Conversion Table Help With Note/Caution

[Marsha_Lofthouse]

I have nearly finished my conversion table but I'm having issues with two things: notes/cautions and lists. For simplicity and brevity, I'll discuss lists in another post.

My <note> elements that have an attribute of caution are simply being formatted as a Level0 paragraph. My conversion table looks like this:

I've stared at these for way too long to be able to determine why the Note paragraph tag is converting properly, but the Caution paragraph tag is simply a paragraph.

TIA,

Marsha

[ScottPrentice · Accepted solution]

Hi Marsha...

I think the problem lies elsewhere .. as that looks basically fine to me.

However, your TC:P:* mappings look like they might cause problems, but not for what you're describing (although that syntax isn't somethign that I've used so I could be all wet there).

Note that the default @type for <note> is "note", so there's no need to assign type='note' to a regular note .. it's not wrong, it's just not necessary.

Cheers,

...scott

[Marsha_Lofthouse]

Thanks, Scott, for your quick reply.

I deleted the TC:P:* mappings for the heck of it and I'm still not getting Cautions. Instead of being formatted as paragraphs, they are being formatted as notes.

Marsha

[Lynne A. Price]

Marsha,

  You report incorrect formatting but haven't mentioned structure. A conversion table derives elements and attributes from an unstructured document. It creates some primitive general and text format rules, but does not do any context checking.

  Are your cautions coming in as note elements with the type attribute set to 'caution'? If so, your conversion table is working correctly.

  Do you have an EDD? If so, import element definitions from the EDD into the newly structured document. If not, you'll need to create one. Rather than starting from scratch, you can use StructureTools > Export Element Catalog as EDD from the conversion table results on one document.  The resulting file will include definitions for the elements and attributes in the structured document. Save this preliminary EDD and start polishing!

          --Lynne

P.S. Your TC:P: mappings are OK. Are you using the 'notecell' and 'cautioncell' qualifiers anywhere? Scott, this syntax lets a conversion table specify the element tag for a table cell based on the paragraph tag of the content within the cell in the originl document.

[Marsha_Lofthouse]

Hi Lynne,

Yes, the cautions are coming in as note elements with the @type st to "caution."

And yes, I have an EDD that works when I create Cautions from scratch in a new document. It just doesn't work when I use the conversion table on legacy documents. Unfortunately, we're using DITA 1.2 which has way too many EDDs, IMNSHO. I tried importing commonElements.eddmod.fm, topic.eddmod.fm, and ditabase.edd, all to no avail.

What am I doing wrong?

Marsha

[Marsha_Lofthouse]

Woo Hoo! I got my Cautions back by importing formats and element definitions from my chapter template.

Marsha

[Marsha_Lofthouse]

Rats! I was wrong. (It happens, sometimes more than others. )

Neither my notes and cautions are formatted now that I've fixed my lists by importing the formats and element definitions from my chapter template. I verified that the notes and cautions work in that template.

There are no errors in the log.

Please help me keep from pulling my hair out.

[Lynne A. Price]

Marsha,

    Make sure you import formats before importing element definitions. Also, check the box to remove format overrides when you import element definitions. If the formatting is still not correct. Create exactly the same structure in a document you edit from your chapter template and one produced from the conversion table. The formatting should be the same.

              --Lynne

[Marsha_Lofthouse]

Thanks again, Lynne.

I have been importing formats before element definitions. I discovered the reverse does not work.

Checking the box to remove format overrides hasn't made a difference.

I wasn't sure what you meant by your next sentence so what I did whas copy my Chapter template and create an unstructured doc containing several Notes and Cautions. I converted that and still neither the Notes nor the Cautions are formatted.

I then made another copy of my Chapter template and switched to my XML/Structured Workspace and created the same document. Here, the Notes and Cautions worked fine.

That seems to be telling me that the issue lies in the conversion table but I don't see where.

Marsha