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Writefielder
Known Participant
March 6, 2014
Answered

Best way to clean up paragraph and character catalogs?

  • March 6, 2014
  • 2 replies
  • 1041 views

Over the years, I have created a bunch of paragraph and character tags for different types of documents: technical manuals, novels, etc. For a given type of document, I will use some tags and not others. For example, a novel won't use numbered steps, or sideheads.

The trouble is, after years of importing to get the latest tags of a certain type, all the chapter files in all the books have bloated catalogs, full of tags that aren't used and are not applicable for the type of document. I would like to clean up these catalogs, and leave only tags pertinent to that type of document. I'm willing to take the hit if a given chapter or book uses a tag that it shouldn't, as long as I know what it is.

What is the "best practice" way to accomplish this? Which method do you recommend?

  1. Create a template file with clean catalogs, open each book file individually, delete all tags from the file, and re-import the tags from the template?
  2. Create a template file with clean catalogs, then create whole new books from the template, copying and pasting the text from the original bloated files?
  3. Other?

I understand that the process will be tedious, like cleaning out one's garage. But, I'm sick of tripping over all the clutter that I've accumulated.

Thank you for any thoughts and suggestions.

Ken

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Arnis Gubins

Ken,

Your #1 approach is probably the better way to go. However, instead of trying to clean out the tags manually, have a look at Steve Kubis' Paragraph and Character Tools. See: http://www.siliconprairiesoftware.com/Products.html

These will help immensely cleaning things up and they are reasonably priced. He also has corresponding tools for managing cross-refs, variable, tables and colours that all work in thee same manner. You can try before you buy.

2 replies

Bob_Niland
Community Expert
Bob_NilandCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 6, 2014

The musty accumulated cruft is not just paragraph and character formats.

A library of documents, over time, tends to also gather:

  • unwanted table formats,
  • cross-reference formats,
  • variable definitions,
  • condition codes,
  • marker text conventions,
  • reference page content,
  • master page content (esp hidden left pages in single-sided mode),
  • long-gone-font invocations,
  • overrides of all kinds, and
  • who-knows-what in the local allow-in-document spelling dictionary.

We have the further problem of 15 years worth of material authored by people who didn't know how to use FM, so flowed-out-of-sight text in scattered random text frames is distressingly common.

When confronted with the task of updating one of these, our usual practice is to copy the text (as plain, through a text editor if necessary) into a new template, and re-import the external objects.

Where it seems like the legacy document might be a candidate for remediation, I usually hack the MIF. Care must be taken to avoid duplicate format names in catalogs. Using a plaintext editor with local sort is helpful in that regard.

W
WritefielderAuthor
Known Participant
March 6, 2014

Thanks, Error, for making me feel a little better, in that some have it far worse than me.  

I can imagine, and I sympathise over, the junk that accumulates in a corporate environment through the years. Having to maintain and continue development of legacy documents, each with their own sets of legacy baggage, well, that's in another category of problem-solving than I have at hand.

I'm fortunate that I am now retired, so I have mostly my own cruft to deal with. Of course, some of my detritus is left over from my corporate days, so I'm not completely re-invented. Still, I'd like to lose a few pounds from my docs.

Btw, thank you for teaching me the word, "cruft." Lovely word, that.

Bob_Niland
Community Expert
Bob_NilandCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 6, 2014

> ... the junk that accumulates ...

And colors; I forgot colors ...

... which can be a particular problem to clean up if the problem arises from what the document imports. For example, if the Color Catalog contains 256 entries of the form RGB,###,###,###, you usually cannot delete them without first deleting the offending object(s). If nothing in the MIF seems to use them, it's an import.

Usually an indexed-color import or DXF/DWG did that, and will do it again and again until you reformat the external object in a sane color model and graphics file format, then re-import it.

GIFs are a usual suspect, but pretty much any graphics format can deliver indexed color. We've even had what appeared to be grayscale JPGs that were actually indexed color RGB with R=G=B for each color in the index. The legacy writers knew less about graphics than they knew about FM.

Arnis Gubins
Arnis GubinsCorrect answer
Inspiring
March 6, 2014

Ken,

Your #1 approach is probably the better way to go. However, instead of trying to clean out the tags manually, have a look at Steve Kubis' Paragraph and Character Tools. See: http://www.siliconprairiesoftware.com/Products.html

These will help immensely cleaning things up and they are reasonably priced. He also has corresponding tools for managing cross-refs, variable, tables and colours that all work in thee same manner. You can try before you buy.

W
WritefielderAuthor
Known Participant
March 6, 2014

Thanks so much, Arnis. Steve's tools sound exactly like what I need. Thanks for the reference.

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