Framemaker questions (long)...

[Dan Schmitz <djs -at- GENE -dot- COM>]

Hi, all!

These are my first technical questions to this listserve, so please bear
with me, and apologies for the length of this posting. So far, I have been
able to figure out a lot of the intricacies of FrameMaker on my own, but I
have seen many useful tips on this listserve, so it's time to ask for help.
I'm positively stumped on a few things!

Background on my document

I'm working on a project to document several Human Machine Interfaces
(HMIs) that will control an automated pharmaceutical filling plant. I have
to develop what is known in engineering (at least where I work) as a "flip
chart" style of manual. This consists of some narrative text sections that
describe the facility and system overall, followed by a detailed
description of all operation sequence screens that the technician will
encounter.

Each sequence screen flipchart consists of a full-color screenshot taken
directly from the HMI screens themselves. Below each screenshot is a table
that lists the sequence steps, step description, and advance conditions for
each step. Each table has content unique to the sequence screen it
describes. There will be over 100 such flipcharts in the manual.

I originally undertook to do this project in Word 8/Office97, but I soon
learned just how limited and slow Word becomes when there are lots of color
graphics, autonumbering, and tables involved. I have since switched to
Frame 5.5 for Windows NT.

My questions:

1) Anchored frames, tables & graphics

Most of my sequence screens can be fully described in one page (graphic +
table). However, some of them have many steps, causing the table to
continue across two or more pages. One of the requirements I have is that
the relevant graphic for each table always be shown, even if it has to
repeat several times.

I have been placing the graphic inside of an anchored frame, which is
itself inside of a table heading cell, so that when the table continues
onto another page, the graphic automatically repeats. This has worked fine
so far. However, when I need to add an additional sequence flipchart on a
new page between existing flipcharts which are autonumbered, I find that
the new flipchart does not autonumber, but instead restarts from 0.

Reading Frame's Help, I understand that the only way to insert a blank page
that is not at the end of the document is to insert is as disconnected
text. I suspect that this is why the autonumbering doesn't work. Can anyone
confirm this, and recommend a better way to insert blank pages?

2) Inserting a blank page that's not at the end of the document

For a manual consisting of lots of graphics and tables that has to include
autonumbering and table continuation text, am I using Framemaker correctly
to do this? I am placing tables directly into the text flow, adding an
anchored frame to one of the heading cells, and then pasting in my
screenshots. Is this the best way to do it, or is there a better way?

3) Color graphics causing huge file size, long saves

Each of my screenshot graphics is inserted into the document as a
"device-independent bitmap." So far, my document is less than 25 pages, but
has an uncompressed size of 17mb. Hence, saves take a REALLY long time. Am
I handling graphics correctly, or is there a way to use them that doesn't
create such a large file size?

4) Frame seems slow on NT; what's the best platform to run it?

I recently switched from a PowerMacintosh to a 200mhz PC running Windows
NT4. I have 64mb of RAM installed, and have increased the virtual memory
size to its maximum. In addition to the long time required for saving large
documents (mentioned above), I find that Frame is slow to open and scroll
through very large docs with color graphics. This might be addressed by
answers to my #3 question, but can anyone comment in general on the best
platform on which to run Frame?


Thanks in advance for your help!


Dan Schmitz
Technical Writer
Process & Automation Engineering
Genentech, Inc.
djs -at- gene -dot- com