How do I execute a macro in FrameMaker 8

Question

Critical details: FrameMaker 8 standalone version on Windows XP.
I have some custom code in DOORS. (DOORS is a requirements mgmt tool for those that don't know). The code is very simple - it just spits out requirements 96-100.
I want FrameMaker to shell out, execute this code, and somehow receive the output from DOORS. The DOORS code execution can be done from a DOS command-line, so if FrameMaker will let me execute DOS commands somehow, this should be easy. The last step is somehow accepting all of the returned info into a variable (or whatever) and then dumping it into my FrameMaker document.
I am guessing this should be pretty easy, but I can't seem to find any documentation that leads me to this capability. Please help if you can. Thanks!
--Paresh
Herndon, VA

Answer 1

Hello Mr. Karandikar,
FrameMaker has very many keyboard shortcuts, so a lot of the functionality can be done via pressing keyboard buttons.
To get a list of all the shortcuts a FrameMaker instance knows, you can use the freeware plugin found under http://www.leximation.com/tools/info/listshortcuts.php
The result of running this plugin is a FM document that lists the shortcuts under a kind of keyword. These keywords can be somewhat cryptic, but most of the time, one can guess which function is hinted at.
Together with a keyboard macro recorder that records keystrokes, you can have a more or less cheap way to automate a lot of stuff (everything that can be done via shortcuts). One good keyboard macro recorder is RemoteKeys (http://www.freewarehits.de/RemoteKeys.htm).
Do not underestimate the power of keyboard macros. I myself used this technique to "automagically" change tables in a large customer document (add rows, delete others, assign formats a.s.o).
Hope this helps,
Franz.
[SYSTEC - the document processing company.]
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