Cross reference markers are deleted for content in text insets

Cross reference markers are deleted for content text insets. I currently have a chapter that is built from several Import by Reference files. I added an introductory paragraph with cross reference links to heading 2 titles in these text insets. Everything works and saves normally, although the cross reference markers disappear from the chapter when files are checked out a few days later. An extra Heading 2 is also added to the end of the document.
Steps to reproduce:
1. Create a chapter composed of several text insets.
2. Create a list of cross references to headings in these text insets at the beginning of the chapter.
3. Check in/check out the files from a source control product.
What went wrong?:
The cross reference markers are gone, resulting in broken cross references. An empty Heading 2 is also added to the end of the document following the final text inset
What should have happened?:
The markers should remain and the heading 2 tag should not be applied to the document.
Product version:
Product: FrameMaker
Version: 7.2
Platform information:Windows XP
Hardware: Dell Latitude D620
OS Version: Windows XP Professional Version 2002, Service Pack 3.
RAM: 1GB

Thanks for the information, Van. We did try several techniques including adding the insertion point immediately after the text inset before the normal paragraph tag, but none seemed to consistently work. I will investigate this scenario futher, though, in light of your comments.
We have managed to determine a workaround for this issue by avoiding a string of text insets. For some reason, using multiple text insets without separating them with normal text causes most of the problems after we add the files to our source control system. The situaton is not ideal, but it does work for the time being anyway.
Steve

Similar Messages

Searching for content in text insets

In a FrameMaker book, is there a way to search all the text insets in a book without opening each individual inset?
I'm working on a project that has more than 30 text insets. I'd like to search for certain terms without having to open each inset. I'm using FrameMaker 11.

Not really, as FM won't search the inset content directly. You could try creating an auxiliary book that contains just the inset files and use the Find function on that book. You can also add this book to your main book and mark it with Exclude so it doesn't get output, but still provides access to everything from the main book file.

Custom nodes are deleted for IMG after upgrade

Gurus,
We are in processes of upgrading form ECC5 to ECCC6.
In ECC5 we have custom node in IMG , which were created using SIMGH.
After the upgrade all the custom nodes are deleted , is there a way to retrieve the custom node or is there a way custom node are not touched during upgrade .
Thanks for the help in advance.
KJ

Hi Ketan,
You have used transaction SIMGH for modifying the SAP reference IMG in the old release. Those modifications gets lost
while upgrading your system. Right?
Even these custom node disappeared from IMG structure, but the customerspecific IMG structures or IMG-activities should be
still available within the upgraded system. That means, you only need to reassign your IMG structures or IMG-activities with transaction S_IMG_EXTENSION .
Those enhancements do not get lost with the next upgrade in future.
With Best Regards
Julia Song

TCS4: Hyperlinks in RH10 are broken after an FM text inset. Why?

Hyperlinks from another FM document of the same FM Book does not work in RoboHelp after an FM inset. But hyperlinks from the same FM document works in Robohelp after an FM inset.
All the hyperlinks work in PDF.
Note: The hyperlinks are not within the text inset but outside the text inset. As long as it is after the text inset, from that point onward, the links will not work (if they point to another FM doc).
eg:
text inset
content
hyperlink broken (from another FM doc of same FM book)
Please help. It would be a pain if this does not work at all.
Kai

I would set up a simple set of files to test this with TCS5 (download a trial on a machine that doesn’t have any TCS products on it) and if you can reproduce the behaviour, report it as a bug and send the files to the TCS Support group. They’re not going to be patching TCS4 now that 5 is out.

Markers are deleted when I edit them

I'm running into an interesting problem with Motion (3.0.2) where after creating a marker with the M hotkey, if I try to edit the marker (right click - Edit Marker), upon pressing OK to the changes, my marker is gone. I've been trying to just change the color of the marker without changing anything else, but it doesn't seem to matter what I type into the inputs before clicking OK.
Anyone else having this problem?

I've occasionally seen marker weirdness. Hate to sound like a broken record, but have you tried trashing your preferences file?

