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J
JLGTechPubs
Known Participant
November 4, 2011
Question

Issues converting a .mif to .fm file.

  • November 4, 2011
  • 4 replies
  • 12955 views

Greetings,

I have a dozen .mif (version 7) files that I am trying to save as/convert into .fm (version 10); however, when I try to do a save as FrameMaker gives me an error saying it can not save .mif files as document files.

Q. Is there anyway to get around this and convert the .mif files into .fm document files?

The reason I need FrameMaker document files is to update my TOC & Parts Index pages. When I try to update the book with the .mif files included FrameMaker gives me an error saying that it can not open the section file.

I can include the error log if needed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    4 replies

    SQUIDDS
    SQUIDDS
    Participating Frequently
    November 15, 2011

    Sorry for my delay: There are several modules, please download the package (www.finalyser.com 30 days is trial),
    install it and test  FM <> Mif for documents and for books, test booktransfer (fm<>mif) and then decide for one or more module.

    Note:
    FrameMaker 10 (and Finalyser) only save MIF10 or MIF7.0!

    - Georg

    J
    JLGTechPubsAuthor
    Known Participant
    November 14, 2011

    Thanks everyone for the suggestions; however, none of them worked. We ended up just updating every cross-reference in our book. Oh well, it is what it is.

    SQUIDDS
    SQUIDDS
    Participating Frequently
    November 8, 2011

    Hi,

    have you test the feature FM <> MIF (for FM files and books!)? This feature could correct Xrefs in FM and in MIF in FM and Books, whatever you save to.
    FM <> MIF is available for FrameMaker 7, 8, 9 (search Toolbox for FrameMaker) or for 10 (search for Finalyser).

    - Georg

    J
    JLGTechPubsAuthor
    Known Participant
    November 10, 2011

    Is it the plugin developed by SQUIDDS? Is there a version that does not cost $600 USD?

    I ask this because, this is a one time thing, we had a company help us with some stuff and they used FrameMaker 10, but we were only using FM7. However, we are now all on FM10 so there will be no issues in the future.

    Thanks.

    Bob_Niland
    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    November 4, 2011

    What's the filename extension on the MIF files?

    (if not .mif, change it to that)

    What filename extension are you specifying on

    the save as document format?

    (if not .book and .fm, override to that)

    J
    JLGTechPubsAuthor
    Known Participant
    November 4, 2011

    Thanks for the quick response.

    1. The individual sections have the extension of .mif; however, they were saved as .mif (version 7). I have tried saving them as .mif (version 10) and then trying to save them as a .fm file, but it still does not work.

    2. When I saved the whole book, I saved it as .book. The individual files within that book, I tried to save them as .fm (version 10). I even tried to just rename the files from .mif to .fm but that does not work either.

    Does my answer help any?

    Thank you.

    V
    Van Kurtz
    Inspiring
    November 7, 2011

    Van,

    that worked, I was able to just rename each .mif file to .fm file and it was able to update the book; however, every cross-reference is missing. Is there an easy way to fix this issue?


    that worked, I was able to just rename each .mif file to .fm file and it was able to update the book; however, every cross-reference is missing. Is there an easy way to fix this issue?

    I kind of guessing here, but I think you are trying to do too much too fast.

    From your original post, I am guessing you opened the files in FrameMaker 7, then saved each as a mif file, which you want to open in FrameMaker 10. From my looking at mif files, the cross-references retain their references to FM files.

    From the quoted post, you simply changed each file extension from .mif to .fm, THEN updated the book. I am not sure what all FrameMaker does when it updates a book. I know that it opens each file up several times, but I am not sure that it saves it after each open. Furthermore, FrameMaker may be treating each file as an FM file, even though it is really mif inside. This may be why it cannot resolve the cross-references. Simply changing the extension from mif to fm does not convert the file.

    So, after changing the extensions. open the book file, open ALL the files in the book (Shift + Open); the files are converted. Now SAVE all the files in the book; there is no need to do a save as on each file, because you have already changed the extension. Then update the book.

    When I convert a mif file to fm, I open the mif file, then SAVE it to fm, changing the extension in the process. I am assuming that you have confirmed that changing the extension then opening the file works. The point is you need to do this for each file and save it before updating the book.

    Hope this helps,

    Van

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