Technical Communication

FrameMaker,Wiesbaden,Technical Communication Suite,DITA authoring,PDF,Trial,Publishing,

Dear Framers

Like every year, this year too it will be a great opportunity to meet many of you during the largest European Technical Communication conference, Tekom 2009.

This conference held in the city of Wiesbaden helps me in connecting with you in person.

Many of my colleagues from different groups like marketing and engineering would also be present. If you want to setup a meeting with me, please let me know and we can schedule a meeting at the conference venue.

Please write to me at mahesh@adobe.com

Hope to see you in Wiesbaden!

Take care

- Mahesh

Posted by Mahesh Kumar Gupta at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When FrameMaker content containing Anchored Frame is imported to RoboHelp, the Anchored Frame is converted to corresponding image in generated XHTML content. The quality of generated images has been an area of concern. While some users are satisfied with the quality of images generated, others feel the scope of improvement in the image quality.
This blog describes some of the best practices and workflows that will help obtain improved quality of generated images. In other words, it will allow users to maintain the original quality of source images generated through specialized image editing applications.

Use Reference Images in FrameMaker
FrameMaker provides following two options while importing an image file into a document:

• Import By Reference : A reference to the image file on disk is kept inside the document


• Copy Into Document : Image data is embedded into the document

"Import By Reference" method should be preferred if it is not absolutely necessary to choose the other option. This reduces the size of the FM document and allows RoboHelp to maintain the original image quality by referring to the original image.

Use Zero Dimension Image setting in RoboHelp
RoboHelp imports the dimensions of anchored frame and specify them in the corresponding <img> tag of generated XHTML topic. This leads to resizing of image when the topic is viewed in a browser. Sometimes, some resized images look distorted in some browsers. RoboHelp provides a functionality of omitting height/width attribute in the generated <img> tag thus avoiding the resizing of generated images. This tweak can be applied by setting the "Preferred Dimensions" to zero in Conversion Settings dialog.

Use Web supported Images
The copying of reference images is effective only if the referred image has one of the web supported format viz. JPG, PNG, BMP, GIF. In case, an image with any other format is used, RoboHelp needs to regenerate the image in order to convert it to Web supported image format. So, if it is not absolutely necessary, a web supported image version of image may be used in FM documents. In case, it is necessary to use other image formats for Print workflows in FrameMaker, two versions of images may be used in the document with Conditions applied on them. One condition may be enabled for Printing and another for Online publishing. These conditions can be manipulated in either FrameMaker or RoboHelp.

Avoid unnecessary content in Anchored Frame
As it is understood, if the anchored frame contains more than one object, RoboHelp needs to generate one single image. So, unnecessary content e.g. empty Text Frame, text frame with only a marker, object hidden behind an image etc. may be avoided.

Replacing Images
In case the above workflows are not feasible to meet the requirements, the images may be replaced with desired better quality images. This may be achieved through scripting. Other workflows can include post processing the images using Photoshop scripting.

I hope these steps will prove fruitful in obtaining better quality images.

Mayank Agrawal
RoboHelp Engineering

Posted by Mayank Agrawal at 6:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FrameMaker provides a Print authoring environment and is best suited for print and PDF publishing. However, RoboHelp provides an HTML authoring environment and is best suited for online publishing. The content in the two forms need to have different look and feel to suit the purposes of different mediums. Hence, there is a need to allow for swift and efficient conversion of look and feel of the content being imported from FrameMaker to RoboHelp.
Technical Communication Suite 2 provides two separate functionalities for achieving this easy conversion.

• RoboHelp Way


• FrameMaker Way

ROBOHELP WAY

When a FrameMaker document is linked/imported in RoboHelp, RoboHelp allows a user to specify the changes in the look and feel of the document. The look and feel of a document is mainly decided by the kind of styling it uses. RoboHelp allows a user to specify a RoboHelp style for each FrameMaker style by which the FrameMaker style will be replaced after importing the content.
For example, a user may have the following Heading 1 style defined in FrameMaker

