How can I convert all .fm files into .mif files at one go?

[SabineSI]

I need to translate a FM12 book that contains 32 chapters = 32 .fm files. Is there any possibility to save all 32 files as .mif files at one go?

And: why does FM12 not remember the last directory I used for saving?

Thx for your answers

Sabine

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Not that I know of without scripting

[Winfried Reng · Accepted solution]

Hi Sabine,

You can do this with Mif2Go. MIF is not listed as output format on the web-site,

but nevertheless MIF is one of the output options. And Mif2Go is free.

The link is:

Mif2Go converts FrameMaker files to HTML/XML, Help, and Word | mif2go.com

(I do not know why the URL is converted to a descriptive tex automatically; the same below.)

Or the i-frame translation pack (works only in combination with FrameScript):

itl – FrameScript Portal: Convert: FM to MIF / MIF to FM

You might also adapt ExtendScript samples which you can find somewhere, e.g.:

Sample Scripts/Utilities shipped with FrameMaker10 « TechComm Central by Adobe

Best regards

Winfried

[SabineSI]

Thank you very much for you answer, Winfried.

I'd almost thougt, that there would be no "simple" solution.
But I wonder, why Adobe doesn't offer such a feature. Or at least remembers the most recent directory

Best regards

Sabine

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Well, it is possible for it remember some paths – adding a OpenDirOnStart= line in your maker.ini can point the File Open command to a frequently used location.

[Bob_Niland]

> (I do not know why the URL is converted to a descriptive text automatically; the same below.)

It rather looks as if this forum's Jive is set up to both validate URLs (which is not surprising), and use any <title> tag content at the target as the displayed link text when you post a bare link, rather than apply a link to text you typed, as below. To avoid auto-<title>, type the text you wish to display for the link, then use the A8 icon above to apply a URL.

MIF2go, by the way, is now free.

There doesn't seem to be any way to avoid the little overlapped boxes with arrow icon (⎆) that's added.

[SabineSI]

Jeff - thank you sooo much! That's at least a small relief 😉

[Arnis Gubins]

Sabine,

Additional approaches to creating the MIF files all in one go would be:

1. Use the RoboMIF utility from Adobe, still available at: http://download.macromedia.com/pub/robohelp/files/downloads/htmlhelp/robomif.zip

2. Use Datazone's DZbatcher to create a command file that saves the files or book to MIF. Available from: http://miramo.com/english/overview/download.html

3. Use the BookMIFWash tool supplied with FM (mentioned by Winfried).

4. Use the FM Publish routines. Create any format output using whatever defaults. Then immediately look in the system TEMP Folder within the TPUBTMP subfolder. All of the FM files have been converted to MIFs and can be copied from there. Note: any further operations or saves in FM will clean-up the TPUBTMP folder and remove the intermediate working files (including the MIFs).

[FieryPantone]

I like option 4! since it just repurposes commands/options already available out of the box. I wouldn't mind trying MIFWash or RoboMIF, but in both cases I find myself looking blankly at a new .dll file with no idea at all, what ever, of where to put it …

C:\Users\a548040\AppData\Local\Temp

[ArcRaj]

Is there any free tools available to convert FM files into InDesign files?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Nope – there’s no direct path from FM to ID

[ArcRaj]

Thanks, any free tools available to convert MIF to ID?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Probably better asked over on the ID forum..

[Arnis Gubins]

The only tool out there is DTP Tools MIF Filter for InDesign. See: DTP Tools - MIF Filter for Adobe InDesign