FM9/Win - Changing linked image file?

[Dan Harding]

I can do what I want to do in InDesign, QuarkXpress, and PageMaker, but for some reason this functionality appears to be absent in FrameMaker, which is utterly dain bramaged.

I have a placed image in multiple places in a FrameMaker document. The image is placed by reference, not embedded. I now want to link to a different graphic (annual updates).

Re-placing the image a zillion times is not an option, as the sizing and position is already set. I just want to change what FrameMaker is linking to.

For the life of me, I cannot find where or even if, I can do this.

The inelegant solution would be to simply move or rename the currently-linked-to file on the hard drive, and rename the new graphic to the same name as the old one. I do not like that option at all, as there are some instances in other documents that I still wish to link to the old image file.

Is FrameMaker's link handling really this clumsy and archaic? In the other applications I refer to above, I would either go to a links palette and change the destination or right-click on an image and relink it. In FrameMaker, the "Object Properties" dialog appears to only report the location of the referenced file, not allow you to change it.

What gives?

[Van Kurtz]

Dan,

To my knowledge, there is nothing in FrameMaker like there is in InDesign that allows you to relink an image directly, or even indirectly via a link list. I also have looked and not found anything. There is a link menu item somewhere but I have never figured out what it does.

There is a plugin by Bruce Foster that is used to archive a book or document and its linked image files and text insets. When you run it, the plugin COPIES the book file and ALL the files associated with it into another folder that you specify, and then readjusts all the links among these files to point to the copied files. It puts all graphics files into one subfolder and all text insets into another. So, once you get your book where you want it, with no future changes, run the archive, and then use the files and book in the archive folder to print or do whatever you need to do in the future.

The downside is that you have two sets of files to manage, but if the archived set is rarely or never edited or updated, then all is well.

[Mike Wickham]

Have you tried this in FM9?

1. Open the Insets pod. You can set it to list all insets, text insets only,

or graphics insets only. You can sort it by fllename or page number, etc.

2. Click in the list on the image you want to replace.

3. Click the Import New button.

4. A window pops up to let you choose a new file.

5. Click replace.

I haven't seen the links palettes in the other applications, but this sounds

like it would be basically the same to me.

Mike Wickham

[Russ Ward]

Dan,

The WS Utilities plugin can do this:

http://www.weststreetconsulting.com/WSC_Utils.htm

Disclaimer - This is my plugin and it is not free, but you can get a trial version with limited functionality.

Russ

[leandiroos]

Thank you this worked perfectly! Relinking the image from the Insets pod. I just used this to relink image in FrameMaker 2017