FrameMaker 8 (Unstructured) - How to Find/Change "Referenced File" location globally?

[_James_L_McKay_]

Hello,

First off, I have a FrameMaker 8 (Unstructured) book that links ALL of its graphics, to a separate graphics folder on my network drive.

With that said, I am hoping to do the following:

1. Create a mirror copy of "Book A" and place that copy in another folder, (at the same level) on my network drive.

2. Open up the new book file (e.g. Book B).

3. Run a Find/Change to replace:

..\..\..\Graphics Catalog A\Graphics\a000123.png

..\..\..\Graphics Catalog B\Graphics\b000123.png

The end result is that I could globally map out all the "Referenced Files" to the new folder path structure. This will allow me to save from having to manually re-import each of the 1000 graphics - into my book files.

Finally, I am hoping to do this with the built in capabilities of FrameMaker 8 first. If that is not possible, then I will consider other possibilities.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Regards,

Jim

[_James_L_McKay_]

Hello again,

That should be "Book A" and "Book B" in the posting above - not a smiley face.

Thanks,

-J

[_Thomas_Michanek_]

This is how you do it:

Outside of FM, copy the "Book A" folder and paste it where you want.
Also, create the Graphics folder and file structure (i.e.
"... Graphics Catalog B\Graphics ...")
Before you open Book B in FM, temporarily rename the graphics
folder that the FM files in Book A uses, e.g. "Graphics Catalog Z".

Now, when you open the files in Book B, FM won't be able to find
the old graphics since the folder name has changed. For each file,
FM will open the "Missing graphics" dialog, where you need to
browse to the new graphics folder, e.g. "Graphics Catalog B\Graphics".
Select the correct file that FM asks for, and tick the option to
use this folder for all remaining graphics.

If all the image file names are identical, you will only need to
do this once per FM file. If you really need the image file names
to differ like you said:
> ..\..\..\Graphics Catalog A\Graphics\a000123.png
> ..\..\..\Graphics Catalog B\Graphics\b000123.png
then you need to select the correct file name for *each* graphics
that FM cannot find. This is a good reason to keep the file names
identical, even though the folder name has changed.

When all the files have opened, rename the original graphics folder
back to "Graphics Catalog A".

--
/Thomas Michanek

[Russ Ward]

Would it be possible just to do a text search and replace using MIF versions? That would be lots faster than manually relinking 1000 graphics.

[_Dana_Ford_]

Thomas' method above is much faster. I do it all the time.