Converting Word to Frame

[Laurie Brooke Adams <laadams -at- CISCO -dot- COM>]

In my new position, I support engineers in many areas/countries by editing data
about tests done in our verification lab, then put the documents on our intra-
net pages.  Given that the engineers are all expected to use Word, this should
pose no problems.  I edit the documents in Word, and put them on our intranet
pages as downloadable Word files and/or html.  This part is a breeze.

The challenge enters when I have to take these documents created in Word and
convert them to Frame so that they can be put on CD and the external web doc-
umentation site.  The conversion, at least the attempts *I* have made (and those
of my predecessors) isn't easy, or pretty.  It has driven the Knowledge Products
(primary documentation group) to use Frame and skip Word.

Why don't we just change to Frame too?

Engineering management has cautioned me that getting the engineers worldwide
to change over to Frame is NOT an option.  The logistics and cost alone would
be prohibitive.  Also, they don't NEED a tool as powerful as Frame.  Word is
what they know, and they don't WANT to change. (I like Word better myself.)

Is there something I haven't figured out that would make the conversion easier?

Even when I make the Word and Frame templates match as closely as possible,
actually using the same names for headings, etc., Frame puts a character in
front of each component name when the file is converted.

This quirk means I'd have to rename all the many format components on each
converted document, so they would be within company standard and ready for
conversion to CD and to be put onto the external web.

Is there an easy way to do this conversion that I haven't tripped over?  There
IS a group that does nothing but Word-to-Frame conversions, but they are on the
other coast, in another organization, and my boss didn't build them into our
budget.  (The fact that they aren't cheap makes me suspect it's a rough job...)

Alternatively, is there some format that is friendly to both Word and Frame
that I could use as a filter?  Some of my documents are longish for the web
(500 pp or so) and having to go through and rename every kind of heading,
every type of list item, etc. is worse than tedious.  I simply don't have the
time for something like that.

At this point, the backlog of documents is looking like Everest, and I would
be grateful for advice from those who have been through this.

Is there any information I failed to mention that would help people give
good advice?

TIA,  cheers,          ...   laurie

 ______________________________________________________________________
     Laurie Brooke Adams              Technical Marketing Engineering
     On-line Documentation                  Cisco Systems, Inc.
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       ||||      ||||                    laadams -at- cisco -dot- com
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   c i s c o  S y s t e m s              Fax:     (919) 472-2500
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