FM 8: Index marker syntax

[VLM TechSubs]

Thanks Frank, Robert, Jeremy, et. al. I so appreciate your help!

More info:

1. I now see that even a simple marker entry "<Emphasis>Eisphora" has this problem. It appears in the "correct" location
alphabetically, it just looks like

    . . . . . . 1

2. The original files were created in Word, but with no indexing. I put in 100% of these markers by hand, by myself, this week, in
FrameMaker 8. In other words, they "shouldn't" be affected by Word or the like. FYI, the ToC works just fine. 

3. I just did the following:

3.1 Shut Frame.
3.2 Relaunched Frame.
3.3 Opened book file.
3.4 Opened all files in book. Got some font and xref error messages, clicked through those. 
3.5 Highlighted, then saved, all files in book.
3.6 Generated ToC and index. 
3.7 Saved all files in book.
3.8 Opened index.
3.9 Found one of the offending entries, jumped to its source. It was a compound marker (2 entries in one marker). 
3.10 I copied one of the entries for reference, clicked in the document a few words away, and manually typed in the text for the
marker "America:Income tax of 1894", just like that.
3.11 Went to book file, all files selected, save all files in book, then generate.
3.12 Entry appears in the correct location, without any text only page #, and when I jump from that page number it takes me to the
new marker I just created. 
3.13 So I jump there, notice that the original marker is still in place, delete it, returned to 3.7 or so, repeated the whole
process, same result. 
3.14 Saved the index as mif, closed it, deleted the .fm version, reopened from mif, saved as FM 8, went to book, save all files in
book, generate, save all files in book, jump to index, and voila! Same result as before. 

Sigh ...

BTW, between steps, I recall breathing. :)

Frank, I am most willing and eager to try your step #4, but I've forgotten how to open the mif as text in Frame, after saving it.
???

Thanks,
Elchanan


-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Stearns [mailto:franks at fsatools.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2013 6:03 PM
To: VLM TechSubs
Cc: Framers
Subject: Re: FM 8: Index marker syntax


On Wed, 2 Oct 2013, VLM TechSubs wrote:

> Greetings!

> I'm going in circles here. I have a marker of type Index with the 
> content "America:Coinage Act of 1965". This appears in the index as a 
> line under "America", indented to the second level (correct so far), 
> but with only a page number, no text. I copied and pasted the marker 
> content into the preceding line. I must be missing something, but I 
> cannot figure out what. I have removed and recreated the marker from 
> scratch, to no avail. Can someone see an error on my part here?

If entered as stated, you should be fine.

But, after having specialized in FM indexes for 20+ years, we have seen some odd things happen with markers...

1. Was this document originally created in Word then imported to FM? 
Sometimes those converted markers are "dirty" and contain unseen, unprintable characters that can cause odd FM behavior. BTW, there
is NO CR or LF in the entry, correct? Your entry is one string, on one line in the marker?

2. Try a "MIF wash." But this won't remove unwanted "bad" characters. 
It will just refresh/rebuild the object lists.

3. For fun, put a new marker, hand typed, at or near the same place (no copy and paste). Does that new entry work?

4. If you're really adventurous, save as MIF, search for the entry, and see what all might be included with that marker. (Relates to
#1,
above.)

If all of the above fails, feel free to send us a copy of the doc for evaluation.

Hope this helps,

Frank Stearns Associates | makers of IXgen(tm) for FrameMaker(r)
*** IXGEN 7-10 for FRAMEMAKER 10/11 IS HERE! *** franks at fsatools.com <mailto:franks at fsatools.com> TOLL FREE Voice (USA and Canada):
800-567-6421 USA Voice: 435-275-8981  http://www.fsatools.com