TCS2 - FrameMaker Cross-reference formats completely ignored...

In RoboHelp I have changed all my cross-reference formats to <paratext>. However, this mapping seems to be completely ignored. What file drives these styles? I can run a template in FrameMaker to strip out the page numbers and autonumbers, but this setup should work in RoboHelp.
Anyone having the same problem?
Thanks,
[email protected]

I think you need to use <$paratext> in the FM to RH mapping (via the edit button)

Similar Messages

Changing cross-reference formats - what do my options mean?

Hi all, using TCS2 on Win 7 64 bit.
I have a question about changing a cross-reference format. I have one that is "<paratext>" right now - the " included. So my xref says (for example):
For more information, please see "Appendix 1".
I want to change this to that it doesn't show quotation marks anymore. I know the HOW of doing this, my question is once I have made the change, a dialogue box appears asking me which cross-references this change should apply to. My options are:
Internal Cross-References
References to All Open Documents
References to All Documents
I don't know which one I should chose. I am working in a book structure that has a bunch of FM files imported to form chapters. Each file file uses this old style xref so I need to update the xref format in each file (I think I need to do this one by one) and in some instances my xrefs are within the same doc, sometimes they are to other files within the FM book. So I think I need to pick 'References to All Documents' but it says there is no undo so I'm seeking advice first!
Many thanks in advance,
Adriana

adrianaharper wrote:
Hi all, using TCS2 on Win 7 64 bit.
I have a question about changing a cross-reference format. I have one that is "<paratext>" right now - the " included. So my xref says (for example):
For more information, please see "Appendix 1".
I want to change this to that it doesn't show quotation marks anymore. I know the HOW of doing this, my question is once I have made the change, a dialogue box appears asking me which cross-references this change should apply to. My options are:
Internal Cross-References
References to All Open Documents
References to All Documents
I don't know which one I should chose. I am working in a book structure that has a bunch of FM files imported to form chapters. Each file file uses this old style xref so I need to update the xref format in each file (I think I need to do this one by one) and in some instances my xrefs are within the same doc, sometimes they are to other files within the FM book. So I think I need to pick 'References to All Documents' but it says there is no undo so I'm seeking advice first!
Many thanks in advance,
Adriana
Internal means only within the current document. All open, and all, are self-explanatory.
Your question shows that you're not sure what will happen when all instances of the cross-references that use the format are changed, either because you can't remember what you created in your own book, or because you're working on a book created by someone else, or that you collaborate on with others.
Don't let "no undo" scare you off. You can undo the result by saving all the files, before you do the changes. From within the book window, hold Shift while clicking the File menu - Save changes to Save All Files in Book. Or, from within any open file, hold Shift while clicking the File menu - Save changes to Save All Open Files. After you save the files, performing any non-undoable operation like changing the cross-reference format only makes the changes, but doesn't save the affected files. These actions are undoable by holding Shift while clicking the File menu again; from within a book window, Close becomes Close All Files in Book, and from with an open file, Close becomes Close all open files. When prompted to save, click Don't Save. Alternatively, from within each open and changed file, File > Revert prompts for confirmation, and if you choose to continue, the last-saved version of the file reopens.
If you want yet another safety layer, copy the whole file structure that will be affected to a safe location. If the set of assets is sprinkled all around the system, Bruce Foster's inexpensive FM plug-in "archive" will copy the whole collection into one place: http://home.comcast.net/~bruce.foster/products.htm.
HTH
Regards,
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices

Colour confusion in cross-reference format -- help!?

(FrameMaker version 8.0p277)
We recently applied revised templates to our documents and I am not having problems with my cross-reference formats.
When setting an xref to a heading/table/figure on another page, I want it to say (for example) "Figure 2-3 on page 17", where "Figure 2-1" is blue, and "on page 17" is the default text colour (for these docs, that would be black).
When I insert an xref and choose a display format as described above, the text appears properly (blue, then black).
However, when I update the book, many of the xrefs (but not all) change to all blue text. (For example, Figure 2-1, 2-2, 2-5 are okay, but 2-3 and 2-4 appear all in blue.)
Here is the xref format definition for figures:
<bluetext>Figure\ <$paranumonly><Default ¶ Font> on page\ <$pagenum>
where <bluetext> is a character format (all 'as-is', except Color is set to Blue).
So far, I am the only one who has had this problem (three other writers using Frame 8 as well), but I'm the only one working on this particular set of documents.
Anybody have any hints as to how to resolve this? I have found limited success with copying/pasting the encompassing content (for example, if xrefing to a heading in a cell of a given table row, copy and paste the entire row, then delete the original row fixes the problem. *Sometimes*. Same for table xref (replace entire table), figure xref (replace figure and caption and some surrounding body text), heading (replace heading plus some surrounding body text).
I'm at a loss.
Thanks

