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C
cvgs
Inspiring
February 1, 2010
Question

Extra fm-ditafile tag is generated in book file after generating FM

  • February 1, 2010
  • 1 reply
  • 1089 views

I'm using Adobe FrameMaker 8 in Tech Comm Suite 1 in Windows XP.

When we generated our book files from ditamaps, we seem to be getting an extra fm-ditafile tag in each chapter.  We have been unwrapping these extra tags, but then we have to reapply all of the headings.  For example, by removing the extra tag, the first heading automatically becomes Heading 1, but retains the formatting for Heading 2.  Heading 2's must be made Heading 3's and so on.

While this works, it's a very manual process.  Is there any way to eliminate that extra fm-ditafile tag or to easily reapply all of the headings?

Thanks.

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1 reply

ScottPrentice
ScottPrentice
Inspiring
February 3, 2010

Hi Mary...

What makes you think that these are "extra" tags? The intent of the fm-ditafile element is to mark the location of each source DITA file in the output. This is needed for the system to properly fix references in the book build process (even though that fixing up doesn't really work properly in default FM8 DITA). Unless you're doing something very special .. you should leave this structure as it is.

Before you delete these extra tags, is the formatting correct? It is for me. If the formatting isn't good, you may have a source structure that's not expected by the default structure app.

Cheers,

...scott

C
cvgsAuthor
Inspiring
February 3, 2010

Scott,

If we leave the fm-ditafile tags in, all of our headings are taken down a level. So the H1 is an H2, H2 is an H3. Of course, removing the fm-ditafile only takes care of that problem sometimes, so we are left to manually reapply the headings whether we remove the topmost fm-ditafile tag or not.

The generated book file resides in the same folder as the book ditamap. However, the topics are in other folders. For one book, I tried putting the topics in the same folder as the chapter and book ditamap, but we still get two fm-ditafile tags.

DITA doesn't argue with our removal of the tags, so we thought it would be okay. Doesn't seem to affect anything.

But we would like to avoid the manual reapplication of headings.

Got any ideas?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mary K. Greer

Information Developer - Learning Management Solutions

Intelligent Automation Solutions Client Services

407.771.8187

ScottPrentice
ScottPrentice
Inspiring
February 3, 2010

Hi Mary...

I'm not recalling if you're using a custom structure app or the default. This is really a structure app (EDD) issue. You should modify the EDD to accommodate this structure since it's the way the files are generated (one fm-ditafile per source DITA file). As far as I'm aware, this works properly with the default structure apps.

Note that once the book and chapter files are generated, this structure is no longer true "DITA" .. it's a binary FM file with a DITA substructure and other bits thrown in to make things work properly in the FM UI. This is OK since you're not (or shouldn't be) exporting these files to XML for use as "DITA" files .. they only exist for publishing purposes.

...scott

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