Delete Master Pages

[ericCessna]

I have inherated books with many files. Each has many Master pages that I don't need or want. Is there anyway to delet them all at one time? Or, do I need to go into each fiel and delect them one at a time?

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

I couldn't figure out an easy way to do that last week, so used the Alt O D D shortcut to delete one at a time. However, leaving them in there isn't a horrible thing if they don't contain graphics copied into the doc.

[LinSims]

You can use Rick Quatro's Find/Change Formats Batch plugin. If you focus on the Book file, you can create a catalog of every format in the book, including the master pages. If you know that there are some master pages that aren't duplicated in all the files, create catalogs for several of the books.

You can then either combine all the tables then delete everything that has an MP in the first column, or go to the individual catalogs, delete all the rows that don't have an MP in the first column, then combine the remaining rows into one table. 

Your choice after that is to rename the master pages you don't want to one you do and stick a Y in the last column, or just stick a Y in the last column of the master pages you don't want. That Y tells the plugin you want this format deleted from the file. The plugin will NOT remove master pages that are in use.

Save the file and run the Find/Change Formats Batch on each book (sorry, can't do multiple books at once unless you start adding multiple books into one book and that could get messy if you add enough books), and you should have nothing left but the master pages you want. If there still are some, add them to the catalog document and rerun the plugin.

[frameexpert]

Thank you Lin for the love. I also have a DeleteFormats script that may be simpler to use for this. Here is a screenshot:

It is at my store at http://www.rickquatro.com

[Barb Binder]

Where has this been all my life, Rick? 

~Barb

[Bob_Niland]

… and make sure each .fm file is in two-sided mode, or you won't be able to see all the MPs.

[ericCessna]

Unforunatly none of these outside scripts will work for me. Since this is a company computer and is lock so I can't add anything to it. I must use programs that are in FM. 

I guess I will just need to delete, delete, delete.

[LinSims]

Can you talk to your IT department and ask for an exception? Explain to them it will save you X manhours of work because of the number of files involved.

Better yet, ask your manager to get an exception for you and have the company buy one of the scripts mentioned in this thread. That way IT can check it out and install it themselves, and I'm sure your manager would rather get you an exception than have to see you spend several days deleting master pages from all those files! That's a big waste of the time he's paying for.

[ericCessna]

It’s obvious you have never met either one. Plus, I would need to contact Japan to get an exception.

I appreciate the though but I’m stuck with this situation.

[LinSims]

Sorry to hear that. That's pretty unreasonable of them.

[frameexpert]

I am not sure this is a valid concern. ExtendScript is built into FrameMaker and scripts get installed in the User area, which is normally user writeable. So technically, ExtendScript scripts for FrameMaker ARE part of the FrameMaker program, even though they can be from a third-party.

[ericCessna]

I don't have any idea on how to do that type of thing. For the amount of work I do on FM i'm not sure it would be worth it. Most of my time is technical training design. I use FM only because our tech manuals was written in it and I can extract information easy.

I do appreciate all the input form the community.