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catmgirl
Participating Frequently
June 23, 2020
Question

Framemaker 2019 template changes

  • June 23, 2020
  • 4 replies
  • 708 views

We have several documents (Framemaker books with several chapters and attachments) that use existing templates with specific paragraph tags, character tags, master pages, cross-refencing, table formats, etc. Our company is considering changing all these items using new templates.  How difficult is this and how in the world would we go about doing so? I'm thinking this will be too time consuming to warrant the change.  

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    4 replies

    Matt-Tech Comm Tools
    Community Expert
    Matt-Tech Comm ToolsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 27, 2020

    It's worth noting that even if you want to retain the same names, Rick's FindChangeFormatsBatch also allows you to remove unwanted items from your catalogs.

    I use it in absolutely every template I work on, even if they're using the same names. It is just about the best money you can spend to improve your FrameMaker workflow, and it will absolutely save you hours, if not days on your projects.

    -Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant
      Barb Binder
      Community Expert
      Barb BinderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 23, 2020

      Hi Catmgirl:

       

      If they are changing the names, then you definitely want to purchase Rick's script so that you can map the current style names to the new style names.

       

      ~Barb

      ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
        Barb Binder
        Community Expert
        Barb BinderCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        June 23, 2020

        Hi Catmgirl:

         

        several documents (Framemaker books with several chapters and attachments) that use existing templates with specific paragraph tags, character tags, master pages, cross-refencing, table formats, etc

        It is worth noting that if you use the same names for all of these elements (paragraph tags, character tags, master pages, cross-referencing, table formats, etc) and just update the definitions in a new document for a new look, all you will need to is use File > Import > Formats to share the updated look with your other documents. 

         

        ~Barb 

         

         

        ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
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          catmgirlAuthor
          Participating Frequently
          June 23, 2020

          Thanks Barb!  I think the folks that want the new template want to use their names because they have so called shortcuts in their names (even though our names are self explanatory).  If we are able to go with your method and I import the new tags, etc. with the same names, will they just overwrite the names in the existing document?

            LinSims
            Community Expert
            LinSimsCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            June 23, 2020

            As long as the tags in your current templates and files use the exact same names as the ones being imported, then yes, the formatting information will update; however, from what you wrote it sounds like what you want to do is not only import the updated formatting information, you want to rename the tags you already use to match the ones used by the new group. Tag names can't be updated by importing from another file. All that will happen is you will have both your tag names and the new group's tag names in the same catalog, and your text will still have formatting applied using the old tag names.

             

            Updating your tag names to the ones used by the new group will require going into each and every file and manually updating the names for each and every tag. This is doable but time consuming, especially if you have a lot of files to update. You also run the risk of typoing a name when typing in the replacement, or simply forgetting which new tag name maps to which old tag name. 

             

            If you're talking about a lot of files, then Rick's script is probably the way to go. I've used it frequently as the templates at my current employer have gone through mutiple iterations of naming conventions and it's a real time saver. Once you use his script to rename tags in your documents (and it will also rename master pages and reference pages and variables and XREF formats and condition tags), you can import the formatting information from the new templates to the current files to get your files and the new group's files synced up.

             

             

            frameexpert
            Community Expert
            frameexpertCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            June 23, 2020

            I have an inexpensive script that allows you to map all kinds of FrameMaker formats from one name to another. In fact, I am using it on a big book now. It is called FindChangeFormatsBatch and you can see it at my web store. frameexpert dot com

            www.frameexpert.com
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              catmgirlAuthor
              Participating Frequently
              June 23, 2020

              Is this a Carmen product?  Thanks for the recommendation.

              frameexpert
              Community Expert
              frameexpertCommunity Expert
              Community Expert
              June 23, 2020

              Yes, that's me. Carmen Publishing Inc. aka frameexpert dot com

              www.frameexpert.com
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