Find option to return list of files and hits

[FieryPantone]

The FM book model seems obvious and comfortable, just like DITA maps … but while using a "mere" text editor, I've suddenly realised there's something I don't know how to do in either structured or unstructured FM. Imagine some keen-eyed editor tells you "your capitalisation of Aardvark isn't consistent!" I can point a text editor at the directory and run "search in files" to get a list of all files where Aardvark occurs plus a list of all occurrences per file. (sorry, no source files with aardvark …)

I can point my current DITA IDE at the files and get a list of all files where Aardvark occurs.

But with FM, all I can do at the moment is find where the first occurrence of Aardvark is in all the files referenced by the book.

Tell me I'm missing something!

[frameexpert]

You are correct, there is no Find All feature in FrameMaker, although it is a great idea.

[FieryPantone]

It's a strange omission, given the book model … no immediate intention of converting everything to .mif just so I can use grep or Notepad++, but is there somewhere I can log a feature request?

[Winfried Reng]

Hi FieryPantone,

Yes. You can make feature requests in the Adobe Tracker:

tracker.adobe.com/ 

I use the Advanced Search (CTRL+SHIFT+F) in Acrobat for Search All. But yes. I also think that FrameMaker should have this feature.

When you make a request in the Adobe Tracker, post the number here, so that others can vote for it.

Best regards

Winfried

[FieryPantone]

Thanks for the tip, Winfried … I like the underlying suggestion that any time we can't find a feature, this must be a bug 😕

"bug ID" (after filling in feature request) FRMAKER-8213.

[frameexpert]

You motivated me to write a script for this. It will be released soon.

http://frameautomation.com/finding-all-in-a-book-or-document/

[FieryPantone]

That looks promising! Thank-you; I look forward to trying it.

[FieryPantone]

Test script arrived, and after the first day it already feels as though I've always had access to this functionality: even more useful than I thought it might be. Thanks, Rick!