FM 8 to ePub?

[Scott Prentice]

Hi Tina...

Since ePub is an output format, it seems that you should be migrating 
from FM to whatever you're going to use for authoring/maintenance, then 
figure out how to get from that format to ePub. Unless these books are 
just to be published to ePub and never touched again.

With ePub, it really depends on what you want to deliver (from a layout 
and formatting perspective) and what type of content you're working 
with. Certain types of content are better suited for ePub than others. 
The simplest option is to export each book to HTML (using any number of 
tools that can produce very simple HTML), then use one of the free 
converters available to convert the HTML into ePub. This will give you 
an ePub file, but may not really be be what you want to deliver.

In theory you could upgrade to FM10 and RH9 (or TCS) which gives you a 
path to ePub, but if this is just a one-time shot, that seems like overkill.

I just wrote an article for tcworld magazine that gives an overview of 
ePubs and related processes. It might give you some useful info ..

http://www.tcworld.info/tcworld/content-strategies/article/is-there-an-epub-in-your-future/

Cheers,

...scott

-- 
Scott Prentice
Leximation, Inc.
www.leximation.com
+1.415.485.1892



Tina Ricks wrote:
>
> Can anyone point me to a good reference on the path from Frame 8.0 to 
> ePub?
>
> I work for a small publisher, and about half of our (print) books are 
> in FM8. In the last year we have migrated all new projects to 
> InDesign, mostly because most of our contract book designers work in 
> InDesign and we needed to be consistent with what they were doing. We 
> have 8 to 10 books in FM8 that I need to migrate to ePub, ideally with 
> as little cost as possible. After this conversion, we won’t be using 
> FrameMaker much anymore, so I don’t want to invest any more than needed.
>
> So… some questions:
>
> --Do I need to upgrade to a more current version of Frame to do this?
>
> --Is there an intermediary piece of software I need to buy?
>
> --Can anyone recommend a good reference (web site, book, etc.) 
> describing how to convert Frame documents to ePub?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Tina
>
> Tina Ricks | Managing Editor | Trial Guides
>
> tina @ trialguides.com
>
> http://www.trialguides.com <http://www.trialguides.com/>
>