Converting Character Styles

In my FrameMaker files, I have several graphics that contain callouts, and I have assigned a Character Style to the callouts. When I created RoboHelp files from the FrameMaker files, the callouts are visible in the graphics but they did not retain the Character Style I created in FM (the callouts appear as plain text in RH). I can edit the Character Style in the RH style sheet, but the appearance of the callouts do not change. I also noticed that in RH, the callouts appear to be embedded in the graphic and therefore I am unable to select them as text. Is there a setting I need to apply when I link the FM files to RH so the callouts are not embedded in the graphics, so that I can apply a character style?

I have moved this post to the correct forum. The original link will still work.
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
@petergrainge

Similar Messages

Converting local character styles (overrides) to proper styles

Hi all,
I've been handed a document that has no styles defined at all. All styling is done the local character styles ("overrides").
This tutorial http://www.lynda.com/InDesign-tutorials/160-Convert-local-formatting-character-styles/8532 4/192449-4.html shows how to do a preflight, that detects all of the overrides, which is great, but you still have to manually fix them.
The fastest way I've found so far is to do a search for a particular font-size/font-type, and then apply a proper character style to each match, until the overrides are all gone. But maybe there's a faster way? E.g. is it possible to "select all matching text" (as you can do in Google Docs), that would select all text matching that font-size/type, and then with one click apply a style to all selected text?
Or maybe there's another way to convert all text matching e.g. font-size/font-type into a character style?
Thanks!
Bjoern

The auto-char styles script tries to be semi-intelligent: It ignores the underlying paragraph style completely. Instead, for each paragraph, it checks which is the longest continuous run of formatting in that paragraph (textStyleRange). That formatting is considered the "underlying formatting of the paragraph", and any other formatting in that paragraph is considered an override, and has an appropriate character created (if necessary) and applied to it.
The only exception to that is "italics", which is always considered an override, even there is more italics than regular in the paragraph (something that can happen in a bibliography entry, for instance).
So, for instance, with the formatting you give as an example ("No style, + Arial Bold + size: 24 + Leading 28"), where everything but the final paragraph return has that applied, Auto-Char Styles will not apply a character style to most of the text, and apply an appropriate char style to the final enter only.
That way, "all" that remains is to go through the document creating and applying paragraph styles as necessary, knowing that all local overrides have been styled with an appropriate char style.

Script to Convert Attributes to Character Styles

I'm trying to expand on Peter Kahrel's PerfectPrepText.jsx (which uses Jongware's preptext.jsx) to convert italic, bold, bold italic, superscript, subscript, and underscore to character styles prior to exporting files for EPub. It works perfectly with fonts whose variations actually ARE "italic", "bold", and "bold italic", but I can't figure out what to insert to have it also recognize fonts that use "oblique" instead of "italic" as well as fonts that have numbered variations (55 Roman, 56 Italic, etc.).
Any ideas?

Does this help:
http://www.id-extras.com/products/auto-character-styles
There is a demo for download.

URGENT: Paragraph/Character style help (doing massive amounts manually)

