How can I rename a file (*.fm) in a book without breaking cross references?

[emilyhongqi]

Hello,

How can I rename a file (*.fm) in a book without breaking cross references?

Thanks!

[Barb Binder]

Rename the file in the FrameMaker book window (right click > Rename) and not in the explorer window.

~Barb 

[emilyhongqi]

Yes. I renamed the file in the FrameMaker book window. After the renaming, when I click on "Update Book", Book Error Report still shows a lot of  erroes of "unresolved cross-Reference to xxx.fm" . I have to manually click each links to fix the unsolved cross-references. Is there a way to accelerate this process?

Thank you!

[Bob_Niland]

emilyhongqi: After the renaming, … "unresolved cross-Reference …

Were all the component files of the Book open when you did the rename?
If so, this is not an expected result.

[Barb Binder]

Hmm. Certainly give that a try, Emily, but I just renamed two files via the book window with all the chapter files closed.  I received this message after each rename:

When I opened the renamed chapters, all x-refs were up to date. 

~Barb 

[emilyhongqi]

Hello Barb, 

I opened all files. When I renamed one file, it did show the message (as you showed above). However, framemaker didn't really update the cross reference. I still got errors of unresolved cross-Reference. 

BTW, I am using FrameMaker 12. Do you think it might be the issue? 

thank you,

Emily 

[Barb Binder]

I don't it's a Fm 12 issue. You could download the 30-day trial of 2020 to check.

https://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker/download-trial/try.html

Are you sure the cross-references are all working before you start renaming anything? You can use Edit > Find/Change > Find: Unresolved X-refs to check.

Or are any of the cross references to files outside of this book? You might want to look into that as well.

~Barb

[emilyhongqi]

Hello Barb, 

I tried Framemaker 2020. It works well for the renaming fm file in a book. Thank you!

I have another question: How can I split a large *.fm file to two *.fm files in a book without breaking cross reference? 

Thank you!

Emily 

[LinSims]

FM2020 has a utility to split a file into multiple files. 

File > Utilities > Split Current Document

I haven't used it, but I believe you choose which tag to split on and it does the rest of the work. 

[Winfried Reng]

I used the Split utitily, and it works very well! Very fast!

This is also described in the online help:

https://help.adobe.com/en_US/framemaker/using/index.html#t=using-framemaker%2Fuser-guide%2Ffrm_text_...

[Barb Binder]

Hi Emily:

I'm glad to hear that the renaming worked as expected.

I've never used the split document utility – I just save the file under a new name and add it to the book. Then in the first chapter I delete the second half of the content. And in the second chapter I delete the first half then update the book. If there are any unresolved cross references at that point, I use Edit > References to fix them. 

~Barb 

[emilyhongqi]

Hello Barb, 

I will try to manually split to two fm files as you suggested. 

BTW, I tried "Split current document", it created a mess. I think I give up. :).

Thank you,

Emily