FM 8: Xref markers keep breaking and re-breaking

[Stuart Rogers]

On 2013-Oct-01 12:09 PM, VLM TechSubs wrote:
> Great suggestion, thanks Winfried. I have been working with all files
> open, because some have that font error message upon opening, and I
> haven’t taken time yet to fix that. And … as time goes by, I
> think/suspect increasingly that this problem has to do with linking to
> empty target paragraphs. Ergo, my request for input on nonprinting
> characters I might use to trick FM into thinking that those paras are
> not really empty.
>


Elchanan,

I really doubt that putting non-printing characters (or printing 
characters, for that matter) into your "empty" paragraphs will solve the 
problem.  If the paragraph exists at all, then FM has assigned it a 
unique number and will use that number internally to create links.  If 
the target has a cross-ref marker in it, then the pgf is also no longer 
empty but contains the marker with its own unique number for linking. 
You can see that for yourself if you open a .mif version of your files. 
Your "empty" paragraphs will take up several lines with content of this 
sort (from an "empty" pgf containing only a xref marker):

<Para
   <Unique 998909>
   <PgfTag `special'>
   <PgfReferenced Yes>
   <ParaLine
    <Marker
     <MType 9>
     <MTypeName `Cross-Ref'>
     <MText `special pgf marker'>
     <MCurrPage `1'>
     <Unique 998920>
    > # end of Marker
   > # end of ParaLine
  > # end of Para

There is some other cause for your broken links. Are you saving all open 
files after making corrections, before regenerating files?

Have you tried generating a list of unresolved cross-references when the 
problem occurs? There may be clues in such a list.

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FrameMaker/8.0/index.html (search on 
Resolving cross-references)

Best regards,

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
3781 Victoria Park Avenue, Unit 3
Toronto, ON, Canada  M1W 3K5
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

http://www.phoenix-geophysics.com