Frame > Word > Frame -- is there a way to do this w/o going nuts?

[Harro de Jong]

> We've been maintaining a set of engineering specs for a client for >10 years. The
> documents are large, 300+ page multi-chapter books, with header autonumbering
> that goes to 8 levels. About a year ago, client requested we give them the Frame
> content for one spec in Word so they could do some extensive edits. We did, and
> had not heard from them since. They contacted us 2 weeks ago, asking us to
> reformat the document. They'd compiled all the chapters into one 450-page Word
> doc and done 2-3 major revisions over the last year, all editing done by engineers
> and other folks with no expertise in long-document work.  It's a bit of a mess.
> 
> Now they want us to re-convert it into Frame. What would the recommended
> workflow be?

Do you still have the original Word files you gave them? You could compare those with the edited version to find what's changed. 

If importing the Word files is the only option: our company has developed a tool that can prepare Word files to make importing easier.
<http://www.triviewgroup.com/Producten/TriviewWordFormatter/tabid/185/Default.aspx>

WordFormatter allows you to:
- convert ad-hoc formatting to named styles 
- remove graphics from the Word file (saving the graphics as separate files) including a way to re-import the graphics in FrameMaker
- delete Word paragraph numbering and bullet characters 


Contact me off-list for more information. 

Harro de Jong
Triview