FM8 (DITA) Enable Copy of error messages

[R__VanDyke]

FM8 "new style" error panels should support direct selection and copying of message text.

When working with FM8 Structured (particularly DITA), errors are often reported in a "new style" error message panel. The panel is distinguished by a royal blue bottom margin that contains "x of y" status information and navigation controls.

It appears to be impossible to readily copy-and-paste error message information from the new style error panels. This makes it extremely troublesome to copy and paste text for purposes of, say, requesting help with the error on the Adobe FrameMaker forum.

More specifically, one can neither (a) use one's pointing device (a.k.a. mouse) to select error message text and CTRL+C copy it for later CTRL+V pasting, nor (b) use File > Save to save the file as plain text insofar as Save-ing embeds scads of binary bytes in the file.

Eek! The only way I've found to copy-and-paste error message information is to print the file as a PDF, then open the PDF and select the text there. How silly!

I therefore request that FM8 "new style" error panels support direct selction and copying of all text.

Thanks,
RBV

[_Scott_Prentice_]

Hi Riley...

These "new style" panels are not really so new. This is the standard error reporting mechanism you get with XML and SGML content (it's been around for years). These "panels" are really just FrameMaker docs, and by default they are in a locked or view-only state. To copy the text, just "unlock" the file with an Esc,F,l,k (that's an Esc, Shift-f, plain-l, plain-k). You can also do all of the normal things that you do with a FM file (after unlocking it), such as save to TXT or other formats.

Cheers!

...scott

[R__VanDyke]

Scott:

Hilarious! Using FM since 98 (albeit mostly unstructured) and never saw those.

Never would have guessed they were simply locked...

Cheers & thanks,
Riley