changing default graphics directory

[FieryPantone]

• Apologies if this is already in the Helps … configuring access and updating is Air is on my to-do list for IT •

I've been preparing a book with a stack of (referenced) graphics, using placeholder images from one location. Now I've found out where the production graphics live, which is a quite different location. When I start with File > Insert file to update the graphics, FM is helpfully proposing the original location as default.

How can I tell it that the default directory is somewhere different, the way I'm used to doing when there's a "graphic not found" error?

Thanks in advance.

[Bob_Niland]

Do the final files have the same names as the placeholders?

If so, just make them inaccessible (move, delete, change perms), then open the document.

Windows FM is pretty reliable about remembering the new path (Unix FM is not), and, once entered, will try it for all subsequent missing graphics, until the first failure.

If the names aren't the same, it gets trickier.

[FieryPantone]

I'd considered that, but would have preferred a setting  Thanks all the same, for confirming my impression of the way to go.

[RaulM21]

Hello

A related question:

Is there any way to rename imported (as reference) files without loosing all references at page layout?

I receive so many .book to work over it. All referenced images have the "Product_" prefix, where Product is the name of the product. Sometimes, part of the layout (images, text) are the same, and it's a quick way to do this. But doing it like this, I need to rename all referenced images. Currently I'm not doing this because the amount of work it takes me.

Thank you

Regards

Raúl

P.S.: Sorry for my bad english.

[FieryPantone]

You might, cautiously, take a look at MIF – File > Save as … lets you save a copy of your file in Maker Interchange Format, which you can then explore and update with a text editor. Disclaimer: I've never used .mif for this particular purpose ;-} … and there may be other methods I've not come across.

1. save an .fm file as .mif
2. locate the first reference to a Product_ graphic and delete the prefix
3. make sure the graphic itself (without the Product_ prefix) is in the same directory
4. save the edited .mif file with a new name
5. open the .mif file in FrameMaker (note: .mif is a very strictly structured format, so it's easy to end up with a file you can't open)
6. see whether the new graphic is displayed correctly

I imagine you're already using a List of References to see which graphics are linked in the .fm file

Post again if I've not explained clearly

[Bob_Niland]

> Disclaimer: I've never used .mif for this particular purpose ;-}

I have, and deliberately didn't mention it. I've written a few scripts to gather/move ("archive") imported objects, and to re-write all references (from all over our network) to a single local directory.

Frame uses a unique platform-independent path notation in MIF that is a nuisance to reverse engineer and parse, and the tags are different for graphics and text insets. MIF mucking can be done, but is the last resort.