Copied content from FrameMaker includes also deleted content

[Winfried Reng]

Hi,

Can someone test, if this is not an artefact on my PC.

Enter some text, e.g.:

123

456

789

Then enable Track Text Edits and delete the middle paragraph 456 and click Preview Final on the Track Text Edits toolbar.

Then copy the whole content and paste it into your favourite text editor.

Here all three paragraphs are pasted, although FrameMaker does not show this text. I assume that's the same with hidden conditional text.

I wanted to do a major comparison via text, regular expressions and Excel, and did not notice that there is content which should not be there.

I do not know, what could be done (besides to accept all changes before copy).

Best regards

Winfried

[shalomb61686619]

Yes, that is how FrameMaker works.

[Winfried Reng]

Could be. However, would you expect that you copy and paste also invisible content?

In my oppinion very dangerous!

I do not know, if it would be possible to copy only the visible content into the clipboard.

Probably only with a complex script ...

[4everJang]

It would be a design error to not include deleted content, as that content is contained in the section you are copying, only not currently shown due to your Track Changes settings. This fact is also consistent with the warning you get when you delete a selection that contains hidden content.

In any case, it looks like at least some scripting would be required for your workflow. At least having a script that automatically accepts all tracked changes (which removes the deleted content) and then saves the file, possibly with another name, then copy the required text and paste it elsewhere.

But it looks like scripting the text comparison inside FM would be much more efficient than using Excel as part of the workflow. In that case, it is easy enough to get just the visible text (that is just a couple of lines of ExtendScript code). ExtendScript supports regular expressions (at least to a certain level) so you would have the entire workflow running inside FM.

[Winfried Reng]

Thank you very much for your thoughts.

No. It would not be a design error, when hidden text would not be copied.

Just compare this with Excel. When you hide a row and then copy the rows before and after the hidden row, then the hidden row is not copied. And I think that this is what the general user expects.

This was just a quality check for release notes whether I did not forget anything in one of the languages. With Notepad++ and regular expressions I could easily separate the item numbers from the content and then do some comparisons in Excel.

Therefore scripting would be too much!

[K.Daube]

«I do not know, what could be done (besides to accept all changes before copy).»

IMHO this is the only method to remove the hidden text.

BTW using conditions: Hidden text is also copied to the clipboard. The Track Editing function uses a special set of conditions,

If you have this demand more than once every semester - a script could help. Let me know your desire.

[Winfried Reng]

Thank you very much! Yes. That's what I did in the end: make a copy, accept all changes, delete hidden conditions with their text and then copy all.

Scripting would have been too much for this task!

[Barb Binder]

Hi Winfried:

I always ask my clients to Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking before delivering any Word docs destined for layout in FrameMaker. 

~Barb