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Updating Cross References in new version of book

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
December 11, 2024
4 replies
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Hello All,

I figured I would ask this question and see if there might be an answer. I am working on an update of a manual that is about 700 pages long. In updating I changed the book and all the file names to the next letter (i.e. 82932A to 82932B). In doing so, any cross references across chapers were broken because they are looking for the source document 82932A. Is there any way to update these broken cross references without doing them one by one by just updating the source document name? I even saw in Find & Replace you can search for unresolved cross references by their source document name, but I don't know what option to choose in the Replace field to change that source name. Was this something I could have done when I started creating the updated version? Thank you so much.

Correct answer Winfried Reng

Hi,

When you want to do something like this, you have to do it like this:

o Copy all files to a new folder with your file manager.

o Change the book name with your file manager.

o Open the book and in FrameMaker in the book file change the file names. Then all cross-references will be updated correctly. If you get error messages that a file cannot be opened, open all files first, accept all messages and then change the file names.

If you had not changed text yet, you can start again.

Best regards, Winfried

D

DanJan81Author

Known Participant

SOLVED: I just wanted post an update in case anyone runs into the specific circustance I found myself in. I saved the book as a new book in a new folder with it's original file name and updated all the book sections with the original name, this reconnected all the cross-references (because they were looking for the original file name). Then I saved the book again with the updated version name and again updated the sections with the new name. This time the cross references reamined connected and I didn't lose any of my other updates to the manual. Might not have been the prettiest fix but only took me about 30 minutes.

Matt-Tech Comm Tools

Community Expert

Glad you got it fixed!

For years I've simply zipped the current project and named it accordingly, and then used the current files as-is.

Works like a charm, and gives me a clean archive if ever needed, without bloating the archive with previous versions, etc.

-Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant

W

Winfried Reng

Correct answer

Community Expert

Hi,

When you want to do something like this, you have to do it like this:

o Copy all files to a new folder with your file manager.

o Change the book name with your file manager.

o Open the book and in FrameMaker in the book file change the file names. Then all cross-references will be updated correctly. If you get error messages that a file cannot be opened, open all files first, accept all messages and then change the file names.

If you had not changed text yet, you can start again.

Best regards, Winfried

D

DanJan81Author

Known Participant

Yeah, I just realized I have done updated other manuals before and cross-references updated correctly. I must have messed up updating the book.

frameexpert

Community Expert

Take a look at my Pathchanger script at www.frameexpert.com/store. It was created for this type of issue.

For best practice, I would suggest keeping your FrameMaker file names the same and just change the name of the book document when there is an update. Copy everything to a new folder first.

D

DanJan81Author

Known Participant

Thank you so much.

Bob_Niland

Community Expert

How was the change made?
Copied files & renamed before opening?
Opened files and re-saved as new names?

Are the 82932x strings plaintext, via Xrefs or Variables in the document?

All the new files could be saved as MIF to .mif, and then use a plaintext editor to block swap all old instances of /82932A/82932B/. Thiere is a slight risk that the character string …82932A… might semi-randomly appear in the hex encoding of some binary object, and get damaged, so make backups.

D

DanJan81Author

Known Participant

I believe I opened the old file, saved it as the new name, then changed the chapter names in the folder. ALthought I am realizing now that I have done this before and the cross references connected, so I must have done the update wrong. Thank you for the MIF idea.

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