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August 25, 2015
Question

Best way to fix misspelled paragraph style name?

  • August 25, 2015
  • 3 replies
  • 704 views

We are using FrameMaker 12 on a Windows 7 64 bit system.

Say someone created a paragraph style and misspelled its name.

For example: Boddy Text instead of Body Text.

What's the best way to fix it in the template, and then apply the change to dozens of chapters that use it?

Way 1: Open each chapter and correct the misspelled paragraph style manually.

Way 2: Fix it in the template, then use File > Import > Formats. The problem is that it adds the corrected style as a new paragraph style, and does not apply the new style to anything. So, all instances of the misspelled style would have the style with the corrected spelling applied manually.

Does anyone have a third way to do it that automates the process?

Thanks in advance.

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    3 replies

    Arnis Gubins
    Inspiring
    August 26, 2015

    An alternate way to do this in a given document.

    In the document with the incorrect tag, i.e. "Boddy Text", place the cursor in one of those paragraphs. Then using the Paragraph Designer, change the name to "Body Text". FM will ask you if you wish to rename all paragraphs with this name and agree.

    Then import the correct template with the Body Text paratag to apply the correct formatting.

    Unfortuntely, without scripting, there is no easy way to automate this.

    Inspiring
    August 25, 2015

    Here are a couple of methods:

    Native to FrameMaker:

    1. No template is necessary.

    2. Click on a paragraph that uses the correct style in a document in the

    book to select it, such as Body.

    3. Select Edit> Copy Special> Paragraph Format. This copies the

    paragraph tag name and formatting to the clipboard.

    4. Use Find/Change: Find the Paragraph Tag you want to change (Boddy).

    Change "By Pasting" and select the book. Select Change All. FM will find

    and change Boddy paragraphs to Body and apply Body formatting to them.

    5. Done.

    NOTE: Also, there is a potential error to watch for in that, when

    FrameMaker searches for the Boddy paragraph tag, it will also find other

    tags with Boddy in the name, such as BoddyNew, Old Boddy, etc. So it may

    grab and change similarly named tags you don't want to change.

    Third Party Plugin:

    There is also Paragraph Tools from Silicon Prairie Software, a cheap

    plugin that lets you specify a conversion list to convert paragraph

    styles in a book:

    http://www.siliconprairiesoftware.com/

    Community Expert
    September 2, 2015

    Just a short addition to Mike's note: In the Find/Change dialog activate Consider Case and Whole Word.

    This way paragraphs with similiar tag names will be ignored.

    Inspiring
    September 2, 2015

    Actually, selecting Consider Case and Whole Word is only partially

    effective. It would not find BoddyNew, but would still find Old Boddy,

    since the space makes Boddy a whole word.

    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 25, 2015

    re: For example: Boddy Text instead of Body Text.

    If the misspelled word is unique (not used in actual text, catalogs, FM tags), save all the files as MIF and fix with a plaintext editor.

    Unless you have hundreds of files, this is quicker than scripting anything.

    Preserve the original files in case the misword turns out to have been not unique.