fm file keeps changing to mif

[garybeckwith]

I have a particular file, that is part of a book file.   it is an FM file and I am using FM2017.

every so often I notice that the icon for this file, when viewed in the book file, has an "M" instead of an "FM" like the others in the book.

I found a discussion on this forum from 2013 where someone suggested to save the file as Mif, then open it and save as FM.   this works, for a while, but then eventually the icon turns back to M.

does anyone know what could be causing the file to change from fm to mif all on its own, without the file extension even changing?

thanks

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

Hi Gary, is the different icon impacting your ability to use the file?

Other than the "usual"...apply all updates, and reset your preferences, you might want to copy/paste into a new Fm doc. It sounds like Fm is unsure about the file in question.

-Matt

[garybeckwith]

actually this is not just one file and it's not just me.   it's happening to others on my team, ever since we upgraded to FM2017.   It does impact other things too.

[Be.eM]

Gary,

it is possible to save a MIF file with an *.fm extension. This may happen inadvertently if you open a MIF file and when saving - in the save file dialog - you enter a name (or click on another file to use and edit that name) manually, but the choosen file type is still MIF. Make sure you really saved it with the correct file TYPE selected. The extension alone may be wrong.

Bernd

[garybeckwith]

thanks.... i am sure i have saved it correctly.   this happens to my workmates too.  i am guessing there is something in the file that makes it change back to a MIF.  even after we fix it back to FM, sometime later it changes back to MIF again.  (to clarify, i'm not talking about the file extension.   it is always a .fm file in question.    it is that the program thinks it is a MIF, and it changes the icon inside the book file to M, and it affects functionality of that file.

[Winfried Reng]

Hi Gary,

I had encountered the issue which Bernd described myself. This can easily happen.

Even if you are sure that you had saved as FM in FrameMaker before, I would try to open the file with a text editor. What are the first lines? Are there are differences compared to a file which does not show this behaviour?

When you and your colleagues encounter this issue regularly, I assume that there is either anything special with your FM installations or with your files.

In FM 2019 the M icon in the book file is only shown, when the file is a MIF file. It does not matter, if the extension is MIF or FM.

Did you test Matt's advice?

Best regards

Winfried

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

I saw that with Fm 2017, but haven't seen with Fm 2019.

[Bob_Niland]

Back in the olden days, FM didn't even have a filename extension convention (which was unsurprising, given its Unix roots, as Unix relied on "magic numbers" for file typing). Lacking any other guidance at the time, I still have a lot of FM3 files with .mkr extensions.

In the present conundrum, it might be interesting to open some of the files with Windows Notepad.

FM binary files (conventionally *.fm) should begin with
<MakerFile

MIF files (conventionally *.mif) should begin with
<MIFFile

[Klaus Göbel]

Make sure, that your FrameMaker is the newest version: 14.0.4.511

In earlier version has been a bug, that didn't change the extension automatically.