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pdeitel
Known Participant
January 7, 2020
Question

Replacement for IXGEN Plugin?

  • January 7, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 952 views

Hi All,

 

I was a long time IXGEN user. Unfortunately, they've retired and it does not work with FrameMaker 2019. 

 

Has anyone found a good replacement tool for bulk processing of index entries? 

 

One of the things I loved about IXGEN was the ability to generate a table of all the book's index entries, then fix them across an entire book. For example, if I had lots of similar entries that were singular, plural or maybe had slight wording differences, I could quickly make them all the same and apply the changes bookwide. 

 

Any pointers would be sincerely appreciated?

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2 replies

LinSims
Community Expert
LinSimsCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 7, 2020

It works with FrameMaker 2019, but you have to use the 32-bit version of FrameMaker instead of the 64-bit version. Or so Frank told me when I inquired about some of its capabilities back in September. He also said there are 5 DLLs that you will need that Adobe has deleted, so he provides links for them, too.

 

(Edited for clarification and additional information.)

    P
    pdeitelAuthor
    Known Participant
    January 7, 2020

    Hmmm. Where did you find the DLLs from Frank?

    LinSims
    Community Expert
    LinSimsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 7, 2020

    I was about to look at Index Tools Pro. How do you like it?


    I like it, but as I said, it's functionality is limited.

     

    What essentially happens is that you enter the index text using a special paragraph tag and condition tag. ITP then converts that text into Frame markers and generates the index.

     

    Having the index terms included as text in the document lets you do search and replace on the text without having to open each marker individually. However, you have to manually enter the index terms everywhere they're needed, and there is only limited support for conditioned text. That was actually why I had contacted him, as I wanted to know how well or even if Ixgen handled conditioned text.

    frameexpert
    Community Expert
    frameexpertCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 7, 2020

    I moved all of my plugins to ExtendScript a few years back because of having to recompile for new FrameMaker versions, etc. I could look at providing you the functionality in ExtendScript if you give me some firm specs. If you are interested, please contact me offlist. Thanks. rick at frameexpert dot com.

    www.frameexpert.com
    frameexpert
    Community Expert
    frameexpertCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 7, 2020

    If you look at my CrossrefReporter script, you will see that I do something similar with cross-references. In this case, it is just a report, but it could be modified to work with markers and allow updates to FrameMaker.

    http://www.frameexpert.com/store/

    www.frameexpert.com
    P
    pdeitelAuthor
    Known Participant
    January 7, 2020

    Hi Rick, Good to hear from you. I am not prepared to get into custom development--at least not yet. But I will keep this in mind for the future. 

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