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Subject:Re: Framemaker vs. Word 95 - graphics linking From:Simon North <north -at- SYNOPSYS -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 9 Jul 1997 18:01:16 +0000
> The problem
> we've had lately is that due to server upgrades, the location of the
> image files (which are linked, not embedded) has changed more than
> once. MSWord's graphic links are server-specific, so even though
> the graphics are still in H:\MANUALS etc., MS Word can't find them
> because the actual location is different. I called MS Word and they
> shrugged, so I have to relink everything.
>
> Question: does anyone know how Framemaker behaves in this situation?
> I've never worked with the product, but we would purchase it if we
> knew it solved this issue.
FrameMaker puts the complete pathname into the file which can be a
real pain (it even translates logical path names into an absolute
path name). However ... if you use MIF (maker interchange format) as
either a storage format or a transfer format, since MIF is an ASCII
format and is VERY well documented, it is a trivial task to hack a
piece of Perl code (or even something like and awk script) to patch
the paths. When a path is missing from a link name, Frame looks in
the current directory. If you give it a relative path name it will
find the files (although it will ultimately change the relative path
back into an absolute one when you save the file).
If Frame cannot find a linked file, its interactive correction dialog
allows you to change the path for the first file AND all the other
files, so even that is reasonably well handled.
Hope this helps,
Simon North
Simon North north -at- synopsys -dot- com
COSSAP Technical Writer, Aachen, Germany
"I sometimes think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability"
Oscar Wilde.
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