List of Variables?

Report · Oct 21, 2009

We are working on a book with over 100 variables. Is there any way to print a list of the variable names and their definitions to easily proof without having to look at the little edit definition box?

Report · Oct 21, 2009

Unfortunately the versions of FM prior to v.9 don't have any other facility for looking at the variables (in FM9 you can see a larger portion of the list in the Variables pod).

The fastest way to see the variables list is to save the FM file as MIF and extract the <Variables catalog section using a text editor. This looks something like this:

<VariableFormats

<VariableFormat
<VariableName tagstring> Name of variable
<VariableDef string> Variable definition
> End of VariableFormat statement
<VariableFormat…> Additional statements as needed
…
>

For future reference one technique that can be effective is to create a Variables template file, where you have only a 2-col table with the varaible name and its defintion. Then use this file to import *only* the variables across all files of your book.

Report · Oct 21, 2009

Sort of, as a workaround thing, if you save the file as MIF, you can then use the freebie MIFBrowse tool to look at the mif and find the Variables catalog called "VariableFormats" MIFBrowse is here:

http://www.grahamwideman.com/gw/tech/framemaker/mifbrowse.htm

Even though the website doesn't mention later versions, it does work ok with FM9 (it may just ignore FM9 specific features, I don't know, but the basics of the FM file are easily viewed in MIFBrowser.

Unfortunately there's no way to actually save or print out this information via MIFBrowse, but you can select the content in the right pane and then paste into a text editor or spreadsheet.

Alternatively, using MIFBrowse to determine the start/end MIF tags of the catalog, it would be possible to run a script to extract just that section of content into a text file or spreadsheet.

And, finally, there may be several third-party tools that could help in viewing Variables; check out the FM tools list at

http://www.leximation.com

Report · Oct 21, 2009

You want the EZVars plug in from ElectroPubs -- it'll do a list and includes a lot of other useful tools.
http://www.electropubs.com/downloads.htm

Report · Oct 21, 2009

Thank you all for the very helpful responses. I ended up using Leximation BookVars plug-in and it worked great and very easy. Thanks again.