Frame-to-MSWord roundtripping -- with Mif2Go, or ?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Guy Haas wondered: <<I'm in a new job in which engineers have a 
signficant number of docs they have created--and expect to go on 
modifying/maintaining using Microsoft Word.  We in the doc team want to 
convert the documentation to FrameMaker... The engineers appreciate the 
need for a consistent look-and-feel across product doc, but they want 
to be able to get into the docs and make new changes moving forward... 
Alternatively, is there some other solution anyone can suggest?  We are 
considering Structured FrameMaker for our side (for various reasons), 
and we realize that XML round-tripping to MSWord is a dicey 
proposition.>>

Can't speak to the Frame to Word issues, other than to add a 
theoretical comment: If Frame can export "tagged text", which is to say 
any text that you can treat like a markup language similar in principle 
to HTML, then you can import and edit that text in Word. This kind of 
round-tripping used to be possible in PageMaker, and is supposed to be 
equally possible in InDesign. If Frame can reimport the tagged text 
(round-tripping), so much the better, but if not, at least you can use 
revision tracking to clearly communicate any necessary changes.

I can, however, add a comment about editing XML in Word: It can 
potentially work very well indeed, provided you do three things: First, 
treat the XML files as text/ASCII files and open them that way--do not 
let Word try to open them or save them as HTML. Second, save them as 
Word .doc files only so you can use revision tracking. Third, after 
reviewing and incorporating all the edits, resave as text--do not under 
any circumstances use any of Word's export functions. You can then 
reimport the XML into your authoring tool.

Of course, it's a bit more complicated than that. Details in two of my 
articles:
Hart, G.J. 2004. Editing Web pages: a second look. Intercom 
January:36­–37.
Hart, G. 2005. Editing in XML and SGML environments. Intercom 
May:39­–41.

I've done this kind of work in HTML, and it works reasonably well. I 
assume on this basis that the same approach, with a few tweaks will 
work equally well in XML--but have not actually done such work myself. 
I did, however, get the second article reality-checked by a local XML 
wizard, so I'm confident that it's at least worth trying so you can 
determine whether the approach will work in your situation. Shouldn't 
take more than an hour to do the test.

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Geoff Hart   ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
www.geoff-hart.com
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