Is there an easy way to manage graphics shared in many FM files?

[Combs, Richard]

Rene Stephenson wrote, in part:
 
> I am now discovering how much our artist was keeping in his 
> head. Now, I know the idea of cataloging or browsing graphics 
> is really probably out of scope for any desktop publishing 
> application, but when you're dealing with graphic-intensive 
> books in FM, with so much content to manage...! We have 
> single-sourced about 75% of the projects, so the text part of 
> the FM files is in manageable condition, thanks to insets, 
> shared files, conditional text, variables, and the like. But 
> the graphics...! Egads! We really need to simplify and find a 
> way to quickly locate and identify the graphics files!
> 
> I'm wondering whether we could use the source graphics rather 
> than the output files. The source files include CDR, AI, DWG, 
> DXF, and VSD files. All of those were being output to TIFF or 
> JPG for use in FM. I have heard that FM is supposed to import 
> CDR files, but using FM 7.2 I haven't had very good luck 
> (possibly my mistakes).

I'll let others address file structure, cataloging, etc. My experience
is mainly with not-graphics-intensive books organized in dead simple
ways. But I'll contribute two ideas: 

1) FM itself will locate and identify all the referenced graphics for
you quickly and easily. Just add an Index of References (IOR) to each
book (Add > Index of > References) and put Imported Graphics in the
Include list. (If you want a "master list," make a "master book"
containing all the files for all books.) The generated IOR will list all
the imported graphics in alphabetical order, like so  (path is relative
to book): 

graphics/button-1to1.png @ 100 dpi 42
graphics/button-dial.png @ 100 dpi 42
graphics/button-disc.png @ 100 dpi 42
graphics/button-end.png @ 100 dpi 41

Pretty user-friendly. If you selected Create Hyperlinks, the page
numbers will take you to the imported graphic. 

Of course, if you want to automate _changing_ graphics locations,
Martin's suggestion of a FrameScript solution is a good idea. The IOR
lists might be useful in that process, too.

2) Don't try importing the source graphics files you mention. The way to
do so is with File > Import > Object > Create from File. But this uses
Windows' OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) process, which bloats your
doc with humongous chunks of data from the application associated with
the file (Visio, Corel, etc.) to enable you to edit the graphic "in
place" in your FM file. 

OLE is OK for one or a few graphics (I used to use it for two or three
Visio drawings), but it bogs down your system and is not to be trusted
with many, many graphics. 

I wouldn't use TIFF or JPEG for vector graphics either (especially not
JPEG). I suggest printing vector graphics to PDF and importing that. EPS
is another decent option, but (a) you only see the low-res TIFF preview
(don't forget to create it!) on screen, and (b) I believe the EPS export
filters in both Visio and Corel Draw have been much maligned.
(Illustrator's is OK. Don't know about AutoCAD.)

HTH!
Richard


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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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