I'm using CS3 at work but if it's magically easier, i may have access to cs4 (less likely but possible). It's a long post but I wanted to be in depth with my problem which at its core is simple. I have included a 2-page spread example in pdf.
What I greatly need help with is your opinion of how I can set this up to speed up the process, unify the document, and make future edits simple instead of crazy difficult. Can I configure a paragraph style to NOT replace font style? Can that style include my preset tabs (for bullets) which list as follows?:
number, small letter, roman numeral, bullet
Let me start by saying I SCOUR the net and all available options before posting. I'm cleaning up/editing a production manual for a portrait company I work for and am new to indesign but have figured many things out. I'm quite proficient with the Adobe Suite and computers. I'm using last year's indesign file and it was done very poorly. The words are right, the lines are right, the tabs are terrible and i've needed to move many pages out of order and add plenty. I also chose to disable 1 text box that flows from page to page (i see now it's helpful but they had made it impossible for me to use the existing one and I didn't have time to redo). The pictures I can add and manipulate freely but an embedded text-wrapped version would be nice as well (less important by far).
The manual is spiral bound with text on the right page and a notes page on the left for the layout. (flipped open the left side is lines for notes and the right side is operations). It's set up with a Header at the top (in some cases a sub header almost identical right below it), a space or two, then an outline format IE:
1)     Open job
          a) Go into G:\Location
          b) Select job code
               i) *Note: Be sure to select the right one (etc)..
2)      Continue
                                   |                                                    |
                                   |                                                    |
                                   |                    Picture                      |
                                   |                                                    |
                                   |______________________________|
Page size is 8.5x11 with a .5 safe print border all around (document is 11x17). The Document is about 100 pages of written directions (so double that for indesign pages). It will be printed on a Xerox IGen3. The whole book give or take is set up like that. Thus, a few paragraph and character styles are in order. I've been editing/cleaning up each page re-tabbing, re-laying out. It's hell and must be done in 2 days.
I'm using Myriad Pro universally as the font. The sizes are as follows:
Header: 16 bold center
Sub (if applicable): 15 bold center
Body: 12 point
I've gotten paragraph styles to work sort of. I tried setting up numbering and bulleting but it's been giving me so much grief that I typed those all by hand or have just adjusted existing ones (I don't have much time currently, BUT need to learn for future updates and to convert it to styles). I know styles are the way to go with a couple master pages involving bulleting and character styles... however I could not become an expert overnight unfortunately; i tried =)
The real killer for paragraph styles have been:
- The portions of the directions that pertain to specific menu options or clicks are in bold, occasional important info is red. Normal text including numbers/bullets are normal. There are many words repeated that need bold so perhaps some kind of search/replace script could help however im not positive.
- When I go to apply a paragraph style it must make all type bold or not bold. It doesn't replace the color of the text which is good.
- Having major trouble with bullets/numbers working the way i'd like.

It is unfortunate you only have two days, but you could play around with these suggestions below and see if they help more than they hender... (NOTE: SAVE A COPY OF THE DOCUMENT BEFORE YOU START MONKEYING AROUND IN CASE YOU HATE THE RESULTS!)
For starters, you could certainly do the lists via stylesheet. It would require 3 lists based on your sample. Base list 2 and 3 on list 1 or all 3 on a default List paragraph style, so that you can globally control your list formatting without having to change all 3 each time you want to apply a tweak.
List 1 would be leve 1, 1,2,3 style with indents like 3p, -1.5, 3p. Align right and don't restart numbers. If you want bold numbers, make a bold character style called List# and apply it.
List 2 would be level 2, a,b,c style with indents like 4p, -1p, 4p. Restart on level change.
List 3 would be level 3, i,ii,iii style with indents like 6.5p, -1.5p, 6.5p. Restart on level change.
Tweak as necessary to match your actual text.
Then just do a global GREP search and replace, replacing out the manual list numbers with real styles.
List 1 replace ^\t[0-9]+\t with ~- (discretionary hyphen is a nice invisible character that won't break anything) and paragraph style of list1.
List 2 replace ^\t\t[a-z].\t with ~- and paragraph style list2.
List 3 replace ^\t\t\t[ivx].\t with ~- and paragraph style list3.
The last step of list replacement would be to manually restart numbering for each new list.
As for the keywords, unless you have a complete list of what will be bold and it will always be bold, just manually style them with character styles.
Make a character style called "Keyword" and apply bold to the formatting.
Make a character style called "Keyword Important" and apply bold and red formatting.
If you know certain words are always, always the same and you have CS4, you could create a GREP style that applied Keyword character style to any words that matched.
For example, if the keywords Left, Right, Top, Bottom always were bolded at the beginning of the paragraph, you could add the GREP style that applied Keyword to ^(Top|Bottom|Left|Right).
In all likelihood you will be applying a lot of manual keywords too though, so make sure you put a keyboard shortcut on (like cmd-opt-1, 2, etc) on the Keyword and Keyword Important character styles. That way you can just fire through selecting text and whacking cmd-opt-1 where appropriate.

