question about page layout

[pierret18811376]

Hello,

In Frame Maker for my FM document if I go in Format/page layout/columns, I have set a margin of 2 cm :

But, if I copy/paste the text of my FM document to Word, and if I go in the Word page layout, I have 2.54 cm as settings for the margins :

Why a margin of 2 cm in FM becomes a margin of 2.54 cm in Word ?

[frameexpert]

If you are using the clipboard to copy/paste text from one program to another, it won't have any affect on either program's page layout settings.

[pierret18811376]

In that case, how to export a FM document to Word by keeping the FM page layout ?

[frameexpert]

Try saving the FM file as RTF and then open it in Word. I am not sure how good the results will be, but it's worth a try.

[pierret18811376]

I have tried to save my FM document to RTF. Then, by opening the RTF file it opens Word where I see that the RTF file has kept the FM settings (page layout, spacing). Then I save this RTF file to a Word document, but that is strange is that this Word document has a file size of "0". 

It would be great if FM could export to Word directly by keeping the FM settings (like page layout, spacings, etc...).

[Winfried Reng]

Hi,

RTF is a widely used exchange format for Word files. There is nothing wrong with it.

When you saved your FrameMaker file as RTF, and when opened with Word the layout is kept, then this is great. That's what you wanted to achieve.

When you save the RTF file in Word to doc or docx, and the resulting file has 0 bytes, then in Word went something wrong.

Did you save as doc or docx? Can you test both? Can you restart your software and try again?

How big is your FrameMaker file? How many pages?

Best regards, Winfried

[pierret18811376]

Hi Winfried,

From the RTF file I saved it to Word document (docx), and that is strange is that if I move the mouse onto this Word file it indicates me 0 bytes, but if I right clicked on it and chosed "properties" it indicates me 25 kb. 

I have restarted Word, and also done again the same conversion from RTF to another Word file, but same problem : it indicated also 0 bytes for the other converted Word file.

But now, by converting the RTF file to Word doc, the converted doc files indicates 41 kb when I move my mouse on it, so the problem is solved in doc.

Why this problem by converting RTF to docx files ?

[Winfried Reng]

Could it be that the conversion from RTF to DOCX takes some seconds, and your file manager does not report this instantly?

What happens, when you double-click the DOCX file?

In any case you should be able to save from DOC to DOCX.

[pierret18811376]

Yesterday I had put all the Word files to the bin. And I don't know why, but today, by moving the Word files to the desktop, I see that the problem of file size has disappeared : for the docx file, instead of having 0 bytes (by moving the mouse on it), I have the real file size. Perhaps a little bug yesterday ?

[Winfried Reng]

Very good that this works now.

Possibly your file manager did not update the file size?

[FrameMaker-dk]

In my experience the best route from FM to Word while keeping the layout is to go through PDF. Save the FM file to PDF and export the PDF file to RTF/Word.  One should keep in mind, though that the FM and Word are quite different an transferring layout is usually messy.

[Winfried Reng]

In one of the last FrameMaker releases or updates it was said that the conversion to RTF was improved. Therefore I would test the export to RTF first.

[shalomb61686619]

The following relates to FM 2015. I don't know whether it is true for newer versions.

If I remember correctly, a limitation of saving FM as RTF is that it only works for an individual file, not for an entire book.