And... I think I have it (sorry to have dragged you all along for the ride :-)
With the Character Designer displayed, moved cursor through text. Found that the Character Tag field changed to <Blue> after the last character of the offending x-refs. <Blue> was an old tag used in the previous template. It does *not* appear in the character font catalog (and does not appear in the drop-down character tag list either).
Solution (it seems):Select the text section and apply the DefaultFont format (everything goes black). Then update the book. Most of the xrefs display correctly. Some, however, remain all black. Double-click the xref and then click Replace, and it now has the proper format.
Will go through doc and do updates -- if more problems arise, will let you know!
(As an aside... if somebody can explain what is actually happening in a clear way, that would be great :-)
Thanks again.

Suppressing variables and cross-reference formats

Hi all,
I'm hoping someone can help me with the following two questions:
I am using TCS 3 (FM 10 and RH 9) and have my FrameMaker content linked in Robohelp.l
1) Is there any way of suppressing a variable from being included in Robohelp (example, the Table Continuation variable), without having to conditionalize each instance of this variable? If conditionalizing is the only way to do this, is there a fast way to conditionalize all instances of the Table Continuation variable? (faster than doing it manually by searching and replacing).
2) Is there a way to suppress a cross-reference format from being converted to the Robohelp procedure.
Thanks.
Sue

#1 - not sure about
#2 - definitely yes - in the Conversion Settings screen in RH, when you select the FM xref, you see in the field for RH and a little sample of what it will look like - the trick is that you can type over the text to specify what you want to show - I use "<$paratext>" to change one of my "print" xrefs (xxx on page yyy)

Removing some chapters and cross-reference formats in the conversion

Hi everyone!
I am using Frame and RH to single source creating PDFs and online help. I create the PDFs from FrameMaker, and Webhelp from RH. I use the RH linking functionality.
Is there any way to exclude some FM chapters from being converted, without using the Exclude option in FM, and instead using an option available in RH?
Also, is there a way to exclude certain cross-reference formats from being converted at all? I don't want to convert them to Paratext, I just want them to not appear in online help output at all (things like "procedure 1-1").
Thanks.
Sue

I think the only ways to exclude stuff would be to use the Exclude option in FM (as you mention - I've never tried it with RH) or to create a different book that only has the chapters you want to bring over to RH. I do something like that when I do my printed PDFs - I create a "Print-Only" book in which I go through and set the page numbering and conditional text expressions.
To exclude the cross-ref format, I've seen a hint that says to just put a space overtop of the style in the Conversion Settings. It still comes over, but just as a blank space.

Creating a list of cross-reference formats

Is it possible to create a list of used/unused cross-reference formats?
I've been able to create a list of paragraph tags used in a book file, which was very helpful in my current project. I was hoping there would be something similar for the user-defined cross-reference formats. I've also created a list of the cross-references, but I'm looking for a list of the actual formats.
Using FM10, unstructured

PamelaAnnG wrote:
Is it possible to create a list of used/unused cross-reference formats?
I've been able to create a list of paragraph tags used in a book file, which was very helpful in my current project. I was hoping there would be something similar for the user-defined cross-reference formats. I've also created a list of the cross-references, but I'm looking for a list of the actual formats.
Using FM10, unstructured
Hi, Pamela:
Search Google for "squidds AND FrameMaker" with quotes and capital AND to find their commercial Toolbox tool that seems to claim it can do this. It's not cheap, however.
The free way is to:
* Save a FrameMaker file with FIle > Save As > MIF.
* Search Google for terms like "FrameMaker MIF manual online pdf" without quotes, and search within it for "cross-reference formats" without quotes to see how the formats are encoded.
* Search Google for "mifbrowse.zip" to find a tool that can help you find the term in a FrameMaker file you save as MIF. Open mifbrowse and use File > Open to locate the MIF file, or drag the MIF file from a Windows Explorer window into mifbrowse's left pane. Click Search and type in the term you've found in the MIF manual, that identifies the beginning of the collected formats.
* Copy and paste the format definitions. You may need to translate some of the notations in the formats. I can't remember where to look for them, but if you have trouble, start a new thread with some of the puzzling notations and ask where to find translations.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices

How do I exclude one cross reference format?

