> File > Import > File will import any supported file format into FrameMaker—Word, Excel, Photoshop, Illustrator > and so many more. Try this: create a new portrait document and import one of your complex Word files. > The tables, figures and equations will all be there. It is by far the fastest way to work. You can also use > File > Open on a Word document, which converts it to a FrameMaker file. I didn't mention this before, but you might've guessed it anyway, based on the fact that I did disclose that we have a large list of Framemaker styles we apply to the pasted-in Word documents: these styles reside in a Framemaker template that contains various Master pages, and Reference pages. In other words, I can't just start with a blank Portrait-oriented document; because of all the formatting and information in the template we use. The first several pages are the cover, and then front matter that (I think) is a Master page that can't be changed without going INTO that Master page (most of these pages are numbered with lower-case roman)...then, finally, we have page one, and then the left and right pages 2 and 3, which of course are the ones that will repeat and which make up the bulk of almost all of our reports. I'm just not sure how I can do a "File>Open" on a Word doc when I'm in a semi-intricate Frame template like this one, or do a File>Import either for that matter. I tried both, and wound up with a 4,700 some page document (the Word document pulled in is only 32 pages long). Many/most of the resulting Framemaker pages had only one letter per page within the text column -- but these all also had strange lettering outside the text column, which I've never even seen before, and other oddities. It was such a huge mess of gobblety gook that I'm either doing something very wrong even with this seemingly simple task, or you're working on an incorrect assumption about our workflow....I'm just not sure. I thought sure that the extreme longness of the resulting document was due to something about pulling it into one of our templates vs. pulling it into a brand new, blank Framemaker document, but that's not it, either, because I even tried it your way, and got the same 4,700 page mess! Weird. Cleaning this resulting Framemaker document up cannot possibly be faster work than the way we're already doing it by copy/pasting, so I'm going to assume this not the result you assumed I would get... I was getting a message about having "unresolved cross-references". Then, trying it again, I noticed an option at the bottom of the "Import" box that I hadn't noticed before: a choice you have to make of either "import by reference" or "copy in to document"....."import by reference" was the one that was already checked, so I figured I'd try the OTHER choice.....and I got the same "unresolved cross-references" message...when I hit "OK" for that one, I got a 2nd warning-type message: "Loss of data may occur while importing a Docx file. To avoid data loss, cancel and convert the file format to Doc or RTF before importing." I don't want to lose data, but I was curious to see what would result if I hit "OK" to that one, too, and did, and got a THIRD box popping up, a "Word Import" dialog box....telling me that "no match styles names found. All styles will be added to the document catalogs." Anyway, hitting "OK for that one got me another 4,700+ page document of gibberish. Pretty much all Word documents we work with are in docx format....and as far as loss goes, I always thought that converting those to "doc" or "rtf" definitely would give data loss.....so not sure if that is an option for us... This was alll thru starting with a brand-new, blank Framemaker page. I can't imagine starting with our template would've made things easier, but probably harder and even more complicated. It seems like no matter how many ways I try to get these Word documents into Framemaker, it's a mess for us, which could be why whoever it was (before I came into the job) who instituted the copy/paste method we do use, and set up the styles, and Framemaker template, did it that way....because when we paste the Word text into Frame, it's almost always nearly ready as-is....and then a quick application of those awesome Frameker style sheets, and it's perfect. We manually place the figure and table anchors, as close to the callouts as we can get them, within reason.....and figures do go pretty quickly. The ONLY thing that doesn't is the tables, and the only part of that that's slow-going,honestly, is the cell-by-cell pasting....hence why I asked about automation in the first place. Anyhow, I'd love to find out there's some one thing being done that's causing the big mess I'm getting trying it this way, but something tells me that's not the case (could be the pessimist in me....!)...
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