How to reference SQL column value for page item text field

greetings,
I created a simple report based on sql query. the query is select employeeid,salary from emp_tbl. under the report column i see employeeid and salary. I created a page item text field with the source type pl/sql function body. inside this source is simple block.
begin
if salary < 10000 then
return (1);
else
return (2);
end if;
end;
from the error i take it that it doesn't understand salary. I have tried bind variable (:salary) , hash marks (#salary#), ampersand (&salary.) but nothing works. Is this even possible?
thank you,
mon

Hi Mon,
I think you will find that anything you do in Forms, you can achieve in Apex, but you may have to think a little differently. Finding direct equivalents in both environments may not be easy or even possible in some circumstances, but with a little knowledge and thought an equivalent overall business flow can be achieved that is just as efficient.
For example, in Forms where you have a multi row block based on a table, if you need to add any derived fields then you will add these at the block level. I can see that this is what you are trying to achieve in Apex.
In Apex this will be more easily achieved by specifying the derived fields as part of the query for the region, and if the derivation of the fields is complex you can use user defined functions. If you require page type items to be displayed such as text boxes, LOV's, radiogroups, datepickers etc then these can be embedded in the query with the use of the Apex API, see the APEX_ITEM supplied package.
I know this is still very high level, but I hope it helps you on your way in your journey with Apex.
Regards
Andre

How Are Deleted Rows Tracked in Text Index?

Does the database track this information in a table, or does it modify the record in the $I table and mark it as deleted. Just doing some analysis on an index that hasn't had the full optimization done to it in a while and want to know how I can get a count of deleted rows before I optimize so that I can troubleshoot this better in the future. Thanks!!

Hi ,
deleted documents are tracked in $N table. Use ctx_report.index_stats procedure to get more details about index fragmentation.
Thanks,
Edwin

Cross Reference Range?

Need to get a cross-reference to range some pages, say page 16-19
At the moment I'm creating two text anchors, one for each page, 16 and 19, then inserting the page references as two entities.
Is there a better way?

Eugene Tyson wrote:
Ok - doing the cross-reference range works that way
The Paragraph Numbers are done with "<paraNum />"
And I use that for the cross-reference - but sometimes it pulls the entire paragraph in instead of the Para num?
Capturing a paragraph in a cross-reference when its format is not defined with the <fullPara/> or <paraText/> building blocks, AFAIK is not a known bug.
To be sure the cross-reference format's building blocks are correct, build the format's expression by clicking the plus sign button in the Cross-Reference Formats dialog box, rather than by typing it or copying it from other defined formats.
To cross-reference a range of pages, insert a page-number format cross-reference at the beginning and end of the range. When content is added to or removed from between the cross-reference source markers, page number references adjust if needed. Take care not to delete the cross-reference markers when deleting text; it's helpful to work with hidden characters displayed. Moving a page that contains a cross-reference marker, as you'd expect, changes the page number reference.
InDesign cross-references don't update automatically; you need to click the Update cross-reference button in the cross-references panel, or click the option in the cross-references panel flyout menu, to fix the yellow warning symbols.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices

Converting cross references from Frame

I am importing my Frame files by reference in RoboHelp (using
Technical Communication Suite). I have mapped my "Heading &
Page" cross reference style to the <$paratext> building block
to drop the page numbers from the cross references. I cannot for
the life of me get these to import correctly. When I import the
chapters, the cross references still contain the page numbers. In
addition, they are not hyperlinks, as they are in Frame.
Double-clicking on the imported cross reference links does nothing.
I am desperate to get these to convert properly - I have 34
chapters to import from my user guide!!

Yes, I applied all of the patches and same problem.
What I did yesterday afternoon was to save the source FM file
as MIF and take a look at the markers. The cross reference markers
that were failing to move over had an \xod at the end. I posted in
the Framemaker forum and discovered that this was the hexadecimal
for a carriage return. As for why there would be a carriage return
at the end of some of my cross reference markers I have no idea and
I assure you it was not because I hit ENTER.
However, I have been having some success this morning in
deleting the cross reference markers and reinserting them. Of
course, this messes up all of the other cross reference pointers
throughout the book. It may be that if more than one cross
reference is made to a single source (e.g., the marker is used more
than once) the \xod appears. I am not yet sure. In between the
time-consuming and focus-grabbing Force Updates and the frequent
RoboHelp crashes during the Force Update process it takes some time
to discover. Framemaker never had a problem keeping track of my
cross references \xod or no.
I still have the problem of two cross references right next
to each other causing a Fatal Error when I try to compile. So I
have to add some spurious word like "and" and it won't even let me
make this word white. So I basically have to rewrite my source
document.
Any patches planned? Also, please consider an upgrade to the
server hosting this board: it is extremely unresponsive.
Thank you,
Z.