Create XML Element Tag BasedOn Found Character Style

Hi,
Good Day!
Basically I want to search only for character styles that contains "ntb-", that is why it is hard coded in my searchString variable.
Although I was able to create XML tag based on selected character style, but it will always add/insert at the end of the parent XML element.
Can anyone could help me how insert/add that element at the insertion point where the text is found?
Thanks,
--elmer
var myDoc = app.documents[0];
myDoc.viewPreferences.horizontalMeasurementUnits = MeasurementUnits.POINTS;
myDoc.viewPreferences.verticalMeasurementUnits = MeasurementUnits.POINTS;
var charStyles = myDoc.allCharacterStyles;
var foundStyles = Array();
var searchString = String();
    searchString = 'ntb-';
var tempName = String();
var tempName1 = String();
for(var i = 1; charStyles.length > i; i++){
   tempName = charStyles[i].name;
   tempName1 = tempName.toLowerCase();
   if(tempName1.indexOf (searchString.toLowerCase()) != -1){
       foundStyles.push (tempName);
var myDialog = app.dialogs.add({name: "Convert Footnote Character Styles to XML Tags",canCancel:true});
with (myDialog) {
    with (dialogColumns.add().borderPanels.add()) {
        with (dialogColumns.add()) {
            staticTexts.add({staticLabel: "Character style to search : "});        }
        with (dialogColumns.add()) {
            selCharStyle = dropdowns.add({stringList: foundStyles, selectedIndex: 0, minWidth: 175});
var dialogShown = myDialog.show();
while (dialogShown) {
    if (selCharStyle.selectedIndex == 0) {
        alert("Must have at least a character style to search!");
        dialogShown = myDialog.show();
        continue;
    } else {
        insertXMLTags(selCharStyle.stringList[selCharStyle.selectedIndex], selCharStyle.selectedIndex, "0");
        break;
myDialog.destroy();
alert("Finished!");
exit();
function insertXMLTags(cStyle, cStyleIndex, ip) {
    var myFinds = searchStyle(cStyle, cStyleIndex);
    for (i=myFinds.length - 1; i>=0; i--) {
        var myIP = myFinds[i].texts.item(0).insertionPoints.item(0);
        var myParentXML = myIP.associatedXMLElements[0];
        var myChiidXML = myParentXML.xmlElements.add ( cStyle );
        myChiidXML.contents = myFinds[i].contents;
        //set the selection
        app.selection = myFinds[i].texts.item(0);
        //remove the selected text
        myFinds[i].texts.item(0).remove();
        Utility Functions
function searchStyle(cStyle, cStyleIndex){
    var myFinds;
    // if script version is for Indesign CS2
    if (app.scriptPreferences.version < 5){
        app.findPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
        app.changePreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
        myFinds = myDoc.search(undefined, undefined, undefined, undefined,
        {appliedParagraphStyle: pStyle, appliedCharacterStyle: cStyle});
    // else, for CS3 and CS4
    }else{
        //Clear any existing find/change settings
        app.findTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
        app.changeTextPreferences = NothingEnum.nothing;
        // set character or paragraph style to search
        if (cStyleIndex != 0){
            app.findTextPreferences.appliedCharacterStyle = cStyle;
        //Set the find options.
        app.findChangeTextOptions.caseSensitive = false;
        app.findChangeTextOptions.includeFootnotes = true;
        app.findChangeTextOptions.includeHiddenLayers = false;
        app.findChangeTextOptions.includeLockedLayersForFind = false;
        app.findChangeTextOptions.includeLockedStoriesForFind = false;
        app.findChangeTextOptions.includeMasterPages = false;
        app.findChangeTextOptions.wholeWord = false;
        myFinds = myDoc.findText();
    return myFinds;

Here is a way you can find any field.
Download the current template.
Open it in word and go to the line that you are interested in.
The blanket PO# will be a field. Right click on it and go to properties. You will see the xml element there.
Hope this answers your question,
Sandeep Gandhi

Map Paragraph and Character Styles

Hello all,
I am trying to import Word documents based on the Word Import Preset documents.
Here's an example smp document
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<Sangam-Import-Preset reader-type="Word/RTF">
    
    <Style-Mappings>
        <Paragraph-Style-Mappings>
            <Mapping style-name="Body Text" mapped-to="Body 2" />
            <Mapping style-name="Heading 1" mapped-to="Heading 1" />
            <Mapping style-name="Normal" mapped-to="Normal 2" />
        </Paragraph-Style-Mappings>
        <Character-Style-Mappings>
            <Mapping style-name="Hyperlink" mapped-to="Hyp" />
        </Character-Style-Mappings>
    </Style-Mappings>
    
