1.5 How Mif2Go works
You run Mif2Go from within FrameMaker, as a FrameMaker plug-in. Stand-alone applications are also available for automated production systems; see:
§32 Automating Mif2Go conversions
Choose Set Up Mif2Go Export... from the FrameMaker File menu to start the Mif2Go plug-in, which operates on the currently active FrameMaker file (book or single document) to do the following:
• Optionally import formats from a conversion template.
• Designate heading formats for Help topic starts.
• Name output files and objects.
• Creates or update a configuration file for the conversion.
• Present the configuration file in Notepad for further editing.
See §3 Converting a book or document.
Book files are required but not usually converted
When you convert a FrameMaker book, you start Mif2Go from the book file. Mif2Go uses the book file to do the following:
• create default names for the project file and for certain output files
• create a configuration file, but only if one is not already present in the project folder
• get a list of the document files to convert.
Unless you specify MIF as the final output format (see §36.2 Generating MIF output), the book file itself (MyDoc.book) plays no further part in a conversion.
A conversion template can improve results
The Mif2Go plug-in can use FrameMaker's Import Formats feature to temporarily apply to your document, for conversion purposes, formats from an alternate template. Mif2Go accomplishes this as follows:
1. Saves your FrameMaker document files in .fm format.
2. Imports the formats you check from the template document you specify.
3. Optionally generates/updates your document.
4. Saves the modified document in .mif format.
5. Closes the modified document, without saving, and reopens the original .fm document.
This gives you the benefit of the template for the conversion, without altering your original FrameMaker files. For more information, see §2.4 Importing formats from a conversion template.
Topics are autoselected for on-line Help
If you are creating WinHelp or HTML-based Help, Mif2Go tries to determine which FrameMaker paragraph formats you are likely to want to start new topics. Mif2Go does not always get this right, but it gives you a starting point, and makes clear how you specify topics. For more information about topic starts, see §7.7 Configuring WinHelp topics or §17 Splitting and extracting files.
Files and objects are given code names
Mif2Go assigns unique FileIDs (see §4.4 Identifying files and objects); you can replace those with more meaningful names of your own choosing, as long as they are unique for all files used in the same project.
A configuration file is created
Mif2Go creates one or more configuration files for your project, if configuration files are not already in place; see §2.3 Working with Mif2Go configuration files. Configuration-file attributes are set to read/write, because some features require Mif2Go to update these files later.
If you specified an HTML output format, Mif2Go opens the configuration file in Notepad so you can edit conversion settings there.
Files are converted one at a time
When you choose Save Using Mif2Go... from the FrameMaker File menu, Mif2Go converts the files in your document one at a time. For each file, Mif2Go does the following:
1. Applies any conversion template you specified, without changing your saved files.
2. Creates any graphics you specified, including graphics for FrameMaker equations.
3. Saves your files in MIF format.
4. Runs the Mif2Go DCL filter to produce the output you specified.
The results for each file, including any errors, are logged to the FrameMaker Console, so you can see what happened. Results can also be written to a log file in the project folder; see §4.3 Logging conversion events.
Version number and export options are recorded
The Mif2Go plug-in updates the configuration file for your project with its own version number, so in case you need technical support, this information is readily available. The plug-in also updates the configuration file with options you specify via the Export dialog, so those settings persist as defaults; see §3.6 Converting documents. These are the only changes the plug-in makes to your configuration file.
Because the Mif2Go plug-in needs write access to the configuration file, if the file is read-only, Mif2Go changes the file attribute to read/write. |
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