Migrating EDDs

[Steve Rickaby]

At 8:32 am -0500 16/12/05, Rick Quatro wrote:

>No apologies necessary: that is what the list is for. Well, it's actually for complaints, gripes, etc., but FrameMaker questions are acceptable once in awhile.

Many thanks. And much appreciated it is too.

>The best method depends on how different the structure is from one EDD to another. Here are some possible methods.
>
>1) Import the new Element Definitions and then clean up the structure by hand. This could be fairly tedious if a lot of clean up is required. You could use FrameScript scripts to assist you with the clean up, and perhaps automate the whole process.

Well, it won't be me doing this, but I'd like to make the process as painless for my clients as possible.

I will be building the EDD, so I can at least attempt to make it the element definition as close to their existing EDDs as possible,

>2) Save the document as XML and then use XSLT stylesheets to convert the XML so that it conforms to the new structure. Import the converted XML back into FrameMaker using the new EDD. If your structure is XML and you have a lot of documents, this may be the best approach. FrameMaker 7.2 for Windows (sorry) allows you to apply XSLT transformations on import or export, adding some automation to the process. Of course, you still have to write the appropriate XSLT stylesheets.

Client has FrameMaker for Windows, so this may be an option for them.

>3) If your EDD uses paragraph and character formats to define formatting,

...it will, in most cases, do so...

> you could try removing the structure from (a copy of) the document. Then you could use a Conversion Table to restructure the document according to the new EDD. This may be a good approach because it would not require any tools outside of FrameMaker.

Thanks, Rick.  I will pass all this on.
-- 
Steve