Version: TCS2: Framemaker 9, Robohelp 8, both fully patched.
I have a gazillion cross-references to figures (images) in my Framemaker manual. Due to executive decision, these images are not being ported over to Robohelp-- I set their paragraph style to not import at all.
However, I cannot figure out for the life of me how to get Robohelp to IGNORE the cross-references of the type called "Figure." For that matter, I can't get Robohelp to give those a style, like "Hidden" that I could then use CSS to hide.
How do I get Robohelp to excluse/not import all cross-references of a specific format?

An alternate approach might be to create a new FM template that has those cross-references re-defined to nothing (i.e. no content except for a thin-space character - FM needs something there, but a thin space shouldn't be hardly noticeable). Then have this template applied when importing the FM content into RH. This would effectively not show those cross-refs.

Cross-reference formatting

Hello:
In one of my documents, I've increased the font size of the body tag but now my cross references look smaller than the surrounding text. They appear to be wrapped in a body tag but the font and point size pull-downs in the toolbar appear blank when you click on a cross reference. I'm sure that it must be something easy but I can't seem to figure out why this occurs. Can someone enlighten me AND give me a fix? I'm using v8.0p277.
Thanks for your assistance!
Kimberly

Assuming that you have a character tag around the cross-refs, e.g. one named "SpecialLinkColor" that turns text to Magenta:
In MIFBrowser, or in a text editor, you'd be looking first for the section called "FontCatalog", which is the MIF-speak term for the Character tags catalog.
Then look at the properties that are listed within the FontCatalog for the "Font" that has the FTag name of "SpecialLinkColor".
So for example if SpecialLinkColor chartag is only supposed to change the color of the text it's applied to, the only property of the tag should be "FColor = 'Magenta" [along with the default properties of the FLocked= and FSeparation=]
There should be nothing else like FFamily=xx or FSize=xx.
If there are other properties like FSize, then that means that the character tag is applying all of those properties to the text.
If this is the case then would need to change the character tag to only apply the color (or whatever) property.
Changing a character tag takes a little more finesse, so let's start with just determining if there are character tags applied to the text and then what the character tag properties are, then we'll address how to globally change it to apply only the one property rather than the font size etc etc.
BIG reminder, please be sure to make a good backup of your files before creating the MIF or looking at it in a text editor, so that "inevitable things" don't go bump.

How can I get XML cross-references to translate to Structured FrameMaker?

I've been using Structured FrameMaker from the beginning, and have designed many EDDs, and about 10 years ago I did some translation of SGML into Structured FrameMaker (7.2) which worked well.
Now, (with FrameMaker 10), I've had to design an EDD to translate XML documents into Structured FrameMaker.
In my EDD I've a CrossReference element called XRef; this has an attribute of ID, which in turn has a value of IDReference and has Special AttributeConrols of ReadOnly.
My target elements in the EDD all have an ID attribute with a value of UniqueID.
My XML document's target xref element has an attribute of linkend, and in XML this works as I'd expect.
When I pass the XML file through the EDD/Template, everything works except that I get an ID = no value, which, of course, results in no display of the cross-reference data in the document.
Oddly, in structured FrameMaker, my element of link, with an attribute of linkend, works as it should, and displays the data. It may not be important, but the value for linkend is IDReference not UniqueID, and this displays correctly (I changed this attribute's value to Unique ID in my EDD and it made no difference to the XRef value in my document).
After making all these EDD changes, I've been careful to save the changes, import them to all files in my book and finally update the book.   Everything hangs together - except, of course, that the cross-reference doesn't work.
I'd sincerely appreciate any help or advice other users might have because I'm quite frankly stumped.

