Stange behaviour when converting text insets

[MarcusBaake]

Specs: FM 8.0p277 on Windows XP SP2.

I'm encountering a strange error when converting all text insets in a document. The text insets are moved to a different location in the container document. The document structure is like this:

-----container doc start------
--
-- Some text sections
--
-- Inset 1
--
-- Some text sections
--
-- Inset 2
--
-- Some text sections
--
-- Inset 3
--
-----container doc end-----

After selecting "convert all" all three insets are moved to the anchor position of the first inset (after the first text section).

-----container doc start------
--
-- Some text sections
--
-- Inset 1
--
-- Inset 2
--
-- Inset 3
--
-- Some text sections
--
-- Some text sections
--
-----container doc end-----

I've used FrameMaker 8 for some time now, but I never observed something like this before. Is there something wrong with my documents, or is this a bug?

Marcus Baake

[Art Campbell]

What happens when you walk through the doc and convert them one by one?

[MarcusBaake]

In that case they stay at the correct position. But unfortunately this is no option, because I want to use Stefan Petrucha's good old convTI Python script to convert all TIs ín a batch before creating a PDF (so all XRefs are working in the PDF).

I also created some test documents where I inserted three new text insets, each with some standard text paragraphs before and after them, and tried with these test documents. The results are completely random, the text insets' text is inserted at arbitrary positions...

I'm totally out of ideas. Is something wrong with my FrameMaker installation? I've worked with large numbers of text inserts for ten years now, and I've never experienced something like this... I would try reinstalling FM, but I don't have the CD at hand. Is it possible to check some configuration settings that could produce this strange behaviour (maker.ini, etc.)?

[MarcusBaake]

Hmm, I just fiddled with the TIs' settings and swithced them from "Retain Source's Formatting" to "Reformat Using Current Document's Catalog", and with that setting the reordering of the TIs does not occur...

Seems to be some kind of bug of the "Retain Source's Formatting" setting. Can anybody reproduce this?

[Guest]

I just did a simple test and I see the reordering of insets that are marked as "retain source's formatting", yes.

In a series of 3 insets: the first inset was marked to keep the source format and it stayed where it was, the second one was marked to retain source and it moved up below the first inset, and the third inset was set to "reformat using current" and it stayed where it was.

Nasty, nasty.

For the short term this sounds like something that could be solved by having an API or FrameScript move through the file converting each inset one by one, but then if you do have links that need to be re-worked that would be a big pain.