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Almtuna
Almtuna
Inspiring
November 27, 2025
Answered

Revert flattened chm structure (FM2019 -> FM2022)

  • November 27, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 395 views

I have a huge document which consists of 4 merged documents. When creating a chm-file of this I had the 4 sub-documents at top level, and then each sub-document had its chapter at the next level.

But after upgrading FrameMaker this structure has been flattened, all of the chapters now are at top level.

How do I get back to the previous structure. which I had using FM2019?

    Correct answer Almtuna

    In the .fm files actually - it wouldn't need to use "appearances" if it could just use the TOC layout as the output's TOC.


    You got me on the right track!
    When I took a closer look at the TOC file and compared it with the older TOC used by FM2019 I realized it looked different. So I took the FM2019 TOC and upgraded it alone to FM2022, and incorporated into the FM2022 document - and suddenly the problem was gone!

     

    2 replies

    W
    Community Expert
    Winfried RengCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 27, 2025

    Hi,

    Do you use the same sts file? Did you compare the last one with the current one?

    Does the layout change., e.g. font size or indentation of headings? FrameMaker uses this info to calculate the heading level.

    Best regards, Winfried

    Almtuna
    AlmtunaAuthor
    Inspiring
    November 27, 2025

    I tried to use the same sts file, and had FrameMaker 2022 upgrade it.

    However, after upgrading I had to rename the FM2019 paragraph style "ChapterName" to "Heading1", otherwise the (chm) chapter names came out completely unformatted. (And this lead to moving old Heading 1 to new Heading 2, etc.)
    Now everything works (and looks) just perfect when creating pdf files.
    When you say FM looks at heading indentation, those were a bit damaged during the process. Something that I still have to correct. Perhaps I should do that now?

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 27, 2025

    Yes, because the Publish function doesn't know to bust things up by headings, so it uses the font size and indentation to infer what the headings are.

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 27, 2025

    Need some more details - what does "a huge document which consists of 4 merged documents." look like in FM? Is it a book file with 4 .fm files in it or are you doing a "book of books" sort of structure?

    Almtuna
    AlmtunaAuthor
    Inspiring
    November 27, 2025

    It's a "Book of books".

    Each "sub-book" consists of about 15 .fm files, where a .fm-file is a chapter.

    It is built-up like this:

    mainTOC.fm
mainCover.fm
book1\b1Cover.fm
book1\b1chapter1.fm
...
book1\b1chapter15.fm
book2\b2Cover.fm
book2\b2Chapter1.fm
...
book2\b2Chapter18.fm
book3\b3Cover.fm
book3\b3Chapter1.fm
...
book3\b3Chapter14.fm
book4\b4Cover.fm
book4\b2Chapter1.fm
...
book4\b2Chapter18.fm
mainIX.fm

    Using FM2019, the produced chm-file looked like this:

    Just as desired.

     

    But after upgrading to FM2022, the tree structure is lost:

     

    above is just a part of the first sub-book and its chapters, it continues the same way for all four sub-books.

    Each cover has a title which has paragraph Cover Guide Type.

    Each chapter has a title which has paragraph Heading 1.

     

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