Paragraph and Character styles in FrameMaker and InDesign

[mulholland4]

Hi,
Thanks for the info, I'll check out the DTP tools conversion and see what
it's like, i'll need to negotiate the purchase of some credits with the
controller of purse strings here.
Thanks
Mulholland

On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 8:58 PM, Peter Gold <peter at knowhowpro.com> wrote:

> One more thing (OK, a couple more)
>
> Now that I'm back on my Windows machine where I can use FrameMaker 8,
> I tried my own suggestions using my rusty and trusty MS Word 97, and
> learned a few things. Perhaps newer Word releases can understand more
> of the information that FrameMaker puts into the RTF, if in fact there
> is more. (Anyone who feels like testing this with newer Word releases
> can request my test file.)
>
> * There's no Save As > MS Word in FM 7 or FM8, only RTF. I don't have
> earlier installed FM, just the faint memory (from FM7 on Mac) of being
> able to save as Word. However, saving as RTF and placing the RTF file
> in ID retains the FM paragraph and character format names, and many of
> FM's paragraph and character font properties, and some typographic and
> composition properties - like leading, indents, tab stops, alignment,
> hyphenation, space before and after, and even a valiant effort at
> frame above and below paragraphs. But missing are FrameMaker's unique
> paragraph pagination properties like run-in, across columns, and side
> headings, and FM's advanced paragraph property that modifies table
> cell margins.
>
> * Opening the RTF file in Word displays bullets and auto-numbers as
> question marks in correctly-tagged paragraphs in main text, but the
> auto-number format codes (like C:Chapter <$chapnum> <n+>\t) are lost.
>
> * Cross-references are partially converted to text, so you can at
> least have a fragment of the referenced content to search for.
>
> * Index markers are broken and leave messes in the form of {xe-"???"}.
> The number of question marks varies, but you can search for the marker
> locations, create ID index entries there, and delete the broken
> markers.
>
> * Footnote references (the number in main text) and footnote content
> are retained.
>
> * Table appearance is preserved, but table format names are lost.
> Paragraph format names in table cells are retained.
>
> This may be more information than you (or anyone sane) needs. I'm not
> not-sane, though I am writing a book on ID for FM users making the
> switch (maybe THIS is not sane :) ) and I'd have had to do this
> research anyway, sooner or later. I didn't get to this area of detail
> in my review of the DTP Tools plug-in in the October/November 2007
> issue of InDesign Magazine, because it's not central to evaluating the
> plug-in.
>
> The upshot is this: DTP Tools' MIF Filter plug-in for ID is the most
> efficient conversion path. For small amounts of content and
> formatting, you can save as RTF if it serves your needs, or you can
> copy from a conversion using the trial plug-in, and paste into a new
> ID document to save it. Otherwise, buy a ticket for some page credits.
>
> HTH
>
> Regards,
>
> Peter Gold
> KnowHow ProServices
>
> > On 12/12/08, mulholland4 <mulholland4 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>  I am going to be using InDesign to produce some docs and was wondering
> if
> >>  there is any way of importing the Paragraph and Character styles from
> my
> >>  Framemaker 8 docs into InDesign CS4? Although my layout will be
> radically
> >>  different in the new docs, it would be useful to be able to reuse
> content
> >>  from my Frame docs.
> >>
> >>  Thanks
> >>   Mulholland
>