    <Import-Preferences>
        <Preference name="import-toc" value="1" />
        <Preference name="import-index" value="1" />
        <Preference name="import-hyperlink" value="1" />
        <Preference name="import-tables" value="1" />
        <Preference name="import-footnotes" value="1" />
        <Preference name="import-endnotes" value="1" />
        <Preference name="import-track-changes" value="1" />
        <Preference name="import-preserve-graphics" value="1" />
        <Preference name="spacing" value="1" />
        <Preference name="break-before-para" value="0" />
        <Preference name="use-typographers-quotes" value="1" />
        <Preference name="convert-tables-to" value="0" />
        <Preference name="remove-formatting" value="0" />
        <Preference name="dont-strip-char-formatting" value="0" />
        <Preference name="bring-unused-styles" value="0" />
        <Preference name="para-style-clash-option" value="0" />
        <Preference name="char-style-clash-option" value="0" />
        <Preference name="use-style-mappings" value="1" />
        <Preference name="convert-BN-to-text" value="0" />
    </Import-Preferences>
</Sangam-Import-Preset>
Everything should be easy to set in the WordRTFImportPreference except for the mappings.
I tried using app.activeDocument. paraStyleMappings.add("Normal","Normal 2",   MapType.STYLE_MAPPING_RULE) after setting app.generalPreferences.mapStylesOnContentPlace = true
Doesn't work . I suspect the mappings are only good for XML placements and not Word ones, in which case I guess the way to do it would be to us changeText() on the styles. This is not a great solution as the changes would be done after placement unlike when using the UI before the placement.
Has anyone done this or got any ideas?
Regards,
Trevor

Paragraph Tools from SiliconPrairieSoftware.com will do it and it's cheap.
Note that you may not want to convert H1 to Heading1, but convert in the
opposite direction. A lot of expert Framers use the keyboard to choose
paragraph tags instead of the mouse-- it's faster-- and have set up short
names for paragraph formats to make that go even faster. (Someone who uses
the technique can explain it better than I.) If you have members of your
team who use this method, changing to the longer tagname may slow them down
and bring down a hail of grumbles.

Conditional build tags with character styles and ignored text

RoboHelp HTML v8.0.2.208
Windows XP Professional Version 2002 Service Pack 3 with 2 GB of RAM
Output: WebHelp and HTML Help
I have recently moved my projects from RH HTML X5 to RH HTML 8 and this is when the following problem appeared. I use lots of conditional build tags within the help projects. Some of these tags are for my own use for reference and I combine these with character styles containing a coloured background (highlight) so that they show up in the WebHelp or HTML Help output (e.g. text to identify the software version that the field/feature/text was added, reminders to check details, insertion of bug ID numbers, design document names, etc.). These areas of text are stripped out of the final build for customers by using a conditional build expression.
What I have noticed is that if a paragraph contains text with a conditional build tag applied AND that tagged text has a character style applied AND an unknown word within the conditional build tag is ignored (with the HTML tag <?rh-ignored text="word_to_be_ignored" ?>), saving the topic, closing it, then re-opening it shows that the conditional build text has stretched to the next conditional build tag, or to the end of the topic if there aren’t any other conditional build tags. This also happens by switching from Design View to HTML View. Note that this doesn’t happen if Ignore All is applied to the unknown word.
This doesn’t just apply to projects converted from RH X5. I created a new test project in RH8 and the same behaviour was observed. Similar behaviour occurred very occasionally in RH X5 but that seemed to be down to HTML tags being nested incorrectly.
The largest project contains around 1200 topics and with many hundreds of conditional build text areas this now causes a problem. I’ll probably have to locate every ignored word in an area of conditional text within each project, set it to Ignore All and then manually remove and re-apply the conditional build tags, unless someone can come up with something clever. Can anyone else replicate this and should it be logged as a bug?

Hi Daggins,
Thanks - that is good info to have. But as we all agree, that does take away from the point of single-sourcing.
You aren't misunderstsanding exactly... I am doing all my conditional tagging in FM and it works like a charm in terms of the PDFs that I generate from FM, and even the conditionally tagged text in RH shows/hides correctly. The issue is I am also importing my index and TOC from FM... and even if I have an entire file in FM tagged as conditional (all the text is tagged as conditional, I don't know if you can tag a file as conditional), the file name as a heading it still appears in the RH TOC. There is no text... but in my view it shouldn't appear in the TOC either (it looks like just a broken link when I generate my online help) - this is not ideal.