Now he/she may want it to look like as follows in RoboHelp

In order to achieve this user needs to do the following steps

1. Link the FrameMaker document in RoboHelp project.


2. Goto File->Project Settings


3. Goto "Import" tab of Project Settings dialog


4. Click "Edit" button for conversion settings for FrameMaker documents


5. Select "Heading 1" Style under "Paragraph" tree item on the left


6. Select "Heading 1" from the "RoboHelp Style" drop down on the right.


7. In case user wants to modify the look and feel of Heading 1 style, it can be edited in RoboHelp's powerful style editor which can be invoked by clicking the "Edit Style" button


8. Click OK on both the dialogs.

This specifies that Heading 1 style of FrameMaker should be replaced with Heading 1 style of CSS specified in RoboHelp. In this manner, all other styles can be mapped. This functionality not only covers Paragraph styles but also extends to character styles and table formats.
RoboHelp provides a predefined CSS called RHStyleMapping.css for this purpose. This CSS may be modified by the user. If the user has predefined CSS style, he/she can point RoboHelp to use the styles from the particular CSS. This can be done by selecting the CSS for style mapping in the Import tab of Project Settings dialog as marked in the screenshot above.

FRAMEMAKER WAY

RoboHelp provides another approach for style mapping. Instead of going through CSS route, a user may create a template in FrameMaker having styles designed for online publishing. This template can then be specified in RoboHelp using "Apply FrameMaker Template before import" option in Project Settings dialog. Once this is done, RoboHelp applies the FrameMaker Template temporarily on linked documents at the time of conversion of FrameMaker content to RoboHelp content. The process of application of FrameMaker template on FrameMaker documents is similar to FrameMaker's "Import Formats" functionality. Once FrameMaker template is defined in RoboHelp, the author need not map styles manually as described above.

WHICH METHOD TO USE?
The RoboHelp method operates around CSS editing. So, for users who are conversant with CSS authoring can leverage this functionality to design Online specific CSS styles to suite the Online published output requirements.
Users who find CSS authoring an overhead and are more comfortable working with FrameMaker's style designer can skip the CSS editing and may opt for The FrameMaker method. He/she simply needs to author his/her styles in FrameMaker and use the particular document as a template in RoboHelp.
However, besides the comfort level for each method, there could be other reasons for which a user may want to choose a specific method. There are functionalities which are limited to a particular method and may not be available it the other method.
For example, RoboHelp provides a rich interface for designing advanced table patterns which is not possible in FrameMaker. On the other hand, FrameMaker provides autonumber functionality in Paragraph styles which is available in totally different form in RoboHelp.
Users who are good authors but are not comfortable in designing styles either way may use predefined CSS and/or template and can specify them in RoboHelp using RoboHelp's Project Settings dialog.
Thus both the methods are useful for different purposes and for different users. It depends on an author to choose one of them as per the expertise and requirements as described. Advanced users may use the two methods simultaneously to take advantages of both the approaches.

Mayank Agrawal
RoboHelp Engineering Team

Posted by Mayank Agrawal at 7:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are a FrameMaker author looking forward to publish your FrameMaker content in various output formats or if you are a beginner trying to start with Technical Communication Suite 2, then this blog is meant for you. This blog helps a user explore all the areas of the product relevant for a beginner.
The integration of FrameMaker and RoboHelp in Technical Communication Suite 2 is an end to end solution for publishing FrameMaker authored content in various publishing formats including

• Air Help


• Web Help


• HTML Help


• Flash Help


• Printed output(PDF, DOC)

Or Right click menu

Once the file is selected, RoboHelp scans the files (including all chapters and sub-books in case of a book) to read document catalogs and to create an exact replica of the chapter hierarchy in case of a book. The FrameMaker documents appear as linked documents in RoboHelp Project Manager Pane.

Settings related to style mappings, cross reference mappings, image conversion, file splitting, conditions, autonumber conversion, applying template etc. can be mentioned using Conversion settings dialog. It can be accessed from File->Project Settings->Import Tab

These settings can be saved or exported for reuse and can be extended to other projects.
Once these settings are done, FM content can be imported in RoboHelp using the Generate/Update menu. This content can then be published to any of available output formats from Single Source Layouts Pane.
Thus, TCS 2 provides an end to end solution starting with authoring of content in FrameMaker and finally publishing it using RoboHelp's Single Source Layouts.
Please note that, RoboHelp maintains a live link to FrameMaker files. This means that whenever the FrameMaker content is updated, RoboHelp notifies the user that the content has been updated and it can be reimported into RoboHelp. Thus, an author can edit his/her content as many times as he/she wants and can publish it any point of time.
Also, the FrameMaker content imported in RoboHelp can be locally tweaked for publishing. The look and feel of the content can be managed using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
This is how one can start exploring the product. This product has a very rich feature set for advanced users which is not covered in this blog. My previous blogpost http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2009/07/framemaker-robohelp_integration_in_tcs_revamped_myth_or_trut.html talks about the various useful features of the product.
One can keep exploring and learning this rich and easy to use product. One may keep following this blog to have further understanding of the product.

