FrameMaker MIF to RTF

First, each Help topic must begin with a title (in a $ footnote) and context string (in a # footnote), and usually a browse sequence identifier (in a + footnote). Frame won’t let you do that at all in Version 4.x, and supports it with an awkward workaround in 5.1. We do it for you; your only task is to tell the filter (in the plain ASCII .ini file) which of your paragraph formats should start topics. Usually these are your chapter title style and the first few heading levels. Given those, we automatically generate all the WinHelp coding needed for the topic start.

We put a new page break at the start of the paragraph; that indicates a topic start. Then we put the title, context, and browse sequence footnotes out. For title and context name, we use the text of your heading paragraph, complete with autonumber, removing any characters that would distress the Help compiler. For browse sequence, we use the starting number, prefix, and increment specified in that .ini file, which can be specified by file name too; this lets you use a browse series that spans several files. If the text is in a table (a common Frame positioning method), we add some code (undocumented by MS) that is essential to please the Help compiler. If you want your title to be an Index keyword too, that’s another built-in option in the .ini file. The filter also produces a .cnt file for you, with whatever topics and mid-topic jumps you want included in it at the levels you select.

We’ve found that most FrameMaker documents can be coded for WinHelp without ever touching the document itself, simply by specifying the usage of your existing formats in the .ini file!

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