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Subject:The Horrors of Upgrades: Your Help Needed! From:Maurice King <benadam -at- CYBERDUDE -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 18 Aug 1998 10:53:56 -0400
I am posting a question regarding FrameMaker 5.5 and portability to RTF files. Please post any responses offline to:
Maurice -dot- King -at- per-se -dot- com
Do NOT reply to the e-mail address from which I am posting, as the responses are of interest to an entire organization.
I am working in an environment that must generate documents for Windows platforms ranging from 3.11 to Windows 98/NT. The documentation must be available in PDF, WinHelp, HTML Help, and on Web pages as well. The DTP editing tool we have brought in is FrameMaker 5.5; the online Help tool is RoboHelp 6.0. The problem that I have discovered in porting the FrameMaker 5.5 documents into RTF did not exist in Version 5.1.1, and I am interested in knowing if anyone else has experience with the matter.
In FrameMaker versions up to 5.1.1, any RTF exported files retained the tags in the exported file. In Version 5.5, all the tags disappear, leaving each paragraph with the Normal tag with any characteristic fonts, spacings, and the like appearing as added attributes per paragraph. Consequently, it becomes necessary to re-tag the entire export file when preparing WinHelp projects, thereby adding a considerable amount of time to production, one our organization cannot afford to bear.
Does anyone out there know of a way to export an RTF file from FrameMaker 5.5 that retains all the format tags? I'm asking several sources simultaneously because we need swift answers. The sooner you reply, the better for us.
It just seems to me insane that any upgrade would overlook this issue. FrameMaker is hardly the most ideal tool for an organization that deals predominantly with WinHelp, but it is ideal for most other uses, and I truly do not want to part with it over this issue unless there is no solution.
- Maury
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