Character Styles Not Working

Hello all,
Never have I been as exasperated with a piece of software as
I am with RH 7. I've sworn by Adobe products before but this has
been a tremendous letdown. Grumbling out of the way, I need to ask
for some help.
I've been able to define and apply paragraph styles
successfully for FM books that I'm importing into RH. I did that
according to the direction given by the online presentation
provided by Adobe (that is, I've defined everything in the
fmstyles.css with a dummy file, etc.).
The problem is that my character style of bold, defined and
properly mapped, is not being rendered in the output. What is
behind this? Could someone provide some insight?
I dumped variables, because I found they were being converted
into bullets. I don't see conditional text working and the
auto-numbering is a joke...I don't believe there's a single person
out there that's able to get it to work without manipulating the FM
files or working the HTML files in RH.
I don't want to solve all these problems. I've spent too much
time as it is trying to get some kind of usable output.
I just want to know why I can't rely on the character style
I've defined.
(This was an awful rant. Forgive me.)
Cheryl

Just to add one thing here, which I find even more
perplexing. I am using the dummy file and have applied the
fmstyles.css to it. I understand see that Paragraph Styles are
applied correctly in the rest of the topic (the rest of the FM book
files).
If my Paragraph Styles are working, then I have to assume I
am correctly defining in fmstyles.css and correctly mapping from FM
to RH. Strangely, when I copy and paste text from one of those FM
book files into the dummy file, my Character Styles appear
correctly.
What am I missing?? Why does my Character Style work in the
dummy file but not in the rest of the book/topic?
Any help would be appreciated...

Converting SAPSCRIPT Styles to SMARTFORM Styles?

Three questions:
1) How do I find the SAPSCRIPT STYLE that was used for an older original SAPSCRIPT that I converted to a SMARTFORM?
2) Once I run SMARTSTYLES conversion will all the text output in the new converted SMARTFORM be automatically formatted correctly?
3)Should I have converted the style before converting the form?
It seems too easy, but I am having trouble finding the style of the original SAPSCRIPT form to convert to SMARTFORMS. Of course a lot of my output is misaligned.
Thank-You.

Hello Amit and Thank-You. I am beggining to believe that converting SAPSCRIPT to SMARTFORM may not always be worth the effort. We have many old SAPSCRIPT programs, that are full of unstyled character and paragraph formats, that would all need to be checked. because it looks like the formats do not always migrate, because they are not defined i the new SMARTFORM?
Would you agree?

Working with Character Styles in Photoshop CC

Hi,
I upgraded to Photoshop CC and was quite excited about the Character Styles Panel. But now, I'm completely puzzled.
It almost looks like Adobe didn't finish the feature before shipping 14.1.2
1. I can't reorder the character list? Why use a different list implementation than that for "Layer Comps?"
2. I want to copy and paste a character style from one selection to another (Basically the workflow from Apple Keynote). It should be possible with character styles, but it just didn't work:
- I select a formatted text section
   - I press "New Character Style icon"
   - I double-click the new style -> The font-size in the style differs from the font-size of the orginal selection?!
   - I'm pretty sure it has to do with style of the original text not being directly overwritten from "None", but there is no feature to "bake" style-formatting either.
3. I can't remove and restyle the Character-Style "None". But when I accidently assign "None", it is defined as 12px Arial Black . So the default-style HAS a style definition and should therefore be editable like the other character styles.
I'm completely blow away how non-intuitive the whole process is. I never had problems to understand character styles in InDesign, Pages, Word and Illustrator. But in Photoshop is either completely broken or non-intuitive.
Just my two cents.
tom

Your sure your using photoshop cc on windows vista?
I was under the impression that photoshop cc would not even install on windows vista.
What version of camera raw do you have?
In photoshop under Help>About Plugin does it list Camera Raw and if so which version is it?
(click on the words Camera Raw to see the version)
Camera raw doesn't work if it's a camera raw file or some other file type such as jpeg or tif?
What camera are the camera raw files from?
Officially camera raw 8.3 is the latest version of camera raw that will work on windows vista.

Paragraph styles all default to wrong character style

So I set up a template and based all my character styles on my basic body copy. However, every new text box I create it defaults to the "character styles" to my section header color and sizing. I have to right click and "clear character styles" every single time. I've never had this happen before and cannot figure out how to fix it, it is such a PAIN!