All the Best!!!
Mayank Agrawal
RoboHelp Engineering Team

Posted by Mayank Agrawal at 7:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Technical Communication,FrameMaker,Tekom,Technical Communication,XML authoring,PDF,CMS,conref,MIF,cross-reference,WebDav,STC,Publishing,Patch,903

Dear Framers!

Hello

I would like to thank you for the great feedback you have shared with me on FrameMaker 9. Naturaly, when there is so much in one release itself, there will be some issues as well. Thanks again for sharing your valuable feedback. We have tried addressing almost all the pressing issues through 9.0.3

FrameMaker 9.0.3 patch is live now and it is available through Adobe Update Manager (AUM). This patch (9.0p250) must be applied on top of 9.0.2 (9.0p237) only. You can check for updates through Help->Updates Menu in FrameMaker.

With the help of these fixes, following workflows are now enabled/supported:

• Opening/importing a file created in FrameMaker 7.2 and earlier with virtual fonts applied to the text now correctly shows the text in FrameMaker 9.


• The dimensions and default dpi resolution for PNG, JPG and GIF files should not get corrupted when imported in FrameMaker.


• Deletion of multiple user-variables from Variable Pod should not crash FrameMaker now.


• Memory leak shouldn't happen while creating a book with FrameMaker components from DITA map.


• FrameMaker doesn't crash while displaying a message box during FA_Note_PreQuitBook notification, on the second call of F_ApiUpdateTextInset() and when F_ApiAlert() is called from within a FA_Note_PostQuitDoc notification.


• The "New document command" in the quick access bar doesn't get disconnected from the API command "F_ApiDefineCommand".


• FrameMaker doesn't crash on switching on different tabs of table designer when context is set for book and panels are iconized.


• Now correct Index of Marker(IOM) is generated for a file containing Markers that use structured building blocks.


• On converting DITA map, which contains nested topicrefs, to a book the content of the topic files was hidden in folder templates. In 9.0.3, the folder containing template will be labeled as: []


• The table row element now hides while using DITAVAL filter.


• Spelling Checker now allows words with special characters to be added to dictionary. It also shows the words with suffix "(s)" as correctly spelled now.


• DocBook starter kit now unifies the XML and SGML applications and fixes various formatting inconsistencies in the XML application. The XML application uses XSLT instead of an FDK client and supports indexterm.


• PreserveEntity FDK client can be combined with XSLT in XML applications to preserve variables and special character handling when documents are round-tripped between FrameMaker and XML.


• In structured document, now you can hide child elements even when in Show state if the parent element is hidden using conditional text. This is an additional option. For details refer to the document shown below.

This patch has fixes for some more issues not listed above.

Please install this patch on top of 9.0.2, retest your workflows and share your feedback with me.

Thanks

-Mahesh (mahesh@adobe.com)

Posted by Mahesh Kumar Gupta at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FrameMaker,XML,Technical Communication Suite,DITA,PDF,Trial,Publishing

Dear Users

In my engineering days, I used to study Quantum Physics where we also used to discuss going beyond the speed of light. Hard to imagine and really hard to measure but I many times believe that the speed at which technology is moving will soon replace the 'c' in the Einstein's equation E=mc2

How about trying the trial in a virtual environment?

Well, it may sound cryptic but if I decode it for you, it is very simple. You can now try out our products even if you don't have the trial copies on your machine. Technology and our efforts have made it possible for you.

I recommend that you please watch RJ's demo watch this short recording on how to navigate around the TestDrive platform and the tutorials.

You may want to refer to RJ's blog as well at http://bit.ly/DMRbm:

I am sure you'll love this experience. Please do share your feedback.

Take care

- Mahesh

Posted by Mahesh Kumar Gupta at 1:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)