Broken links when PDFing Structured FM 8 in Windows XP

Report · Apr 23, 2009

We have a large number of links in our documents that are created using structured Framemaker 8.0 in a Windows XP environment. The xrefs work fine in FM, but once they have been PDF'd all of the links are broken. Since these are large documents, it can take over a day to relink everything. All links are created using the fm-xref tag and link to other topics/items within the FM book.

Any suggestions for what may be the problem?

I am also posting this in the Acrobat forum.

Report · Apr 23, 2009

If the links work fine in the FM book, then I would suspect that the PDF files have either been renamed or moved to a different location and relative paths are now munged.

To check what is going on in the PDF, in Acrobat using the Link tool, examine the Properties of some of the broken links (and from that panel you have to click the Edit button to see actual details) in order to find out where exactly the link is trying to go to.

Report · Apr 23, 2009

cvgs,

Are you generating the PDF at the book level? If so, all inter-book links should work, barring any strange things that might be caused by the DITA app. What error does the link give you in Acrobat?

I hope you get some of these issues worked out. It really sounds to me that you are missing out on some of the primary benefits of FrameMaker as a desktop publisher for long documents. If you can't find some resolution to these problems you've encountered, I'd recommend that you consider other DITA applications for authoring and/or publishing content. If you want to stick with FM, you might also consider abandoning DITA for a less complex structured workflow. Unless you really need compliance with DITA, you can get many of its important features without it.

Russ

Report · Apr 23, 2009

I had this problem a while ago.

I think you have to switch on the "Create Named Destinations for All Elements and Paragraphs" option on the Links tab of the PDF print options in FM8.

Report · Apr 23, 2009

The creation of a named destination for a cross-reference target should be automatic. If you really do have to force named destinations for all paragraphs, I'd say this is an unsettling bug.

Report · Apr 23, 2009

Russ,

As you say it should, but it isn't guaranteed. Shlomo Perets has pointed out numerous times that FM tends to "forget" some destination targets (or they get cleaned out in the PDF optimizations), so it's safest to explicitly force FM to set them all.

Report · Apr 23, 2009

The Set Destination option isn't working for us either.

This is what we are seeing:

In our source doc, a cross-reference is created using the fm-xref structured tag. At that point the cross-reference works. We create a series of topics using cross-references the same way.
These topics are assembled into ditamaps. The cross-references are still working.
A book is then created and all ditamaps are created as chapters within the book.
At this point, the fm-xrefs stop working. In some cases, they were converted to xrefs instead of retaining the fm-xref tag. At this point, some of the formatting is ignored. For example, an example tag that looks lovely in the left column, suddenly becomes a Heading 1 which is a chapter heading.

Needless to say, the frustration level is very high. I would attach, but it appears that .fm or book files are not an acceptable file type.

Please help us. It may be something terribly simple, that we just can't see anymore because we're cross-eyed from troubleshooting.

We love FM and would like to continue to use it, but not if it causes this type of frustration. In fact, we're considering becoming nurses.

Report · Apr 24, 2009

cvgs, unfortunately I can't help any further. I don't have strong expertise in DITA + FM. I don't have expertise in nursing either, but I suspect that profession would be equally frustrating, except more laborious.

I didn't think that the named destinations bit was the problem, since you reported that every single link was broken. There is something wrong at a fundamental level.

Russ

Report · Apr 27, 2009

Technical comment: To attach other file types, append a ".txt" after the current file name (e.g. myFile.fm.txt) and the system will accept it. Just let other users know that you've done this.

Cross-refs do work in DITA, as you can't be the only user that's come across this problem in two releases of the product. However, as I also don't do DITA, I really can't help any further at this point either. Hopefully, some one else can pick up on this.

Report · Apr 27, 2009

Arnis,

Thank you for your continued suppport through all of our travails. I am currently in the process of stripping out whatever x-refs I can so that relinking is minimal. Also trying to troubleshoot any other errors that may be causing the fubars.

What we have noticed is that links that are entered as fm-xrefs open as xrefs when a doc is opened. When you click elsewhere or move to another page, they revert to fm-xrefs.

We can't be the only ones experiencing this.

Report · Apr 27, 2009

I am a little confused as to when exactly the links stop working. In your initial post, you said it happened when you created a PDF. Then in your last post you describe the step "A book is then created and all ditamaps are created as chapters within the book." How are you creating the book? Are you using the DITA-FMx plugin or the default FrameMaker support? If fm-xref elements are being turned into xref elements when you open a file, that may be an indication that the round-tripping of your topic files is not working correctly, but that's a separate issue really. So could you be a bit more specific about the steps you are going through and your environment?

Report · Apr 29, 2009

Ok, Nigel, this is what we have observed:

Using FM Dita, we create an xml file which has an fm-xref.
We save and close the file.
The file is then added to a ditamap.
We then generate a book file from all of the ditamaps that will be in our project.
When we open up a chapter within the book file, and notice that some of the fm-xrefs have been changed to xrefs. The ones that we notice being changed are those that reference headings, as opposed to cross-referencing to a figure.
If we click on the elevator button on the right, before our eyes, the x-refs change back to fm-xrefs.
We save the file again.
Having been lulled into a false sense of security, we then generate a pdf. None of the fm-xrefs that had been changed into xrefs and then back again work as links, so we must manually relink within the pdf.

We have checked our source files, and they very clearly display an fm-xref tag.

We recently added the 8.13 patch and we think that it may be a problem related to that patch, since we have never had this problem before.

Hope this gives you enough detail.

Thanks.

Report · Apr 29, 2009

Hi,

I'm interested in your step 4. You say you're using "FM dita" but the default FM8 DITA plugin does not support generating an FM book from a ditamap as you describe. Nor does the free version of Leximation's DITA-FM 0.0. So are you using the commercial version of DITA-FMx to generate your FM book? If not, can you describe in detail what you're doing at step 4 ?

Report · Apr 29, 2009

I have created a ditamap using a collection of topics, concepts, and tasks. This ditamap also contains other ditamaps.
With this ditamap open, from the main menu I select DITA > Build FM Ditabook from DITA map file.
I choose the ditamap file that I have open.
The Save Book dialog box opens, and I name the book that I will be creating and click Save.
I will usually get an error log that contains a message that it can't find a graphic file, but this is no biggie, since I can redirect it in the chapter file when I open it.
I close the error log and now I have a FM book file.