Exporting Frame files to Word and reimporting them.

[JayHBar]

Hi,

My department has a process that admittedly is convoluted--I'm working on that but have little control over it.

The situation I must live with at present is that I need to produce final documents in FrameMaker. However, during the original authoring/reviewing/updating stages, the documents must be in Word so the technical people can rewrite and comment in Word. So, I need to be able to export Frame files to RTF, myself or someone else needs to work on them in Word a while, and then I need to reimport the RTFs to Frame.

Smaller documents seem to Save As RTF quite nicely, with styles correctly applied and graphics decent. Anything larger than about 15 pages crashes Frame, however. The only way I can get the document into Word then is to Save As PDF, and then export the PDF to Word. The resulting document is very messy and requires a lot of cleanup, and the reimport to Frame isn't very clean. I can foresee that the situation is only going to get worse as I go through a few cycles of this for version releases.

I saw mention of MIF2Go in another forum, but I also saw a note not to use it if the RTF is ever to be reimported to Frame.

Can anyone help me figure out a method to get larger files into Word cleanly, and then still be able to import those files back into Frame?

Thanks!

[Guest]

I just tried roundtripping a small document from Frame to RTF using Mif2Go, and then from RTF to Frame using Frame's import filter.

Mif2Go did an excellent job converting to RTF.

Frame imported the RTF back to a useable document, but it didn't look very much like the original. You'd have some work cleaning it up.  I suspect the problem lies with Frame's RTF import -- not the RTF output from Mif2Go.

[JayHBar]

Thanks, AJ, I will test Mif2Go.

However, it is a bit irritating to have to consider purchasing another software at $295 a license to do what FrameMaker implicitly promises to do by having the option to Save As RTF.

Does anyone have any input on how to get Frame to work for larger files? or should I put the request to make that feature actually work into some other site?

What about Frame 11? Does it do a better job of saving to RTF than v10?

Thanks,

Jay

[Arnis Gubins]

Jay,

FWIW, FM11's RTF export filter has been updated and does a reasonable job of getting most text content out. However, many graphics and page layout features are conspicuously absent. This would severly impact any round-tripping, Many items in FM's internal data structure model do not correspond to Word's, so these don't go across. Mif2go does a much better job of bridging the gaps with workarounds to provide a better page layout match. However, because these are workarounds, this also would impact round-tripping.

Many of the differences between the models were listed starting on p.14 of the old FM7.2 Filters.pdf document.

(still availble here:  http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FrameMaker/8.0/filters_help.pdf )

[Van Kurtz]

Jay,

In my opinion, I would never allow the subject matter experts to edit files directly. They always find a way to screw things up.

Given the problems with roundtripping with Word. I would author in FrameMaker. Create a PDF and let the SMEs add their comments in the PDF file. You can then transcribe them into the Frame documents. The SMEs may not like it, but it makes YOUR life a lot easier.

Van

[JayHBar]

Believe me, Van, I'm in full agreement with you on every point. I'm having to live with a process I have no control over, though, so I'll just have to make the best of it.

[Michael314]

Van,

I agree with you. Non-technical writers don't pay attention to formatting, flow, consistency, or other issues. I work in Frame and save material as a PDF file when I need to send it to someone. If they want to work in Word, I explain that they can convert the pdf to Word and deal with that mess.

You sould suggest to your manager that it will be cheaper in the long run to buy Adobe Acrobat for the people who need to edit your material compared to forcing you to waste time exporting files from Frame to Word, cleaning them up, and then importing them back to Frame and cleaning them up again.

The other aspect is that you should have milestones like First Draft, Second Draft (optional), and Final Draft before which time people must learn to contribute content. Hopefully most information arrives before you finish the first draft; then you should send out a PDF file for review and people can edit the PDF file or e-mail you more lengthy content and just tell you where to insert it.

Since you are the technical writer, you need to exert your expertise and move people away from this laborious process they put you in.

Yours,

Michael F

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[JayHBar]

Michael,

All good stuff, which I thoroughly agree with after a B.S. in tech communication and 22 years of experience in multiple companies. I've also learned to view changing mindsets and processes as a war, not a battle, requiring time and multiple encounters with multiple people to win.

So, as the newest contractor in the group, on the very bottom of the company ladder, there are times to argue and times to just get the job as defined by someone else done (and thus keep my job and give myself time to win the war). In other words, I can grouse all I like right now, but I still have to convert Frame to Word as cleanly and efficiently as possible.

Thanks to all of you who pointed me in the direction of Mif2Go. I am checking it out.

Regards,

jh-