[framemaker-dita] Frame book printed to PDF - hyperlinks missing

[Alan Houser]

Are you publishing to PDF using FrameMaker or the DITA Open Toolkit? If 
you are publishing in FrameMaker, I would suggest using the <fm-xref> 
element instead of <xref>. The <fm-xref> element is a true FrameMaker 
cross-reference element (providing the ability to use cross-reference 
formats) and will convert to "live" hyperlinks in FrameMaker-generated 
PDF output.

The <xref> element is defined as a FrameMaker container element. This 
allows the author to insert the link text (rather inefficient, IMHO, but 
also common in several standard XML content models, including DITA and 
Docbook).

The FrameMaker DITA plug-in automatically converts <fm-xref> elements to 
<xref> elements upon saving to XML, so that the XML does conform to the 
DITA standard.

Another "gotcha" -- FrameMaker will only support cross-reference targets 
that have an "id" attribute of type "ID". Many DITA elements have an 
"id" attribute of type "CDATA".

If you are generating PDF using the DITA Open Toolkit, something else is 
going on.

-Alan

-- 
Alan Houser, President
Group Wellesley, Inc.
412-363-3481
www.groupwellesley.com



Val wrote:
> When I want to output my DITA book created in Framemaker 7.2 using the
> DITA Toolkit, I opt to print the book from FM using the Adobe Acrobat
> (8) print driver. The book generates properly, but the only active
> hyperlinks in the PDF are in the Table of Contents. The hyperlinks
> created with the <xref> element are not generated; in addition, the
> Index links are not created.
>
> Please advise.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Val
>
> Valerie L:ipow
> Brendan Technologies, Inc.
> Carlsbad, CA USA
>
>