Framemaker 7.2 Windows XP SP3 .ppt and visio paste

I removed Frame 7.2 & SP3, reinstalled Frame, and now a scissors-and-paste from Word shows up as an anchored frame with the text in it, but Frame doesn't recognize it as a link and therefore it can't be broken.

My temporary solution was to s&p the text from Word into OpenOffice Writer, and from Writer into FM. That works without creating a frame around the text.

It also clearly indicates that the problem lies with Microsoft, not Adobe.

cal

For some background on OLE, there's an excellent MS article here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727079.aspx

Associations, Linkages, and OLE: How Confusing Can This Get?

FAIR WARNING: In the "Fixing disasters" section the article mentions editing keys in the registry. DON'T DO THIS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND HAVE A BACKUP. Yes, I was speaking loudly. Some would call it shouting. sorry.

Thomas,

Thanks for digging up that link. You're right, it doesn't appear to be one that addresses the problem I and others are having.

I didn't have a problem in Frame 8, so apparently the issue has been addressed there. Unfortunately, my client doesn't use 8, so that's no help.

cal

I suggest: Always exchange at the book level not the chapter, or file level. Establish a file structure for chapters, graphics etc, and treat this as a whole when it comes to exchanging with other people, companies, or even backing up your own semi-revised versions.

Never exchange fragments of the whole, with the intention of relying on naming conventions to build it back together again. Use compressed folders to keep everything together for exchange. If you can, automate this, so it becomes easy, quick and includes verification of the "bill of materials".

Thanks for the extra comments. I am using Frame 7.2p158 on Win XP SP3. Using same Frame on Win XP SP2 was able to embed.

Thomas Michanek mentions that it is simply a matter of good practice in tracking file revisions. I agree. The problem is not that 'I' can't manage the files. It is a lot of files, but I can keep track of them fine. The problem is when the publisher hires a compositor. I passed the original files to the publisher in 1999. They hired a compositor to do the layout. The files were passed back and forth each time a printing was to be done. 14 printings now. Disaster first three times a change was made. I actually avoided sending errata between the 4th and 12 printing to try to avoid problems with file tracking. Found out from students that they messed up 10th printing, even when no revisions sent. This is not rocket science, and I would have expected professional rigor in monitoring files from a leading textbook publisher. Unfortunately, it has not occurred. This is a major publisher, not some fly-by-night publisher. In principle, the compositor should provide the revised files back to the publisher who should archive them properly. Unfortunately file tracking on THEIR end has been sloppy by either the compositor or the publisher. When I asked the publisher for an improved method for file tracking as we start on the next edition, THEY recommended in consultation with the compositor that we use OLE. From this forum, it looks like that may not be a good solution! Perhaps the compositor does not have experience with Frame using large numbers of OLE objects!

What I am seeing is that people in this forum have had such bad experiences with OLE that I should avoid it. By the way, my experiences are that Framemaker has been more reliable than Microsoft Word in documents with large numbers of equations. In early drafts of the textbook, using Word with embedded equations, when I clicked 'save' I could walk across the street for a coffee, return and Word was still saving. Occasionally had to save WORD as RTF to recover document and then reopen and resave. Frame 5.5 never had problems like this. (Granted computers and software have changed much since 1999, but I notice that WORD is still clunky with long documents with lots of embedded equations).

Perhaps this is also experiences of users in this forum with more recent versions of Frame than my experience with Frame 5.5. I bought Frame 7.2 for WIN a year or so ago, thinking that I was going to start revising, but I am just now getting started on the project.

I am thinking that I should stick with enforcing some contractual arrangement with the publisher so that I have more control over monitoring the file backups between the compositor and publisher. Frame has been extremely reliable with indexing, cross-referencing, TOC generation, etc.

I am at a crossroads right now, and can move the project to other software, which is probably a topic for a different thread. I would appreciate feedback from other users about how to work with publishers on projects with large numbers of referenced files. The current method of inserting equations is to create the equation in MathType, save as an EPS and then import by reference into Frame. (Naming is a slight mess because the external EPS files are named by 'equation number' and the equation number is changing as I revise the text.)

So, if users have recommendations from their experiences with any of the issues addressed here, I appreciate the feedback.

lol I don't see what the fuss is all about -
Pasting into Frame using OLE is a disaster waiting to happen,
and we should all be delighted that XP Service Pack 3 has outlawed this ridiculous practice once and for all. :)

Thanks, Mr. Ward, for your supercilious and unhelpful reply.

Thanks. I have been reading the other forums. I notice another thread discussing embedding of MathType.

It has been some time since I worked with Framemaker - the last version that I spent much time with was 5.5. I authored 650 page engineering textbook in 1999 using Frame 5.5 with about 200 embedded MathType equations per chapter and many embedded spreadsheet images. Did not have stability problems that caused frustration. The publisher/compositor worked on a MAC so took all MathType equations and converted them all to external EPS files and linked to them. No problems with linking that many files either.

Now starting to edit for new edition. You can imagine that keeping track of 200 separate files is a mess. The publisher has consistently had problems when doing a new printing keeping track of all the files. Each time a new printing is done (now in 14th printing) old equations reappear that were corrected previously. We have had equations corrected in the third printing reappear as wrong in the 13th printing for example.

So the publisher is now recommending for us to re-embed them to reduce the number of files, and will stick to the PC platform.

Occasionally had Framemaker 5.5 complain about not being able to display embedded graphics, but this was not a problem when printing if the file was printed immediately after opening without scrolling around. As I remember, I could also jump to a page directly rather than scrolling to get there. Seemed like a minor work-around to avoid some of the complaints that I see here.

Framemaker equation alignment and kerning requires too much tweaking to use.

You guys should read the previous postings more carefully. You won't be able to guarantee reliable functionality, hotfix or no hotfix. This is the nature of FrameMaker and OLE, the reason that it is consistently recommended as something to avoid.

Russ

Describing my very similiar problem:
I was clipping and pasting text from Word into Frame and I tried to clip and paste the Visio drawings into anchored frames. Wouldn't let me do that, so I brought them in as objects, at which point the problem described by others appeared with the same error message, An internal error occurred while writing imported graphics to this document. The file has been saved, but has lost some image data. After that, when I tried to paste additional Word text in, I kept getting the same tiny square with an anchored frame. (No problem clipping and pasting from within the Frame file.) I cleared the Windows clipboard, but it made no difference. Rebooted my computer & tried different .fm files, no difference.
I, too, would be very interested in seeing the hotfix. It would have been very helpful if the poster had included a link in the post.