FrameMaker MIF to RTF

Even if you are single-sourcing, you’re likely to want some differences between your FrameMaker printed documents and your WinHelp files. The best way to manage variable content is to use one of FrameMaker’s most powerful tools, Conditional Text. The filter works well with it; unlike the built-in RTF export, it does not turn conditional text into hidden text, which would destroy its utility. It just respects the conditional settings as you would expect, so that you can tag parts of your document as PrintOnly and other parts as HelpOnly, and get exactly the results you want.

However, there are some situations where conditional text isn’t quite enough. For example, in your cross-reference formats, you may have "See XXX on page NN." For WinHelp, you really don’t want the "pageNN" part; it looks silly. But conditional text cannot be applied to cross-reference formats! What can you do? We’ve considered building on-the-fly replacement facilities into the filter, but then you’d have a whole new procedure to learn. Instead, we think it makes more sense to use another of FrameMaker’s powerful features, from the File menu: Import Formats. Here’s what you do:

1. In your main document, set up all your formats as you want them for the print version.

2. Create a new document, and import all the formats from your main document, but none of the text. Modify this empty document so that all the styles and settings are as needed for the online help version. (It’s fine to include example text in it too.) This is now your "help template" document; save it for future use.

3. When you are done editing your print document, save it in the usual Maker format, but leave it open in FrameMaker. The .fm copy you just saved is the one you’ll use for revisions later.

4. In the .ini file, tell the filter the name of your template, and specify which properties from it you want to import. The Conversion Designer makes this simple for RTF output.

5. Whenever you run the filter for that project from within FrameMaker from then on, the filter imports the format types you chose into each file as it processes. It does so without altering your original .fm print files; only the MIF files used for conversion are affected.

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