FrameMaker import and cross references

[edrawl]

I have been trying to import an existing FrameMaker book into RoboHelp and generate WebHelp. Mostly this works as advertised, but my cross references are not converting consistently. Cross references that use identical FrameMaker cross-reference formats sometimes convert into an HTML hyperlink and sometimes they do not. The same result occurs whether or not I change the mapping of cross-reference formats from "[Source]" to one of the building blocks.

[JainVivek]

Do you see a pattern in which xrefs are not getting converted?

[edrawl]

No, I looked for some commonality, but I do not see a pattern. It seems very random. The same ones convert (or not) each time I re-compile the project.

[JainVivek]

Can you save your FrameMaker files as MIF, open the MIF and again save as .fm? Do you still see the same problem?

[octechwriter]

I'm having the same problem.

Some cross references convert from FM8 to RH7 as hyperlinks, and some do not. I've examined the FM files and can find no structural differences or markers that distinguish the cross references that convert from those that do not.

I tried converting the FM files to MIF, and then converting them back to FM again, but this did not resolve the problem.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

[JainVivek]

Do you have multiple cross ref markers on a single paragraph in FrameMaker? If yes, you may want to clean up some of your FrameMaker files. I am not sure if there is specific use case where multiple cross reference markers in the same paragraph are needed.

[octechwriter]

Jain,

Thanks for your help.

Strange that multiple Cross-Ref markers might throw RH off, considering new Frame users are likely to create multiple cross references to a single paragraph by pointing to the paragraph tag rather than looking to see if a cross reference already exists. (I imagine that that's a common mistake because that's what I did for a long time, and no book ever told me differently.)

There were some paragraphs with multiple Cross-Ref markers in this document, but they weren't consistent with the cross reference links that failed to convert from FM8 to RH7.

I have also tried deleting all of the markers in a paragraph, deleting the cross reference to the paragraph, and recreating the cross reference, but with no better results in RoboHelp.

[JainVivek]

If you are comfortable sending me a sample, please mail me at vivekj at adobe dot com.

[PaulB1234]

I saw this same behavior and posted this reply to another user in the FrameMaker Integration section of this forum:

RoboHelp is not removing the "page number" portion of the Xref format even though I specify the <paratext> building block only. I know there is a bug in FM 8 that seems to affect this behavior. If you specify an escape sequence in the xref format such as \+ for a non-breaking hyphen, FM 8 doesn't display that sequence correctly in the xref dialog box (it displays a block character instead). When I removed the escape sequence RH converted the xrefs correctly. The problem for me is that I need the non-breaking hyphen in the FM source files for PDF delivery. To work around this bug I have added a pre-processing step where I import xref formats into a copy of my FM 8 files that do not have page numbers or special characters in them. Then I added the files to the RH project to avoid the conversion buggy behavior. But I would like to get a patch for this.

[octechwriter]

I submitted a support ticket about this issue. Here is the response from Adobe:

Thank you for writing Adobe Technical Support.

I understand that you are having an issue with the cross-reference not
converted on your project.

I verified this with a senior engineer and was told that this is a know
issue. They are aware of the issue, however there is no fix for this
issue.

I hope this information helps. Feel free to reply to this email if your
need further assistance. If you encounter a new issue, you can file a
new case on the Adobe Support Portal at:

Adobe Support Portal:
http://www.adobe.com/go/supportportal

Thank you for choosing Adobe.

[JainVivek]

Please verify this issue after applying the FrameMaker patch 8.0.2 and RoboHelp patch 7.0.1 - this issue should get resolved.

If it is still not resolved, send me a sample file at vivekj at adobe dot com.

[octechwriter]

Is FrameMaker 8.0.2 the same as FameMaker 8.0p273?

[JainVivek]

Yes, FrameMaker 8.0.2 is same as FrameMaker 8.0p273. If your cross reference problem continues to exist, please send me a sample at vivekj at adobe dot com.

[JainVivek]

Also, for FrameMaker cross references which are not getting converted into hyperlinks in RoboHelp, please verify if the target text has space at the beginning or at the end. If yes, remove the space(s) and try again.

[octechwriter]

I looked for spaces, but did not find any around the targets. I sent a link to a zipped RH project and FM source file to your email yesterday afternoon.

[octechwriter]

I figured a workaround for this problem for the time being, but I still believe this issue was not corrected in RH 7.01 as posted on Adobe's website.

If you're using RH 7.01 and FM 8.0.2 (8.0p273) and some of your FM cross references do not convert to hyperlinks in RH, use Import to bring your FM files into RH. Do not use the Add FrameMaker File option.

I tried using the Add FrameMaker File in new projects on three different computers (using Add By Copy and Add By Reference), and each time the same cross references would not convert to hyperlinks. Each computer was running Windows XP Pro with a full install of the TC Suite and the latest updates.

Using the Import option (as opposed to using the Add FrameMaker File option) solves this problem, but it leaves you without the ability to force update the files.

Adobe, please fix the Add FrameMaker File feature.

[Guest]

I had the same problem with Robohelp not converting the xrefs in my FrameMaker book to hyptertext links when I imported the FrameMaker book into Robohelp. I converted the FrameMaker book from structured to unstructured and imported it into Robohelp again, and Robohelp converted the unstructured cross-references into hypertext links with no problem. Apparently there is something about structure, and using elements rather than paragraphs, that is throwing Robohelp off.