Preserving Figure and Table cross references from Word to FrameMaker

Report · May 09, 2008

Hello,

I am trying to preserve my figure and table cross references when I import my Word 2003 document into (Unstructured) FrameMaker 8.

When I open the word document in FrameMaker 8, everything works great except that my figure and cross references are not seen. These references typically sit in the paragraph text style I use in MS Word, but after converting to FrameMaker, they are no long there.

Is there a way to adjust FrameMaker's import filter, so that it will pull in these cross references?

My word documents use a Fig_Title and Table_Title style for the typical figure titles and table titles.

The MS Word code for my figure and table cross references looks something like:

{SEQ Figure \* ARABIC }
{REF Fig_* \} thru {REF Fig_* \}
{REF Fig_* \h}

{REF Tab_* \} thru {REF Tab_* \}
{SEQ Table \* ARABIC }
{REF_Tab* \h }

These cross references do not use an asterix, I just put the asterix there instead of typing out the figure or table name. But everything else is as it would appear in the field codes in MS Word 2003.

What I would like to do is to preserve these entries when I open the word document (.doc and not .rtf) up in FrameMaker 8. As I mentioned before, everything else is working good. I just need to have this data carry over into FrameMaker and not blend in with the paragraph style as "See Figure... or See Table..." where the actual Table or Figure number is missing. I have all seen it where the word Figure or Table is missing and I have just the number there in FrameMaker and that is not clickable at all.

If anyone has any suggestions on this process, I would appreciate the feedback. I am sure I am not the only one that has processed legacy word conversions and had to resolve cross references that did not import as expected. I am dealing with thousands of cross references, so it would be very helpful, if I could find a way to have the FrameMaker import filters accept these cross references that are coming in from MS Word.

Would I have to add in some new entries somewhere, like the .ini file or have a FrameMaker template open with a handler for these cross reference types on the template's Reference page?

Thanks in advance for any solution.

One last thing (in respect of third party products and consultants), I am to do this on my own and for free. So if anyone has a link that I can check out or a forum posting somewhere, that I missed, please let me know.

Thanks again,

Jim

On another note, my Table Titles in word are above the table and in FrameMaker, they are part of the table, to make use of the Table Title continued variable. Is there an easy way to bring the Table Title automatically into to the designated table field (in FM)? Perhaps I need to run a Macro in MS Word first to move my table titles to the table title field first and then open the document in FrameMaker. Well, first things first - the cross reference issue...

Report · May 14, 2008

Re: second issue about table titles, Rick Quatro has a script that will clean up a lot of Word table to FM table issues, unfortunately though it's not a freebie: http://www.frameexpert.com

Bad news about the cross-refs, I don't believe there's a way to retain them, the filters just can't handle them.

Report · May 14, 2008

Hello Sheila,

Thanks for your response. It is appreciated.

I have also posted on the Yahoo FrameScript user group, but have
not received any reply since posting on that site.

As far as the MS Word (legacy) cross references are concerned, they are seen in FrameMaker 8, but only as: "_Ref121215274" references, when I run a find and search on "Unresolved Cross-References".

It would be great if I could find a way to convert the cross references (via a FrameScript) as such:

From: {SEQ Figure \Blah blah ARABIC } To: Figure_Title Blah blah
From: {SEQ Table \Blah blah ARABIC } To: Table_Title Blah blah

I am sure that I am not the only one that has had to deal with legacy conversions (MS Word 2003 to FrameMaker).

Surely there has to be a way to bring in all the cross references without having to manually reapply every cross reference by hand - especially when there are thousands of cross references.

Thanks again for your response.

Jim

Report · May 15, 2008

Jim,

Check your cross-ref styles in FM. The Word {REF} styles should be coming in as something named Imported Format ParaText or some such name. Adjust the formatting for this to show what you need. I'm not sure about the {SEQ} fields though.

Report · May 16, 2008

Hello Arnis and all,

I have found the solution for all of my cross references. All you have to do, is save the (MS Word 2003) .Doc file as an .RTF file. FrameMaker 8 has an issue recognizing the figure and table cross references that are coming from the .DOC file format. But, for some reason it works great with the .RTF format. I hope Adobe can correct the coding to allow the .DOC format to bring in all the cross references, the same way the .RTF file does.

Originally, I was experimenting with using the .RTF format, but was focused on a problem I had with my MS Word 2003 graphics (linked to file) that were not coming into FrameMaker 8. So at the time, I decided to go back to my native format (.Doc).

In the end, I found that MS Word had inserted a "%20" (percentage 20) code wherever it saw a space in a graphic filename. And, that is what was causing FrameMaker to take issue with (linked) MS Word graphics.

So, I found a MACRO that will point to a folder and remove the "%20" from hundreds of Word documents (.DOC or .RTF) automatically. That Macro can be found at: http://www.wopr.com (in Woody's lounge under Word and search on INCLUDEPICTURE). I highly recommend WOPR to anyone that needs to set up a MS Word document in a certain way, before bringing it into Adobe FrameMaker. WOPR is free to join and they usually respond to your post within a few hours (if not sooner).

Anyway, after my graphic problem was fixed I never went back and resaved my .DOC files as .RTF files to test out how FrameMaker handles figure and table cross references with that format. At least I found out before having to manually rework thousands of cross references in FrameMaker. :-)

In the future, I hope the FrameMaker .DOC code can be modified to import those figure and table cross references, like the .RTF code does in FrameMaker.

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

Regards,

Jim

Report · May 16, 2008

Jim,

Thanks for the feedback and tie in to the Word macros. Hopefully the powers that be will take note of these deficiencies with the import filters.