FrameMaker to InDesign conversion?

Question

I have FrameMaker 7.2 and InDesign CS3. I have a few book projects in FrameMaker that I would like to convert over to CS3. However, one of them has extensive (hundreds) of cross-references (footnotes, basically), and the other has been indexed. I don't mind losing formatting, since I figure I'll be creating a new format in InDesign anyway, but I do mind losing the cross-references and the indexing.
Is there a way to import my FrameMaker files into InDesign that will retain cross-references and indexing?
What I've tried:
I tried saving a test FrameMaker file as RTF, text, and MIF, but InDesign didn't recognize any of these formats. (Though text and RTF would lose my indexing and cross-references, I was trying to see if InDesign would recognize ANY format.)
I found a service online that charges rather steeply for converting from FrameMaker to InDesign, but that isn't an option.
Thanks in advance for any help that is offered.
regards,
Marina

Answer 1

semiwool wrote:
But that tool didn't work with our test files. At the request of the DTP Tools folks, I ftp'd two of our archives. They acknowledged receiving them, but I haven't heard anything since. I'm guessing that these files are too complex for their filter. I should explain that these files began life as design-y Quark files, which were later converted to FrameMaker. So there are a lot of design elements you might not often find in FrameMaker documents.
InDesign table styles and table cell styles are very smart and offer more formatting options than FrameMaker, but InDesign doesn't sort tables, and doesn't have the FrameMaker column-width settings like "make current column same width as column x," or "make selected column(s) as wide as its longest text line."
Here's where I get really confused: ID tables.
In FrameMaker, the Table Tag contains the information about rules. But when I build rule information into an ID Table Style, nothing happens. I get no rules at all unless I ALSO specify rules in the Cell Style. What am I missing here?
Also, this business of associating cell styles and paragraph styles seems like an unnecessary pain to me. What am I missing here?
Also, ID doesn't make a distinction between the title block and heading rows, which is a problem for us because each of these elements is formatted differently in our tables.
Also, ID doesn't have the "table continuation" variable.
Whew!  8-)
There's an InDesign table-sorting script (search Google) somewhere around, but I don't think anyone's yet created scripts for these other features.
As always, submit format feature requests at https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform. The more requests they receive, the better chance it will happen sometime in a future release.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
The DTP Tools' MIF Filter for InDesign commercial plug-in converts conditional text and cross-references.
It's not surprising that non-standard FrameMaker methods and techniques don't convert well with a tool designed for standard FrameMaker, so the workarounds to wrangle Quark originals into FrameMaker may be helpful to the DTP Tools folks to work with going forward. It's always OK to drop a note to follow-up on their progress with your files.
Yes, InDesign turns certain table properties over to cells. Not necessarily better or worse than FrameMaker, just different. One example is that FrameMaker's paragraph format Table Cell margin property is a Table Cell offset property in InDesign. That's consistent with InDesign's text frame offset property;  FrameMaker has no text offset property within a text frame that corresponds to this InDesign property.
FrameMaker table formats save the paragraph formats in the first row of table cells. When you create a new FM table with a given format, the last-created table's number of header and body rows, and table columns, are the initial suggestions; the first row of cells has the saved paragraph formats, and so do the additional rows.
True, InDesign tables have no title element. Using the paragraph in which you create the table for the title text probably will do the same thing as your FrameMaker table titles. Search Google for "indesign table continuation variable" without quotes for tips on emulating them.
You'll get used to the fact that these two products are different. One major difference you'll probably see going forward, is that the familar basic FrameMaker tool set that you've grown used to, isn't going to change markedly, even as its user interface, interactive-media options, outputs and frameworks like XML, DITA, etc, do change; compare this to InDesign's steady growth in technical-publishing features, release-by-release. The more you make use of the feature request form, the more likely you'll see some of your requests come to a future release.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices