Re: Framemaker Question
Hi,The extension .fm is simply the default extension for FrameMaker files in their native (binary) format.
I would like to about framemakers "fm" file format. Can anybody help me
please.?
The native binary format is unintelligible to any program except FrameMaker.
The alternative format is Maker Interchange Format (MIF), which is an ASCII text file in which
all of the information and formatting constructs in the binary version are preserved.
Here is an excerpt from the introductory chapter of the MIF Reference, an on-line manual
that comes with FrameMaker:
MIF (Maker Interchange Format) is a group of ASCII statements that create an easily parsed, readable text file of all the text, graphics, formatting, and layout constructs that most FrameMaker® products (with the exception of FrameReader®) understand. Because MIF is an alternative representation of a FrameMaker document, it allows FrameMaker products and other applications to exchange information while preserving graphics, document content, and format.
Why use MIF?
You can use MIF files to allow FrameMaker products and other applications to exchange information. For example, you can write programs to convert graphics and text into MIF and then import the MIF file into a FrameMaker product with the graphics and text intact. You can also save a FrameMaker document or book file as a MIF file and then write a program to convert the MIF file to another format. These conversion programs are called filters; filters allow you to convert FrameMaker document files into foreign files (files in another word processing or desktop publishing format), and foreign files into FrameMaker document files.
You can use MIF files with database publishing applications, which allow you to capture changing data from databases and format the data into high-quality documents containing both text and graphics information. You use the database to enter, manipulate, sort, and select data. You use a FrameMaker product to format the resulting data. You use MIF files as the data interchange format between the database and the FrameMaker product.
You can also use MIF files to do the following:
Share documents with earlier versions of FrameMaker products
Perform custom document processing
Set options for online documents in View Only format
====================
| Nullius in Verba |
====================
Dan Emory, Dan Emory & Associates
FrameMaker/FrameMaker+SGML Document Design & Database Publishing
Voice/Fax: 949-722-8971 E-Mail: danemory -at- primenet -dot- com
10044 Adams Ave. #208, Huntington Beach, CA 92646
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