Framemaker and Visual Source Safe and Templates

[Tammy.VanBoening at jeppesen.com]

I don't know if this is a VSS quirk, a Framemaker quirk, or a combo of the 
two, so I will do my best to explain the issue and see if some 
guidance/answers can be provided cuz this problem is driving me batty!

We use VSS for version control for our Framemaker files. We use Framemaker 
7.1p116 on Windows XP with all hotfixes, etc.   As the keeper of our 
departmental templates, I must create the necessary templates and update 
them as needed and I want to make sure that template files do not get 
overwritten, etc..  For all of the templates, I have two imported graphics 
- one in a referenve frame on a reference page that is used in a paragraph 
tag and one that is used in an anchored frame in the headers on the right 
and left hand master pages. This is how we currently are working (or 
should I say trying to work):

I set up a template folder structure in VSS. 
I duplicate this exact  folder structure on my hard drive as do all the 
other writers in the group.
I make sure the templates are current/correct as needed, then I check them 
out and the imported graphics from VSS so no one else can.
When someone wants to grab a copy of the very latest template, they open 
VSS:
Scroll to the VSS folder that contains the imported graphics for the 
templates
Double-click on a graphic and select "View Source Safe's copy of this 
file." This places a copy of the graphic in a VSS temp folder.
The user then does a "Save As" and saves the file with the correct name in 
the correct folder on their hard drive. 
Scroll to the VSS folder that contains the correct template file.
Double-click the file and select "View Source Safe's copy of this file." 
This places a copy of the graphic in a VSS temp folder. At this point, the 
user is prompted that the       imported graphics must be located. They 
scroll to the correct folder on their hard drive that contains the saved 
graphics and update the graphics path.
The user then does a "Save As" and saves the template file with the 
correct name in the correct folder on their hard drive. This gives the 
user an editable copy of the template file with imported graphics without 
screwing up the source template file.
 

here's the rub:

Three outta' every four times this approach works, then for no rhyme nor 
reason, when the user attempts to do a Save As on the template file after 
updating the graphics path, the file is saved, but an error message opens, 
stating that the file was saved, but the internal image data was lost and 
to contact Adobe Technical Support for assistance. If you open up the 
directory in which the file was saved, it is saved as the 
filename.fm.[some weird number extension], for example, 
ChapterTemplate.fm.079. If I right click on this weird file, and rename it 
as simply a .fm file, I can double click and open the file and all is OK - 
the graphics appear just fine and if I select one and then File > Import > 
file, the correct path name for the imported graphic comes up. 

This is just a pain because when my users get this weird message, it locks 
their system for a while, we have to close Framemaker, rename the file, 
then reopen Framemaker to open the file - it doesn't make pulling the 
latest copy of the template files that convenient. 

Does anyone use VSS with Framemaker? Has anyone seen this message with 
Framemaker whether you are using VSS? 

Just any thoughts, comments, help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

TVB


Tammy Van Boening
Senior Technical Writer
Jeppesen Sanderson, Inc.
303-328-4420
tammy.vanboening at jeppesen.com