From your explanation, I suspect your use of Character Styles might need to be redirected to Paragraph Styles. But that is conjecture, so I apologize if I'm wrong. In any case, to solve your problem; with nothing selected, choose No Character Style in the Character Styles panel. That sets the default for new frames.

Why do text variables using Running Header character style translate forced returns as a word space in the running head on the first page but close up the space on subsequent pages?

In an InDesign document that requires 3 different Chapter head paragraph styles (to cope with differrent length headings) I've set up the running heads on the master page with a text variable using the Running header (character style) option. The character style I've assigned to this is an empty character style that is applied to all 3 chapter head paragraph styles.
Some chapter heads require a forced line break, so that the line breaks are aethesically pleasing. On the first page the text variable translates this forced line break as a word space in the running head, but on subsequent pages it ignores the forced line break. This means that if you have a word space before the forced line break, on the first page you get a double word space and on subsequent pages the running head sets correctly with a single word space. But if you remove the word space before the forced line break in the chapter head text, the first running head sets correctly with forced line break interpreted as a single word space, but on subsequest pages the space is closed up.
This only seems to be a problem when the character style option is used for header text variables. If a paragraph style is used the forrced line break is interpreted as a a single word space in all instances, both on the foirst page and subsequent pages.
This would appear to be a bug in how text variables are applied when using the Running header (character style) option. I can't see any other reason why the text variable would beheave differently on the first page and on subsequent pages. There is only one master page, so it isn't a case of their being an error between a main master page and a chapter opener master page.
Does anyone have any solutionss, or know if this problem has been fixed in subsequent releases of InDesign (I'm using CS6 ID version 8.0)
Thanks

Ask in the ID forum...
Mylenium

Cross references not picking up character styles in source text

I'm getting some annoying odd behaviour with cross references in Frame 12.
I have some tables, where the paragraph style in the cell is called "Cell Body" (nothing odd there).
Quite a few of the cells only have one word in them, and that word is set to courier font with a character style (called "Code").
Then, elsewhere in the document, I am referring to this text using cross references. I am referencing the paragraph style Cell Body, and the cross reference format applied is like this "<hyperlink><$paratext><Default ¶ Font>"
"hyperlink" is another character style that makes the text go green.
So, the cross reference out to take the text from the cell (in Courier) and reproduce it, coloured green.
However for about half of these cross references, it isn't picking up the Code character style in the source text, so the cross ref is just green, no green courier.
Things are further bamboozled when I output to HTML Help.
In the CHM file, the cross refs which appear to work OK (green courier) are now just courier.
The ones which failed to pick up the courier look the same as they do in Frame (just green).
Any ideas as to what's going on?
I've tried troubleshooting by clearing the cells, reapplying the para style and default character style, then reapplying the code character style, then replacing the cross reference - which sometimes seemed to fix it but didn't always.

Arnis Gubins wrote:
Using two character tags in-line together (a la <hyperlink><Code>) is asking for trouble. IIRC, FM doesn't re-apply these in order on an update and depending upon how they are defined (and what is set to AsIs), the outer one usually wins. .
So why does the blimmin' dialog invite me to do precisely that, by providing me with a list of all the character styles I have, and allowing me to select as many of them as I like??? /sulks/ Indeed, if Frame still shipped with a printed user guide instead of stupid "optimised for viewing on iPhones" online webhelp nonsense, I suspect I might very well be able to find an example in the manual of using multiple character styles in that dialog! If it doesn't want you to use more than one, why doesn't it grey out after you add the first one? /sighs/ The concept is called "cascading styles", it's a fundamental web paradigm! And it works in the main body text - why not in Xrefs!
Also, I have been very scrupulous to keep my character styles orthogonal so none of their AsIs's mash each other up.
But, rant over, I shall follow your splendid suggestion for a "Code Hyperlink" style.
Arnis Gubins wrote:
Also, x-ref formatting may behave differently in the new Publishing modules depending upon ....
...Depending on how badly designed and buggy this new Frame12 feature is, I should say! The Publish module should not randomly stop behaving in a WYSIWIG manner in completely undocumented fashion just because Adobe couldn't be bothered to code it properly. /sighs/
Frankly, for my current project, I've given up trying to jump through hoops for Publish - I'm concentrating on getting the Frame source right and assuming these quirks will be fixed in Frame 13 (or 14, depending on how superstitious they are). Because if I put in ad hoc workarounds for them in Frame 12, I (or a colleague) will only have to undo them later when they're fixed, and by then we'll all have forgotten what the original problem was.

