TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Re: indexing markers in FrameMaker--deleting globally
Subject:Re: indexing markers in FrameMaker--deleting globally From:Joanne Sprott <afterwords -at- aweditorial -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Tue, 20 Mar 2007 22:34:30 -0500
Many thanks to Fred Ridder and Stuart Burnfield for the IXgen
recommendation for working with FrameMaker indexes. I knew about this
add-on already, but, alas, I am forced to work this project on a
Macintosh, and from what I see at the IXgen website, he didn't build the
program to work with the Mac OS. And I don't have the option to use
Windows on a Mac or anything--highly customized hardware and software to
accommodate FrameMaker 6 using OS9 on an OSX Mac.
Oh, and Stuart, I had tried your Find/Change recommendation the other
day and didn't think it actually deleted the marker box, only made the
text disappear, but I was working with individual markers then. When I
tried the Change All option on a chapter, it made all the index markers
disappear quite nicely, so I shall use this method.
I solve the problem of multiple editing passes to the markers by
creating the entire index as a standalone document using my professional
indexing software (fast and easy). Then I have the thing all structured
the way I want with all the terms consistent. Then I put it into page
number order and export it to Word, where I change the format of the
index entries so they look like the marker text (colons between mains
and subs, etc.). I then go through the doc page by page and paste the
marker text in. The resulting index is generally perfect or near-perfect
on the first generation of the index file.
IXgen would still help, but I'll have to wait for a Windows client to
try that out.
Thanks again,
Joanne
AfterWords Editorial Services
Joanne Sprott and Sue Gaines
713-252-1945
PMB 113
9597 Jones Road
Houston, Texas 77065
joanne -at- aweditorial -dot- com <mailto:joanne -at- aweditorial -dot- com>
sue -at- aweditorial -dot- com <mailto:sue -at- aweditorial -dot- com> http://www.aweditorial.com
Stuart Burnfield wrote:
> **Hi Joanne -
>
> You can find the index markers and change them to 'null', in effect
> deleting them.
> In the Find/Change dialog box:
>
> Find: Marker of Type: Index
> Change: To Text: <== leave empty
>
> [Change All]
>
> I second the recommendation for IXgen. It should more than pay for
> itself when you come to edit your new index.
>
> Stuart
>
> Joanne Sprott said:
> I'm working a multi-document project where I'm embedding the index
> markers in the client's FrameMaker docs. I'm afraid that most of the
> extant index markers are useless for me (no offense to all you tech
> writers out there, but most of these indexes were left unedited, so lots
> of inconsistencies exist--better to just start over), so I'd like to
> delete them all globally. Is there any way to delete all the index
> markers at once (not just the text inside them, but the markers themselves).
>
> So far, Help indicates that I have to go to each marker in each chapter,
> highlight it and delete it individually. This seems an extremely
> cumbersome process, so, before I give up and do it the hard way, I
> thought I'd ask.
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
> printed documentation. Features include single source authoring, team authoring,
> Web-based technology, and PDF output. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
>
> Now shipping: Help & Manual 4 with RoboHelp(r) import! New editor,
> full Unicode support. Create help files, web-based help and PDF in up
> to 106 languages with Help & Manual: http://www.helpandmanual.com
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as afterwords -at- aweditorial -dot- com -dot-
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/afterwords%40aweditorial.com
>
>
> To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
>http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
>
>
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or
printed documentation. Features include single source authoring, team authoring,
Web-based technology, and PDF output. http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList
Now shipping: Help & Manual 4 with RoboHelp(r) import! New editor,
full Unicode support. Create help files, web-based help and PDF in up
to 106 languages with Help & Manual: http://www.helpandmanual.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-