Cross-reference auto-page numers?

Can anyone tell me why i cannot get cross-references to work with automatic page numbering? Is there some fundamental error i am making? I have the master files setup with auto-page numbering based on 'current page.' All of my pages are numbered sequentially as 1, 2, 3, etc. and setup with a unique paragraph style. however, when i try to reference a page number in the document, none of the pages show up under the paragraph style in the cross-reference menu. I have even tried to use ctrl+shft+click on the desired reference page to bring the page number frame from the master file onto that specific page, but the text still does not show up in the cross-references menu. I feel as though i must be making some sort of mistake because it seems this could be one of the more obvious/widespread uses for the cross-reference feature. Any help would be great. Perhaps there is simply another way to do this? Thanks!
Garrett

GarrettTV wrote:
Peter,
I understand that this is probably a more specific use of the feature, no doubt. It is ultimately unrealistic to expect a program to work exactly as each individual user's project approach dictates. I dont take the comment as a slam, dont fret.
My confusion and concern ultimately stems from the fact that, on the surface (granted, I am definitely not a programmer ), it seems like the ability to directly reference the page number would be, almost inherently, already built-in in the sense that the page number is recognized as a product of content placement. In other words, if the cross-reference knows that changes to the document composition have caused my referenced content to move from auto-numbered page 36 to auto-numbered page 37, yet the reference cannot exist to simply the page number itself. It has to exist via the content on taht page. Hopefully I have provided and explanation which makes sense!
In all honesty, the ability to reference only content and not also page number is only goingot set me back about half. For my sake, I have a 300 page document which includes hundreds of figures/illustrations, all of which correspond to text explanations in a different part of the document. Over time, it is anticipated that standards and graphics will be added/subtracted/changed, and therefore, so will the section numbering, page numbering, figure numbering, and the corresponding pages on which all of these pieces of info will occur. We would like to correspond figures and sections to one number; in this case, the page. Because each figure/illustration will have it's own page, it is desired to make the figure number and page number match to achieve an easier means of navigating the book. Basically, I want the text section, which will be read first, to reference figure numbers and/or page numbers (at this point, i have the option of choosing one or the other), but both of these numbers are going to dynamically update.
So, if that made any sense at all (ha), is there a way to use the cross references to point at a number that is set to automatically/dynamically change? If there is not, then perhaps I will simply have to create static figure numbers for the referenced content and then just let the page numbers change over time. If you have any other suggestions, I am definitely open to exploring them!
Thanks for the continued help!
Garrett
Hi, Garrett:
If I understand your description correctly, it seems that you're asking for an unusual numbering/navigation approach. Is there an example that you've seen that works this way, and that you want to emulate? Is this a publishing style/convention in the particular industry?
Am I correct in imagining that in a document that contains three figures on discontiguous pages, they might be numbered something like this:
Page #
Figure #
1
1
15
15
250
250
This would result in no figures 2, 3...14...249. Would your document have references to figure 15 on page 15? Would you want your list of figures (LOF) to resemble:
Figure number and title Page
1. Example of the widget in question ............................. 1
15. Example of another widget ......................................... 15
(sorry about the messy table layout - the HTML is tricky)
Would your audience be concerned that the figure numbers are not consecutive across a multi-chapter book, or consecutive within a chapter, and restart in each chapter? That is, would a reader think that some figures are missing?
Is there a specific objection to figure 11 on page 26 becoming figure 11 on page 28, if text content were inserted, or becoming figure 16 on page 29 if figures were inserted? When numbered-list paragraph styles and cross-reference formats are set up properly, cross-references to these figures would update to indicate both the correct number and correct page.
Have I misunderstood something?
[EDIT]
I forgot to ask if your document will be using cross-references interactively in a PDF or other multimedia format. If so, can you give more detail on your expectations?
Have you looked into InDesign hyperlinks? They can refer to a page number - either "sticking" to the designated page no matter if its page number changes because of reflow or being moved, or "sticking" to whatever happens to become the "n-th" page if the original page is relocated. Search Help for Create a hyperlink to a page.
[/EDIT]
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices
Message was edited by: peter at knowhowpro

Cross-reference marker ID

Hi everyone,
Has anyone worked with duplicate cross-reference markers before?
My question is, is the uique number in each marker text the same if multiple markers exist in the same location?
Thank you for your help.

