. Yeah!)

At 05:34 PM 9/30/99 -0400, Ginger Moskowitz wrote:

Some questions for those who have converted Word manuals to FrameMaker:

* Does FM keep your index entries, or did you have to re-do the index?
My index entries made it over to FM in one piece.

* How does FM import the graphics? (my word doc's graphics are inserted as
files; they are not referenced images)
FM "barfs" if you try to do a conversion with graphics in your Word file. Our graphics in Word are done as links to files; I'm struggling to create a macro with VBA that inserts the path and filename of the link as text in the file.

* Does FM keep your cross references, or did you have to re-do these as
well?
I'm not sure what happens with the cross references because I haven't looked at them yet. (This is the LEAST of my worries at this point!)

I do have to confess that the majority of cross references in my books were done manually because Word tended to get spastic about such things when I got to the Master Doc stage. Also, I figure I'm going to have to re-do a lot of them as a part of the Frame Book construction, anyway.

One thing that has been VERY useful for me is a shareware program that a fellow Cisco-ite told me about: SNR95, a simultaneous Search and Replace program. Since we're going from an environment that made heavy use of Word Styles to one that uses Frame templates containing Paragraph Tags, I figured the most painless way to get from Point A to Point B would be to somehow convert the Word Style names to the comparable Frame Paragraph Tag names and then import then import the Frame templates. SNR replaces the styles names quite nicely. (I know I could do this with VBA, too, but why reinvent the wheel?)

Of course, if you're in a situation where you're "just" changing platforms but keeping the same style names, this won't be an issue.

XOXO
Marie

Marie McPartland-Conn
Technical Writer
Cisco Systems
900 Chelmsford Street
Tower II, 14th Floor
Lowell, Ma 01851
(978) 275-8486



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