Empty rows when importing excel file in FrameMaker

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
September 25, 2024
3 replies
1593 views

Hi to all of you.

I am evaluating FM as a potential tool generate documentation in my company. I am totally newbie with the tool and after doing some search could not find a clear answer.

One of the main challenges is that i need to handle big requirement excel tables, a very interesting feature of FM is the possibility to insert the excel file in it. Changes that you apply to the excel file can be updated automatically in FM by updating the references. Saving time during documentation ellaboration phase.

Main problem is that when you use this insertion strategy FM includes empty rows behind the content and I haave not been capable to remove them....

Is there just a way to delete them or a way to adjust the import phase, when I point with the mouse over the table the whole element is selected .

Thank you in advance.

Correct answer Winfried Reng

I have FrameMaker 2022 (17.0.3 - check Help | About FrameMaker) and cannot reproduce this issue either, although I had noticed this as well. Not in FrameMaker, but when I wanted to print an Excel file.

What happens, when you adjust the Print Area in Excel? Or delete the empty rows in Excel? Or check, if there is any formatting applied to these rows in Excel?

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ArmadilloC

Inspiring

Having used both Madcap Flare and FrameMaker, are you also evaluating Flare? I believe that can do the same with Excel as you're trying to achieve and overall I would much prefer using Flare if I had a choice. I've heard the same from many other writers too.

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Natxo_e36Author

Known Participant

Could be an option.
I´ve just started tools evaluation and trial.

My feeling is that as I have always used MS Word, entering to this "new" tools would require for sure some assessment or conslutancy services. Main problem is going to be my learning curve, but documentation needs will be growing and growing in the next years and keeping MS Word will only increase the amount of necessary resources for tasks with low added value.

A

ArmadilloC

Inspiring

The way you need to publish the results of your work would affect the tool you choose. If you need to output to an online format like HTML then I'd recommend Flare or a similar tool as the files are created and saved as HTML, unlike FrameMaker, which does a somewhat clumsy and limited process of conversion from the FM files. If you need to output multiple similar but different results from a single source of data, then I'd also recommend not using FrameMaker as there's no simple method of creating multiple TOCs for different outputs. I'm not sure what, if any, other tools can import Excel files as referenced but Madcap advertises that Flare will do it. I like dealing with them because their customer service and help is top notch. (Just a fan, not an employee or share holder, I promise!)

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FrameMaker-dk

Community Expert

What version of FM are you using? I am not able to reproduce the issue. I am merely importing the Excel file by reference. Are you importing using OLE?

Bjørn Smalbro - FrameMaker.dk

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Natxo_e36Author

Known Participant

Hi Bjørn

I am importing by reference the excel file..

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Natxo_e36Author

Known Participant

Just as final follow-up @Jeff_Coatsworth , @frameexpert I copied all the content to a new excel file and imported again....and it works as expected, so there´s something on those excel files related to their set-up that is causing the issue.