Script needed to generate a list of paragraph and character styles from the Book Level

Hello,
I am using FrameMaker 11 in the Adobe Technical Communication Suite 4 and I need to find a script that will generate a list
of paragraph and character styles from the book level.
I am working with unstructured FrameMaker books, but will soon be looking at getting a conversion table developed
that will allow me to migrate all my data over to Dita (1.1 for now).
Any thoughts, ideas on this is very much appreciated.
Regards,
Jim

Hi Jim,
I think the problem you are having with getting a response is that you are asking someone to write a script for you. Normally, you would have to pay someone for this, as it is something that folks do for a living.
Nonetheless, I had a few minutes to spare, so I worked up the following script that I believe does the job. It is very slow, clunky, and totally non-elegant, but I think it works. It leverages the book error log mechanism which is built in and accessible by scripts, but is spendidly unattractive. I hope this gives you a starting point. It could be made much more beautiful, of course, but such would take lots more time.
Russ
ListAllFormatsInBook()
function ListAllFormatsInBook()
    var doc, path, fmt;
    var book = app.ActiveBook;
    if(!book.ObjectValid()) book = app.FirstOpenBook;
    if(!book.ObjectValid())
        alert("No book window is active. Cannot continue.");
        return;
    CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, "-----------------------------------------------------------");
    CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, "** Book format report for:");
    CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, book.Name);
    var comp = book.FirstComponentInBook;
    while(comp.ObjectValid())
        path = comp.Name;
        doc = SimpleOpen (path, false);
        if(doc.ObjectValid())
            CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, "-----------------------------------------------------------");
            CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, "-----------------------------------------------------------");
            CallErrorLog(book, doc, 0, "");
            CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, "-----------------------------------------------------------");
            CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, "-----------------------------------------------------------");
            CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, "Paragraph formats:");
            fmt = doc.FirstPgfFmtInDoc;
            while(fmt.ObjectValid())
                CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, " - " + fmt.Name);
                fmt = fmt.NextPgfFmtInDoc;
            CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, "-----------------------------------------------------------");
            CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, "Character formats:");
            fmt = doc.FirstCharFmtInDoc;
            while(fmt.ObjectValid())
                CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, " - " + fmt.Name);
                fmt = fmt.NextCharFmtInDoc;
        else
            CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, "-----------------------------------------------------------");
            CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, "!!! Could not open: " + comp.Name + " !!!");
            CallErrorLog(book, 0, 0, "-----------------------------------------------------------");
        comp = comp.NextComponentInBook;
function CallErrorLog(book, doc, object, text)
    var arg;
    arg = "log ";
    if(book == null || book == 0 || !book.ObjectValid())
        arg += "-b=0 ";
    else arg += "-b=" + book.id + " ";
    if(doc == null || doc == 0 || !doc.ObjectValid())
        arg += "-d=0 ";
    else arg += "-d=" + doc.id + " ";
    if(object == null || object == 0 || !object.ObjectValid())
        arg += "-O=0 ";
    else arg += "-O=" + object.id + " ";
    arg += "--" + text;
    CallClient("BookErrorLog", arg);

Link Character Style to Paragraph in CS5.5?

I have created a few different Character Styles in Indesign e.g. SM and I want all of the Character Style SM to link to it's definded abbreviation 'Site Manager' in the document.
Is it possible to link all of that Character Style throughought the document to that part of the document, or must I create all of them individually (monotonously)?

To anyone this may help in the near future:
To assign a Text Anchor, select what you want to be the destination (when you click on the link is where you end up): this case Principal Contractor (PC). Window > Interactive > Hyperlinks, click top right button.
New Hyperlink Destination, From drop-down menu select Text Anchor > Ok.
Congratulations you've now made your Text Anchor.
Setting up the Link:
Now we need to select the actual link itself.
Select whatever text you like;
Click top-right corner;
Insert Cross-Reference;
Under Text Anchor: you can select what you would like to link to. As you have already defined Principal Contractor as your destination link this will do nicely (and will be your only option selectable if you only did as above);
Under Cross-Reference Format > Drop - Down menu > Text Anchor Name: This is where you select what you wish it to be displayed as. You should create your own by clicking on the pen to the right > then the little + at bottom left corner.

Converting Character Styles

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