Beginning FrameMaker user question

It was a while ago I ran into this problem and posted a question here.

Here is how it finally got resolved -

Word 2007 has an option to save in the pre-2007 format.  I used it and then imported the exported file  into Framemaker.  The equation was the main sticking point in Word 2007 format.  But that got resolved as Word converted the equtions into images while exporting to the older format.

There were some minor issues like the figures arbitrarily floating around etc.  I had to go back to Word and fix those, before importing.

Thanks to everyone who responded to the query and provided valuable suggestions.

Cheers; 'best,

shankar swamy

Thanks to everyone of you who responded to my question - overall, my questions are answered in essence.

The most disappointing part of the reality for me was that importing Visio drawings to Framemaker is not quite where I would have liked it to be; and the same about equations in Microsoft Word.

The biggest advantage I see in moving to Framemaker - strictly from my usage models and work-flows - is the ability to treat each chapter the way Framemaker does.  Word is horribly bad at that, and from what I have gathered, Framemaker is really good at that!

Of course the biggest disadvantage is the time penalty I have to pay move the stuff I have currently, and the knowledge of Word and Visio that I have accumulated over the years that I will most likely not put to use.  I knew I should have stuck with Latex!:-)

Following the discussion here, I indicated to my publishers that if they were willing to get the current portion of my work to Framemaker, I will switch.

Thank you very much for taking time off to answer my question - you have been a great help!

Cheers; 'best,

shankar swamy

Art said, "I think if you're expecting to find experts on the proprietary Microsoft Word equation editor in a FrameMaker forum, you're probably looking in the wrong place."

Allow me to self-proclaim as an expert in Equation Editor and MathType. FrameMaker, on the other hand, not so much. I do know though, you've already gotten an excellent answer about using MathType with FrameMaker, from Arnis (#6 in the list). That advice was right on -- use EPS. However, let me point out a few other tidbits...

• Both MathType and FrameMaker are OLE apps. That means you can drag MathType equations directly from either MathType or Word 2007 and drop them right into FrameMaker (or copy/paste). To edit, double-click the equation, make the edits in MathType, and when you close MathType, your edits are saved. (However, your equations won't be EPSs if you do that.)
• Since your work is in Word 2007, using the OMML equation editor (OMML = Office Math Markup Language; that's the "new" equation editor), you're pretty much out of luck if you try to copy them from Word and paste them in FrameMaker. Try it; you'll see what I mean.
• Here's where you're in luck: MathType will convert all of those OMML equations into MathType equations, giving you all the benefits I've mentioned here and Arnis mentioned in his response. To do this, look in MathType Help for instructions on the Convert Equations command. Once you've done that, you've got a Word 2007 document with a bunch of MathType equations -- still not where you want to be, but halfway.
• Now use MathType's Export Equations command to convert all the equations into EPS files, then import by Reference into FrameMaker.

Bob Mathews

Design Science, Inc.

Hello Swamy,

I have been using FM 8 for about 8 months and will never go back to MS Word. Unfortunatley, learning FM, any version, from ground zero will take a bit of time - more than a couple of weeks I'm sorry to say. I bought every book I could find for version 8 and took a class at the community college. Downloaded loads of templates (you'll need templates), and joined this forum. I don't post very often but read almost every email that comes across. I came across some rather good online tutorials from Scriptorium. These tutorials are for version 8 and come with sample files to work through the exercises. You can work through version 8 and apply the same process to version 9. Perhaps you will find them helpful:

http://www.scriptorium.com/palimpsest/2008/07/interesting-times.html

FM101 - unstructured

FM102 - structured

Best luck, Remy

Without knowing how the Word file was constructed....

Try saving the Word file out as RTF and open that in Frame, just to see what it looks like. I suspect you'll have problems with the Visio files and perhaps with the equations, but you don't know until you try. If it comes in cleanly, from Frame, do a SaveAs to MIF format to remove hidden Word characters and codes. Then open that, select each chapters' contents and paste it into a new Frame file. That gives you a set of discrete Frame files. Create a book and add the component files to it and you're on your way.

One item you didn't mention is whether you have a template for the chapters or not. You'll need one, hopefully an empty file, from which to impose formatting on the component files in the book.

If you run into problems getting everything to export from Word and import into Frame cleanly:

1. If the equations are in final form, you may be able to save them as graphics and import those. If you suspect they'll need editing, you're going to need to do some research on how the MS eqation editor saves files and how it can export them. Worst case you can output the Word file as a high resolution PDF and extract graphics from that.

2. If the Visio graphics are actually Visio files, they were probably set up in Word as OLE objects. Because this is a MS tool, it doesn't translate too well into other environments. I wouldn't expect it to work with FM 8, but FM 9 should be more reliable. The better strategy again is to attempt to save them out as a graphic format from Visio and import those into the Frame file by reference.

Depending on the Word version, you may be able to SaveAs HTML and end up with a folder full of graphics, and hopefully equations, nicely separated from the text for you.

FM 9 has a totally different interface than previous versions, but the core program operations are only slightly changed -- new features have been added, but core operations are pretty much the same.