Russ,
Sorry about the delay in replying; got sidetracked trying to fix some FrameMaker 10 problems; on occasion, it laughs and crashes if we copy an element in a document and paste it to somewhere illegal. This doesn't happen all the time, but it might be something someone might do, so it was interesting to know.
Anyway, back to cross-references.
In our r/w rules we have:
"linkend" is fm attribute "ID";
Can we also have a similar line under the cross-reference element as:
element "xref"
     is fm cross-reference element "XRef";
     attribute "linkend" is fm property cross-reference id;
     attribute "role" is fm property cross-reference format;
At the moment the second line is:
.....attribute ID is fm property cross-reference id;
I tried adding the attribute "linkend" is fm property cross-reference id; (so that I had both linkend and ID) bit but this made no difference.
In general use cross-references work, in that it picks up data in one place in the document, e.g. WorldWideWeb, and repeats it elsewhere.   So in our xml file we have a link element with an attribute linkend which, when it's processed (ignoring the handshake code used to link the two - which could be something vague like 12345vvdog), repeats whatever is the target.
Conversely, for a cross-reference, in xml they use an xref element which also has a linkend attribute (similar mysterious secret handshake behind the scenes) which is deemed to point to a list of references.   This looks like it might be the stumbling block in that it links to an area in the xml document which is used as an internally generated list of references. Apparently this is only built when the xml book equivelent is finalised, so is not, like the link and linkend coupling described above.
I've passed this back to the xml people, and they are investigating a different way of preparing their cross-reference to a list of references (I'm now thoroughly confused with all these references - good thing the weekend's just around the corner).
I appreciate all you help and advice, I'll admit that this is a lot more difficult to understand than straight-forward EDD element creation along with their respective attributes.   Life used to be so much more simple back then!
In sum, what I thought I was doing was allowing an ID attribute with a value of IDReference in my elements, this was deemed to allow for FrameMaker cross-referencing.   In Structured FrameMaker, on its own, this works just fine; it all fell flat on its face when trying to import xml.   I tried to see whether the xref element's ID attribute could also be a UniqueID, but as just about everyone has said, this is a silly idea.   I was just trying stuff to see whether it might make a difference - you'll not be surprised to see that it didn't!
For the moment, I have attributes called ID with a value of IDReference, and I understand you're all suggesting to leave it at that.
If I understand correctly, I could eventually use an IDRef attribute if I wanted a UniqueID value to be used, though I'm not sure what a UniqueID is used or useful for, so will file that for future use.
Again, thanks for the advice and help.
Chris

TCS2 - Cross References between linked Frame files not working

Hi,
All the cross-references in my linked in FrameMaker 9 files work when output in PDF, however, when outputting WebHelp from RoboHelp 8, FrameMaker cross references that reference another FrameMaker file (i.e. not Current) do not work. The format is correct, they appear blue and underlined like every other link/cross-reference, but when moused over in the browser, there's no link to click. The HTML created by RoboHelp does not point to a file. For example, here's the HTML for one link not working as shown from within RoboHelp:
   •   <a>Create Supported App from
Install</a>.
RoboHelp appears to partially convert the link as appears in the HTML but I think there should be more information in the <a> definition, such as in the HTML created for a link that references a topic created from the same FrameMaker file.
   •   <a
 href="#XREF_17096_Creating_an">Creating an App</a>
I've ensured all the cross-references in each framemaker file in the book have the same format and are mapped to <$paratext> in the project settings. I've also tried importing the FrameMaker book instead of linking it and the same problem persists.
Any ideas on how to make RoboHelp create the link correctly? Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Jacquie Finney

Most of the major cross reference issues have been resolved in TCS 2 with further improvements in TCS 3.
Please ensure that you have all the patches of TCS 2 installed on your system.
If the issue is still there, there could be an altogether different reason for cross reference not working or the issue might have been fixed in TCS 3.
The reason or workaround can be analysed once the sample files with the issues are provided.
It will be great if you could share a small sample FM document containing the cross reference and target having the issue. If the cross reference is across documents, then a FrameMaker book along with its FM files can be shared in a zip format.
You can mail the documents to me at magrawalATadobeDOTcom
Mayank

Cross-References Broken In RoboHelp 10 Output

We are using FrameMaker 11 to author our documentation. We have some cross-reference links that do not work when the FrameMaker book is imported into RoboHelp. Upon import, the href information is not included in the link in the HTML code. The text looks like a link, however. When the help is generated, the text is not a link. The following is an example of a non-functioning link:
see <a>Link</a>.
Here is an example of a cross-reference that is functioning correctly:
<a href="#XREF_90399_Heading_Text">Link</a>
There are no errors in FrameMaker. The cross-reference is updating correctly in FrameMaker. In addition, when a PDF is made form the same book, the cross-reference works in the PDF.
Troubleshooting steps I have taken:
I have tried going to MIF and back for both the source and target documents.
I have recreated the cross-reference and marker.
I have tried linking to a heading cross-reference marker, as well as a manually create cross-reference marker.
I have renamed the file.
I have renamed the marker.
I have used different cross-reference formats.
I recreated the file by copying all the text to Notepad and pasting the text back into a fresh FrameMaker file.
None of the steps I have attempted have corrected the issue for the cross-reference I focused my troubleshooting on. I hope that someone can point me in the right direction to correct this issue.