You can find the markers by either doing it in a brute force manner using the Find > Marker of type (and have the Marker window open to see the contents) or by using a MIF version and using a text editor to search for the MText right after a <MType 9> entry. The MText would be the duplicate and the Unique ID entry would be two lines further.
The general structure of a Marker in MIF is as in the following example:
   <Marker
    <MType 9>
    <MTypeName `Cross-Ref'>
    <MText `37042: Body: At vero eos et accusam et iusto odio blandit praes'>
    <MCurrPage `1'>
    <Unique 998385>
   > # end of Marker
Cross-refs target the MText line using a <XRefSrcText ...> entry that is the same as the MText content.

Cross Reference displays wrong Chapter

I have several FrameMaker files that will eventually be combined into one book. In some chapters there are references to outside chapters. At some point another person that was using these files had to switch the Chapter title; for example Chapter 7 became Chapter 6. Now when I open up, lets say Chapter 5, and I set up a cross reference to chapter 6 I got throug the following steps:
I make sure both files are open in FrameMaker, I put my cursor in the spot I want to make a hyperlink > Right click > Cross Reference
When the window Pops up I make the following selections:
Document: Chpater 6
Source Type: Paragraphs
Paragraph type: Heading1
Paragraphs: Page 7
I select the exact paragraph I want referenced
Format: CH XX, #
When I hit replace I am expecting the text on the screen to say something like "CH06, 3-1 Title" but instead it says "CH07, 3-1 Title"
The link goes to the location I want, it goes right to Chapter 6 but the visible text says Chapter 7 which is wrong. I assume this is happening because someone switched those two chapters.
Does anyone know how to edit what the text says or what I need to change in the switched chapters to make it work correctly. Something else I noticed is that the Document option in the cross reference is saying Chapter 6 with the old title, not the latest up to date title.

I think I may be having the same issue. I'm using Technical Communications version 3. I have a huge FM book composed of many books - over 3,000 pages if it were printed. I'm linking to the FM file in RoboHelp (RH). No broken xrefs in FM, but when I go to RH, there are odd xrefs or missing ones. I keep updating both FM and RH without any success. So, I generated a list of cross-reference markers in FM.
This is what I think is causing this. Even though you're supposed to be able to link to the FM file and if all is ok with the FM book (no errors, no broken xrefs), everything should chug along in RH. But, NO, it doesn't. When I put in cross-references in FM, I do them by the paragraph. But then you can also see the actual marker text, which doesn't always agree with the heading text. This is what RH uses. So, if you're having these issues, check the marker text to make sure it matches the paragraph text.
Below is an example where I had updated the heading, but the marker didn't match. FM didn't care and didn't report a broken cross-reference. RH just displayed the xref heading but it wasn't a link. Very frustrating. I'm looking for a way to get the xref markers to match the paragraph headings.
This is the heading: EContent in the PAC Patron Account
and this is the marker text: 28254:Heading 3: 3M eBooks in the PAC Patron Account - Items Out 768
BTW - I saw some snarky answers - just insecure people who want to show how much they know technically. For me, I just want the *******' tool to work! If I wanted to know all the sausage-making, I'd have been a programmer. I actually like to write and fiddling with RH is just tedious! In my experience, programmers are a dime a dozen; good writers are rare.
Make this a snark-free zone and help novices. Lord knows, Adobe's own documentation just doesn't get it. They tell you what something is but not how to do it! Oh, and the UX in RH is so cluttered and confusing! Do you use a pod or a menu item, what is important enough to get a pod? Why are there all these different ways to set up a project? It's like it was designed by hyped-up, overly-caffeinated people with really bad OCD. It's not about the tool, it's about the writers trying to get their jobs done!

