Text Inset Disappears

[Combs, Richard]

Linda Camp wrote: 
 
> I am using Unstructured FrameMaker 8.0p266 on Windows XP. We have converted
> a rather large users guide to include all text insets. When I opened a
> "main  file" containing text insets, it looked fine.  

I'm not sure what you mean by "all text insets." By "main file," I assume you mean the "container" file ( some call it "destination" file) into which the text insets are imported. How large is large? How many is all?

However, when I
> double-clicked a text inset, the text inset file that opened was entirely
> different.  The original text inset file is no longer in the directory. It
> has actually disappeared from the network drive, but the original text from
> the inset is still in the "main file".   Has anyone else had anything
> similar to this? Thoughts we had were:

In the container file, FM stores a "snapshot" of the text inset as it was the last time FM updated it (opened the source file containing the text inset flow to retrieve the latest version). So it's entirely possible for the container file to display a text inset whose source file has since been deleted or moved. Everything looks fine until the text inset is updated. :-} 

When you double-click a text inset, the Text Inset Properties dialog shows you the source file, type, status, etc. Verify the path and file name of the source file. Is it maybe a mapped network drive (the path starts with, say G:), and the mapping changed? (E.g., you moved the container file to a different PC that maps the same network drive to H:.)

Of course, if the source file really is gone, it's gone... But nothing you could do in the destination file would cause that. Someone would have to delete it, move it, make the location where it's stored unreachable, or something like that. 

> 
> -          Is there a maximum number of text insets per document or book?

None that I'm aware of. I've gone into the hundreds without problems. Do you have only one text inset in each source file? A text inset is simply a complete text flow, and a single FM file can contain many disconnected text flows. I've had dozens of related text insets in one source file, which simplifies file management and may help with resource issues. 

> -          While I was working in one "master file," another writer was
> working in a different "master file" in the same book. Would this cause a
> problem?

Assuming by "master file" you mean a container file into which the text inset is imported, this couldn't possibly cause anything to happen to the text inset source file. Unless one of you selected Open Source in the Text Inset Properties dialog and then edited or renamed the source file, nothing you do in the container would affect the source. Not even updating -- it's strictly a read-only affair, which makes no change to the source.


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
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