I have been trying everything I can think of to move the files around to resolve the issue. 35 characters is very disappointing. Is this for the file and cross reference or the whole file path? I am not sure how you are going to be able to link from one Framemaker file to another, including a cross-reference name (especially when you can use heading for the cross-reference name) with a limitation like this. We also have a large library with many directories. We utilize single sourcing, so some files are in completely other directories from the file that is cross-referencing to it. From what you are telling me, it sounds like we no longer have the ability to use cross-references from one file to another in our library structure. Are you saying that all cross references basically need to be in the same file to allow cross references to work properly in RoboHelp? We moved from a WebWorks solution and we never had any issues with our links.
What I don't understand is the marker is in the destination file in the converted RoboHelp files, but the link is completely missing the <a href="#XREF_name ofmarker"> code in the cross-reference link. When I go in and manually link the cross-reference in RoboHelp, it works. This seems like a bug. I think having a 35 character limit on a filepath, filename, and cross-reference name is not going to work for anyone that has any sort of complex directory structure with multiple authors, sharing content and since it isn't a limitation of HTML, I don't see why this functions this way. Manually linking isn’t a reasonable option for us. We have a publishing system that publishes all of our output. We have hundreds of files that are generated automatically.

How do I preserve cross reference text when exporting to XML?

I am exporting my Framemaker documents to XML. However, when I open the raw XML, the reference formatting is obviously gone. So instead of seeing, say, see Figure 6. I now see, see .
Is there some way to preserve this on export?
Help would be much appreceated!

Josh,
The normal behavior is to have an empty element with the ID/IDRef markup that allows the xref element to be resolved again afterwards, by whatever post-processing step you put the XML through. The text of a cross-reference is a FrameMaker formatting artifact (not unlike a paragraph format, etc.) and is intentionally discarded during export. If you reimport the XML with the empty element, FM will re-resolve the xref, and then will restore the text using whatever format it originally had (the format name is also stored as markup).
If you want to preserve the element tag of the xref, I don't think there is any way to preserve the text, unless you write an import/export API client. You could possibly use an XSLT stylesheet to repopulate the text in some cases, but this seems like a process fraught with many complications.
If you do not care about the element tag, the manual says that you can just unwrap it, then you'll get the xref text. Here is a (rough) snip from the Structure Developers Guide:
Translating FrameMaker cross-reference elements to text in markup
You may not want your FrameMaker cross-reference elements to remain elements in the
markup representation—you can choose to translate them to text instead. To do so, use
this rule:
fm element "fmtag" unwrap;
where fmtag is the FrameMaker element tag for a cross-reference element.
All of this does beg the following question, though... why do you want to do this, especially if the text is referencing figure numbers, page numbers, etc. that have no relevance in the markup? Normally, it is expected that preservation of the markup is the essential thing, allowing the text to be regenerated later by whatever process uses the XML (perhaps including FM). If you drop the element tag, the actual link will be permanently lost.
Russ

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.

How do I cross reference to text (as in a reference citation)

I am using Frame 7.0. I want to create a cross reference to text (not a heading). For example, I have a citation such as (Smith, 1980) and I want to link that to the following:
H. Smith, 1980 "Have a good day" Martin Press, pgs. 46
I only want Smith, 1980 to appear as the link, not the entire description.
Thanks.

Another option is storing the custom text version in a paragraph autonumber that is entirely hidden, and use a cross-reference format that retrieves that autonumber only. The custom "autonumber" will be paragraph override (or otherwise you will have to define a unique paragraph tag for each source citation).
Shlomo Perets
MicroType, http://www.microtype.com
FrameMaker/TCS training & consulting * FM-to-Acrobat TimeSavers/Assistants
"Improve your FrameMaker Skills" web-based training sessions

Reloading DITA file with xref gives UNDEFINED CROSS-REF FORMAT! in FM8

Hi,
I'm using structured FrameMaker to author DITA files that are to be converted into .chm and pdf. I'm using fm-xref for hyperlinks to preserve the linking in the pdf output. However, I don't want to use the pre-defined cross reference formats (e.g. Figure, See_Title_and_Page) and so I defined my own (simply using the <paratext> building block).
However, when I reload the document, my new format is lost and it results in an UNDEFINED CROSS-REF FORMAT! message in place of my cross-reference. I've also tried changing an existing format but it reverts back to the original when I reload the document.
Is there somewhere that I can change the default cross-reference formats permanently?
Grateful for help.
Thanks,
Ian

Hi Ian...
You need to add the new cross-ref formats into the template(s) in order for them to be available in your documents.
...scott

TCS2 - FrameMaker Cross-reference formats completely ignored...

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