best use of graphics in FM

Wed Mar 21 12:21:06 PDT 2012

First, SnagIt used to have a plugin for FrameMaker. It is no longer supported.

Secondly, if you source are coming as Word files, you should be able to save some time capturing the graphics by exporting the Word, or PDF, file. Export the Word as HTML. This creates a separate subfolder of all of the graphics. Same is true with PDF. Use Save As to html. It also creates a folder of jpeg files. The images are named according to the order that they appear in the source doc. As long as you have a copy of the source doc, you can go through and rename the exported graphics. If you don't like to use jpeg (pdf saveas) or the graphic format chosen if using Word, get a file naming tool, several free ones are available, that will do a batch rename and rename them or display the graphics folder in Explorer, turn on display as thumbnails, and manually rename them.

Your coworker who wants to embed them is not right in the head. Import by reference is the only way to go.

--- On Wed, 3/21/12, Gillian <gill6034 at comcast.net> wrote:

From: Gillian <gill6034 at comcast.net>
Subject: Re: best use of graphics in FM
To: "Art Campbell" <art.campbell at gmail.com>, "Ken Poshedly" <poshedly at bellsouth.net>
Cc: "FrameMaker Users List" <framers at lists.frameusers.com>
Date: Wednesday, March 21, 2012, 11:55 AM

How is SnagIT integrated into the Frame 
interface?
-Gillian

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: 
  Art 
  Campbell 
  To: Ken Poshedly 
  Cc: FrameMaker Users List 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 5:29 
  AM
  Subject: Re: best use of graphics in 
  FM

My take on your questions:
  1. SnagIt from TechSmith, which is integrated into the FM interface. 
  15-30 seconds or so if you use automated naming.
  2. No, you should take the time to do it right the first time.
  3. Quality of the document has a direct relationship both to how 
  customers view the company and its products, and likely reduces calls for 
  support. And... the quick and dirty method only works for the current writer. 
  It'd be really hard for any other writer to maintain or change.

Art Campbell            

                    art.campbell at gmail.com
  "... In my opinion, there's 
  nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a redheaded girl." -- Richard 
  Thompson

                No disclaimers 
  apply.

     DoD 358

I support www.TheGrotonLine.com, hyperlocal news for Groton 
  MA.

  On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 9:59 PM, Ken Poshedly <poshedly at bellsouth.net> 
  wrote:

    FrameMaker 8.0 on a PC with Windows XP Professional

Except for 
    bloated file sizes, in the long run, does it really matter if you reference 
    graphics or if you embed them inside your publications?

My coworker 
    is a guy who was tech pubs manager at another heavy equipment company but 
    was convinced by our employer to move south from PA for this job. He comes 
    for a primarily graphics background, having started a long time ago as a 
    pen-and-ink tech illustrator. His writing skills are fair at best, but he 
    considers himself an authority on tech pubs because he had been the manager 
    of his group. And our company never did fulfill its promises to him if he 
    left his previous employer.

While we do get along pretty well, we do 
    differ on this aspect of FrameMaker graphics -- to embed or to 
    reference?

We are the only two tech writers -- with no tech pubs 
    manager -- and we work in metro Atlanta, Georgia, for a multinational 
    Chinese company in which the Chinese engineers in Shanghai and elsewhere 
    over there write the original documentation for heavy machinery in the 
    Chinese language (taking as long as they want), then send the stuff to a 
    group of kids in their 20s (sorry, but I'm way past that age) in Shanghai 
    who are not even allowed anywhere near the machinery but simply translate 
    the stuff as best they can into "Chinglish". The machinery and their books 
    are then put on ships and my coworker and I are then told we have two weeks 
    to "Americanize" the Chinglish stuff. That means reformatting, reorganizing 
    and rewriting the stuff for American heavy equiment owners.

Thus, we 
    have next to no time to do things correctly. And I've been told over and 
    over that for the most part, "technical writing" does not exist as a 
    profession in China and it is simply assigned to anybody and everybody. 
    Their books look absolutely beautiful and they know how to mimic our page 
    layouts, but it all breaks down when one tries to use the books to actually 
    operate this extremely dangerous machinery because the terms, grammar, 
    punctuation, etc., are all so inconsistent, incorrect and well, you get the 
    idea. And the U.S. president of the company is only here in the U.S. for 
    about 4 years and follows ONLY the Chinese methods. (For one thing, no 
    salary increases; you simply stay at your starting level or quit. And, by 
    the way, very few if any promotions. I'm there 3 years and looking to move 
    on.)

Unfortunately, at his prior location, another FM user (more 
    knowledgeable than my coworker) showed my coworker what I call a "hack" to 
    get a document done in a fraction of the time that it would ordinarily take. 
    Specifically, he uses "PrintScreen32" to take screen shots of existing 
    graphics in the Word or pdf Chinglish books we get from the home office and 
    then pastes them directly into his FM document. No muss, no fuss -- and no 
    record of any filename or any other details about any of the graphics in his 
    documents.

He also does this with text blocks (sometimes entire 
    pages) from the Chinglish books and simply pastes those text blocks into his 
    FM documents. The results are  horrendous because no real editing can 
    be done (and errors in the original text abound). He simply creates small 
    FrameMaker text blocks over incorrect words or sentences and types in the 
    few words or sentences needed to fix something. So his FM documents are 
    pretty much "pictures" of text with white boxes of corrected words that give 
    his pages that "ransom-letter look".

This method allows him to 
    "complete" a document much faster than doing it what I call "the right 
    way".

I, on the other hand, have no problem with taking screen shots 
    and saving them as legitimate graphics with an art control numbers (as 
    listed in an Excel file created just for this purpose) that can be either 
    referenced or embedded in other documents. It's true that my method takes a 
    few steps more (thus more time), but the result is a findable graphics that 
    can be reused over and over. (I also know how to copy text and properly 
    paste it in an FM document.)

Many of our graphics are used again and 
    again, and many are one-timers. Plus, embedding pert near 100 or 200 
    graphics in a document tends to create a humongous filesize. For instance, a 
    225-page manual done by my coworker as described above (that I've had to 
    completely redo correctly with edits throughout following its technical 
    review) and that has over 200 embedded graphics and text blocks was about 
    800 megabytes in size. I routinely get a warning that there may not be 
    enough computer memory to open the document, but it does open, taking about 
    45 seconds or more. He says that it is poor software and refuses to admit 
    that his way is stupid. The file is smaller since I've redone it.

So 
    the questions are:
* Does anybody here have a fast way of saving 
    screenshots as legit graphics for later reuse, and if so, what is your 
    method and how many seconds would you say it takes?
* Am I being too 
    controlling on this matter? (I suspect yes.)
* If I'm not too controlling 
    in this, are there any other arguments I can use to bolster my side of the 
    story?

Th-Th-That's all folks!!

-- Kenin 
    Atlanta

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