How to use the Cross Reference fields in P4P

I have been receiving questions related to the Cross Reference section from many different customers and partners. This post represents my attempt to describe the Cross Reference Section and the Equivalent Numbers stored within.
Identity
A term that Kelly uses and I will borrow is “identity”. A given specification can have many identities. The basic identity is the specification number generated by GSM. This is useful during early stages of design. Once we get past a draft or development status in the workflow the organization quickly wants to identify the specification in other ways. Examples include:
Execution System Number: Operations and Supply Chain quickly need to formalize an item or material for forecasting, inventory and purchasing…
Custom Numbering Conventions: Sometimes an organization has very specific custom logic for identifying materials. Usually terms like smart numbering are used to describe their methods.
Data Migration Identifier: In some cases customers have extensive data clean up projects. As part of the effort systems and processes are developed and an identity is created. In my experience we loaded a “Base Stock” number to represent Packaging Materials. The label stock that was commonly used was historically not represented so we created a number as part of the migration project.
Identity Functionality:
The Fields: The four major fields that make up the Cross Reference section are as follows:
>>System Name: This field describes the system generating the identifier. Examples I like to use are Oracle EBS or SAP Material Master. Sometimes geography must also be concatenated to the system, i.e. Oracle EBS – NA. This occurs when the customer is a large multinational where multiple ERP implementations exist. Therefore the same material may be known by many different numbers, i.e. Oracle EBS – NA = 77432, Oracle EBS – EU = 88883.
>>System Code: The system code is merely the syntax used during integration. Using CSS or various APIs you may chose to identify the system using an abbreviation, EBSNA or SAPMM.
>>Equivalent: The value representing the identity within a given system.
>>Externally Managed: If you are using CSS or an API to receive Cross Reference data you can define the field as "Externally Manged". When a cross reference is marked in this manner the general user community will not be able to edit the field. Administrators associated with the role [Externally_Managed_Cross_Ref_Admin] can edit the field if needed.
Syndication: While some users enter equivalent numbers manually, others use integration tools to generate and transmit identities. If a given cross reference is marked as “Externally Managed” then users are unable to manually enter data. On initial syndication the specification will not have a given equivalent. The specification is sent to middleware, a number is generated by the appropriate system and the response is sent back to GSM to add the System Code to the specification with the appropriate identity value.
Copy verses Issue:
>>Copy: When a user copies a specification the Cross Reference data is NOT included. Since the identities refer to the originating specification it does not make sense to carry over to the copy. If we did then users would quickly need to delete the data.
>>Issue: When a user issues a specification it maintains the Cross Reference data. This is an important concept because it is expected that a system like GSM will have many issues related to a single ERP #. ERP systems are usually not interested in many of the fields stored in the Product Data Management system.
Reference: As raw materials are consumed as inputs into Formulation or Trade Specifications the organization may come to identify the materials based on equivalent numbers. Therefore GSM allows for an equivalent number to appear next to the GSM number.
Implementation Issue: Ingredients In Packaged Quantities
Some customers run into a situation where the ingredient specification does not represent a packaged quantity. From an R&D perspective the developer does not care if the material comes in a box or a tanker. In this situation the GSM ingredient may be represented in the ERP system by many items and therefore more than one cross reference value. These items represent packaging differences that are important to purchasing, manufacturing, warehousing, and other execution systems.
I hope this helps describe some of the purposes and implementation issues around the Cross Reference field.

You need to get jmf.jar in your CLASSPATH, either on the command line, in an environment variable, by putting a symlink in $JAVA_HOME/lib/ext, whatever works for you. Have you done that? Once it's in the classpath, you can run jmstudio from any directory with the command "java JMStudio".
Items in the bin directory are just shell scripts, run with "sh jmstudio" or whatever suits your shell (on Mac OS X, copy one of these guys and append ".command" to the filename to make him double-clickable in the Finder).
--invalidname

How do we duplicate FM books and retain cross-references?

