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Participant
Feb 24, 2021 5:25 PM UTC
Question

How can I rename a file (*.fm) in a book without breaking cross references?

Hello,

How can I rename a file (*.fm) in a book without breaking cross references?

Thanks!

 

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    11 replies

    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Mar 3, 2021 8:55 PM UTC

    Hi Emily:

     

    I'm glad to hear that the renaming worked as expected.

    I've never used the split document utility – I just save the file under a new name and add it to the book. Then in the first chapter I delete the second half of the content. And in the second chapter I delete the first half then update the book. If there are any unresolved cross references at that point, I use Edit > References to fix them. 

    ~Barb 

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    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    Participant
    Mar 3, 2021 11:36 PM UTC

    Hello Barb, 

    I will try to manually split to two fm files as you suggested. 

    BTW, I tried "Split current document", it created a mess. I think I give up. :).

     

    Thank you,

    Emily 

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    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Feb 25, 2021 6:57 PM UTC

    I don't it's a Fm 12 issue. You could download the 30-day trial of 2020 to check.

    https://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker/download-trial/try.html

     

    Are you sure the cross-references are all working before you start renaming anything? You can use Edit > Find/Change > Find: Unresolved X-refs to check.

     

    Or are any of the cross references to files outside of this book? You might want to look into that as well.

     

    ~Barb

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    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    Participant
    Mar 3, 2021 7:13 PM UTC

    Hello Barb, 

    I tried Framemaker 2020. It works well for the renaming fm file in a book. Thank you!

     

    I have another question: How can I split a large *.fm file to two *.fm files in a book without breaking cross reference? 

     

    Thank you!

    Emily 

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    LinSims
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Mar 3, 2021 7:31 PM UTC

    FM2020 has a utility to split a file into multiple files. 

     

    File > Utilities > Split Current Document

     

    I haven't used it, but I believe you choose which tag to split on and it does the rest of the work. 

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    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Feb 25, 2021 12:19 AM UTC

    Hmm. Certainly give that a try, Emily, but I just renamed two files via the book window with all the chapter files closed.  I received this message after each rename:

    When I opened the renamed chapters, all x-refs were up to date. 

     

    ~Barb 

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    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    Participant
    Feb 25, 2021 5:53 PM UTC

    Hello Barb, 

    I opened all files. When I renamed one file, it did show the message (as you showed above). However, framemaker didn't really update the cross reference. I still got errors of unresolved cross-Reference. 

    BTW, I am using FrameMaker 12. Do you think it might be the issue? 

    thank you,

    Emily 

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    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Feb 24, 2021 6:27 PM UTC

    Rename the file in the FrameMaker book window (right click > Rename) and not in the explorer window.

     

    ~Barb 

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    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    Participant
    Feb 24, 2021 6:56 PM UTC

    Yes. I renamed the file in the FrameMaker book window. After the renaming, when I click on "Update Book", Book Error Report still shows a lot of  erroes of "unresolved cross-Reference to xxx.fm" . I have to manually click each links to fix the unsolved cross-references. Is there a way to accelerate this process?

    Thank you!

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    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    Feb 24, 2021 11:47 PM UTC

    emilyhongqi: After the renaming, … "unresolved cross-Reference …

    Were all the component files of the Book open when you did the rename?
    If so, this is not an expected result.

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