File Management Question

[Bodvar Bjorgvinsson]

On 2/20/06, John Huntington <jhuntington at runbox.com> wrote:
> Bodvar Bjorgvinsson wrote:
> > Odd. What does the Book file say? I am not quite clear based on your
> > earlier post what is the problem.
> >
--- snipped ---
>
> Basically, I've been doing a lot of work on a book, and I cut a bunch of
> chapters.   What I was calling the "data" directory is the folder where
> I'm keeping all the FM files related to the book.  What I want to do is
> sort out that folder in some way so I can move the old, unused files to
> a "dead" director.  Mr. Ridder suggested that I run the update, and that
> would open, close, and save each file, and then I could just do a
> windows sort and move the older dated file.  Unfortunately, though,
> since I hadn't made any edits, only the TOC and LOF files changed.   I
> eventually went through and opened every file manually, changed one
> character, changed it back, and then closed it, and then manually purged
> out the data directory.  I'd just like to do this in some more automated
> way.  And I did remove the files from the book from within the book
> file,  but they apparently just get abandoned in the folder.
>

Of course. The book file is only a file of references and some rules
on what to do with each file regarding numbering, printing etc., but
not about actually deleting the files. So, when you want to delete a
file, you will have to do so "directly" on the file.

If you want to move it out of the "active" directory, the book file
can handle it on a file-by-file basis by renaming the files from
within the book file. This also takes care of cross-refs and other
links, so it will take some time, as for each file you want to rename,
the book file checks all members (files) of the book file.

I usually make a new folder for each new revision to a book that I
make and put in there all the files of the book that I have to amend.
Then I make a new book file and populate it with all current files,
whichever directo

You could make a folder marked "DeletedFiles" or the like (if this is
a one time change) and move (without the intervention of the book
file) the files you want out of the book, but for some reason still
want to keep, to this folder. Then, delete from the book file all that
come up with a question mark.

Every new file you add to the book, you add more or less manually. You
can select a group of files and import these into the book file, but
then you will have to arrange them by hand afterwards.

No automatic way of doing it here, I think, in an automatic way
through FrameMaker, although moving the files to a different
directory, or marking these files in some way for moving might be done
with some sort of FrameScript. I am new to FrameScript, but I think a
helpful script could be made. However,  I doubt that this would be
much more productive than to (as suggested by others) just using the
method described above or the time stamp of the files. If you do some
changes to your files in the book, their time stamp should change, and
then, all files older than that time stamp could be moved to a
different directory. Even if some files that you wanted to keep in the
book followed, you could instantly see this in the book file (the
question marks indicating a missing link) and move these back.

In your case, it seems that you did no changes (until you "faked"
some) other than removing files from the book. In this case no time
stamp changes took place, so moving the files would have to be handled
"manually".

The only really automatice way of doing this will cost an arm and a
leg (and would not make sense for a small publication): Content
Management Systems. As I understand, there all files are dealt with in
sort of a database. Have a look at e.g. http://www.siberlogic.com.

Bodvar