We are using FrameMaker 10 in a Windows 7 environment.
This post is related to an earlier post of mine:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/4237821#4237821
Note: To resolve this issue, we are willing to completely reorganize our folder structures or our user guides themselves.
We have the following contraints:
1. Our clients often require us to give them user guides in Microsoft Word, so they can edit the content as they customize the product over the years.
2. So, to avoid giving our clients Word documents that are in the vicinity of 500 to 600 pages in length (which often makes Word documents unstable), we break apart our user guides into two different guides: A procedure guide with step by step processes, and a guide that lists all windows and all window elements (tabs, fields, buttons, etc.).
3. The procedure guide has several dozen cross-references to the windows guide.
4. When we create WebHelp with RoboHelp, we combine the two guides together so the cross-references in the procedures are working hyperlinks to the corresponding window descriptions.
And then we have one more constraint.
Because we customize our product and user guides/online help for all of our clients, we start with a "baseline" starting point. We have a "baseline" procedure guide, and a "baseline" windows guide. So, we have to duplicate both of those guides to start customizing it for each client. The customization changes about 40% of the starting "baseline" content, and we have several concurrent contracts with various clients (so, we don't want to solve the problem I describe here by continually adding new conditional text to the baseline content every time we start customizing content for a new client).
So, we duplicate the two books when we start the customization process for a new client. We duplicate the procedure guide, and we duplicate the windows guide.
As you can imagine, we can use the "save as" technique in FM to preserve the cross-references that are internal within a single book, but we cannot figure out how to preserve the cross-references from the procedure guide to the windows guide. We end up having to manually fix all cross-references in the procedure guide that point to the windows guide.
Does anyone have an idea how we can regularly duplicate the original "baseline" books, and preserve the cross-references from the procedures guide to the windows guide?
Thank you in advance for any ideas.
Tim

I believe that might work if you used the master document method. That said I strongly recommend that you research Word's master document method as everything I have read indicates the Word gurus suggest it has problems.
Why would you want all these links working? If that is needed, shouldn't the user be accessing the online help?
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
Follow me @petergrainge

InDesign Cross References with DTP's Cross References PRO

There are already posts all over the forum about how inter-document cross references in InDesign are "fragile" and slow and can cause crashing, which I recently learned the hard way. We tried to live with the slowness and the breaking links, but the show-stopper was that we couldn't export our largest book without InDesign crashing. (The book contains 150+ individual documents.)
Based on some recommendations, we are now using a trial of DTP's Cross References PRO plug-in for InDesign. I removed all cross references that were created using InDesign's native cross references, and added several new ones using the plug-in. The slowness has gone away and the cross references don't seem to be breaking anymore, but InDesign still crashes when I try to export our book. DTP's support people insist that their plug-in should be able to handle large books, unlike InDesign. (And I've heard very good things about their support.) Is it possible that our files and/or book are corrupted from when we had the native InDesign cross references? Has anyone switched from native InDesign cross references to DTP cross references?

I don't think it's been determined if you have the latest ID update for your version of ID? BTW, which version are you using?
Where is the "too many files open" message coming from? Operating System (which?) ID? What's the exact message? A screen shot would help. Back in the days of DOS and early Windows, there were commands to set the number of permitted files open at once. Not sure how to do it in modern OSs. If it's an ID message, perhaps someone's got a suggestion.
Some folks on the forum like to see crash files so they can try to analyze them. Search Google for terms like "adobe forum indesign pastebin" without quotes to find some of those postings and learn how to send your crash report files there, and look at the names of those who volunteer to analyze the files.
I was thinking that two book container files that hold the same total number of files in the original single book might lighten the processing load and perhaps avoid a crash. With some work, I think it's possible to get the pagination and other numbering schemes, and x-refs to emulate a single book. I think that this is different from exporting half the files from one book, then the other half. It's not tested, just a thought. One other thought is to remove one file at a time from the book, starting at either the beginning or end, and export, until you find the maximum number of files that succeed consistently. Then try from the other end, to see if the crash happens with the same number of files, or perhaps same number of pages, or even, perhaps, at the same page. Perhaps the number of cross-references in the content is related to the crash. Again, just brainstorming.
You might explore with DTPTools support whether they'd want to see your crash files, to determine if the problem traces to their plug-in. Also, perhaps they'd like to look at your whole project - if it's permissable with your company or client, to see if DTPTools' techs can reproduce the crash.
erin.miska wrote:
We've actually never had the InDesign files open while exporting the book and never had a problem. Just to be sure, I tried this. We actually have too many files to open at one time, but I opened as many as I could. Still crashed.
Can you help me understand your thought behind the second option? What am I troubleshooting by having cross references that point to a document in another book?

Cross reference markers are deleted for content in text insets

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for