If you have not imported FrameMaker documents previously:
- Right-click the Imports folder.
From the context menu, select Add FrameMaker Import File.
(Alternatively, you can also select Project>Import File>Add FrameMaker Import File.)
Complete the options in the Add FrameMaker Import File dialog and click Add.
Double-click the new FLIMPFM file in the Imports subfolder.
The file opens in the Frame Import Editor to the right, with several tabs shown.
If you have imported FrameMaker documents previously and want to import more FrameMaker documents (to be included with this "batch"):
- Click the plus button
next to the Imports subfolder. Double-click the appropriate FLIMP file (which is named after the FrameMaker document that was at the top of the previous import).
The file opens in the Frame Import Editor to the right, with several tabs shown.
Tip: When possible, it is recommended that you select a Adobe FrameMaker BOOK file for import and let Flare locate and import all the associated document files within the Adobe FrameMaker book.
You can use the various options
- Open File This opens the
-
Link Generated Files To Source Files This creates a connection between the original
If you use this option, a link icon
is added to the top of a linked file in the Flare interface. This lets you know that you need to edit the source file, rather than editing this file. If you remove the connection to the source file, this icon no longer displays on the file. Please note that if you have bound the project to source control, the icons used for source control take precedence over the link icon. - Remove This removes the selected document(s) from the list.
- Move Up This moves the selected document higher in the list (if you have more than one document to import). The document at the top is used for the name of the content folder holding the imported topics in Flare. Also, the order determines how the imported documents are arranged in the Flare
- Move Down This moves the selected document lower in the list (if you have more than one document to import).
example
If you have a style called "Heading 2" in your
If you want Flare to split long topics into smaller ones (based on the number of characters in a topic) or re-import updated source documents automatically,
- Add "Topic Continued" links when appropriate Select this option if you want a link called "Topic Continued" to be placed at the bottom of pages when a long topic has been split into multiple topics.
- Add "Topic Continued From" links when appropriate Select this option if you want a link called "Topic Continued From" to be placed at the top of continued pages when a long topic has been split into multiple ones.
- Cross-Reference Format Use this field to specify the format for the "Topic Continued" and "Topic Continued From" links. Flare provides a cross-reference format for you—(continued in {title}) or (continued from {title}). With this cross-reference format, the link contains the words "continued in" or "continued from" within parentheses, followed by the text of the first paragraph in the connected topic. If you do not want the link to use that particular text, you have a couple of options. First, in Flare, you could manually enter a heading in each topic that is connected to another topic included in the split. That text will be used in the link instead (after you update the cross-references in Flare). Another option is to modify the format by clicking the Edit button. For more information see About Cross-References.
- Edit If you want to modify the cross-reference format provided, click this button, which opens the Cross-Reference Format dialog.
- Split Long Topics Select this option if you have long sections in your source documents and want to make sure that they are converted to multiple topics (rather than one very long topic).
- Threshold Enter the maximum number of characters to be converted to a topic before a new topic is created. Flare will break the topic at the nearest paragraph to the threshold value. That way, a new topic will not start in the middle of a sentence or word, but at the beginning of a paragraph.
- Avoid Creating 'Empty' Topics Select this option if you want to ensure that new topics are not created when large sections are found in the
- Threshold Enter the maximum number of empty character spaces allowed in a topic. If this number is exceeded, Flare will not create a new topic from that empty space.
- Generate Images for Anchored Frames when needed This option has to do with anchored frames in your FrameMaker documents that contain content other than images (e.g., text callouts).
- Option selected If the anchored frame contains an image along with callout text, a new flattened image will be created as a result.
- Option NOT selected If the anchored frame contains an image along with callout text, the original image is imported WITHOUT the callout text. You might select this option if you have resized the image in FrameMaker. With this option, the imported image is likely to be of a higher quality than it would be otherwise. You can then add a callout to the image once it is inside Flare (e.g., by using MadCap Capture or another tool).
- Preserve Image Size This option affects how the size of imported images are handled:
- Option selected The original image is imported. However, the <img> tag is modified in the imported file to closely reflect the height and width of the image in the FrameMaker document. This is done regardless of whether you are importing linked or embedded images from FrameMaker documents.
- Option NOT selected The <img> tag is not modified in the imported file. Instead, the image is referenced at 100% of its original value.
- Auto-reimport before 'Generate Output' This is also known as "Easy Sync." If you created a connection between your
- Approximate Filename Length Enter the maximum number of characters to use for naming new topic files that are automatically created after splitting a long topic. The default is 24.
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Enable 'Passthrough' Markers Select this check box to include a check mark if you have created passthrough markers in your FrameMaker source documents.
A passthrough marker is a special marker that you can insert into your FrameMaker source content when you have information or code that you plan to import to Flare and want left alone (or "passed through," leaving it exactly as you have authored it, rather than processing it).
You can specify how the marker content should be treated when the FrameMaker document is imported. The first option is that you can import the marker content as regular text (which is the default setting). The second option is that you can import the marker content as an XML fragment (e.g., the first part of a bold tag—<b>—but not the second part). The third option is that you can import the marker content as a complete XML tag.
You might use a passthrough marker for various reasons, such as for importing a marker as XHTML
example
Let's say you plan to import some FrameMaker documents to Flare and you have locations in those documents where you want to link to CHM files. The problem is that FrameMaker does not allow you to create links to CHM files in such a way that those links can then be imported into another software application.
Therefore, you create a passthrough marker in the FrameMaker document, providing the beginning "href" tag and path to the CHM file. Like this:
Then you create a second passthrough marker, providing the end tag for the link. Like this:
When you import the FrameMaker document(s), you can specify that the passthrough markers should be imported as XML fragments. In Flare, the link to the CHM file will look and work as it should.
- Passthrough Marker Format After you enable passthrough markers, click the down arrow in this field and select the type of format that you want to use for the import:
- text The marker content will be imported as regular text (default setting).
- fragment The marker content is imported as an XML fragment (e.g., the first part of a bold tag—<b>—but not the second part). If you select this option, you will probably need a second marker in the FrameMaker document to complete the XML tag.
- xml The marker content is imported as a complete XML tag.
- Convert Table Styles If you have tables in your FrameMaker documents that you have formatted in a certain way, select this check box if you want to create matching table styles as a result of the import. In the Flare project, the new table styles will be named after the format named applied to the table in FrameMaker (e.g., "Format_A.css," "Format_B.css," and so on). You can rename these table style sheets in Flare after the import finishes.
Even if you do not use this mapping feature, the table formatting still comes across when you import the documents. The only difference is that table style sheets make it easier to maintain the formatting of your tables within Flare.
- Reimport Table Styles This option is useful after you have already imported FrameMaker documents and converted the formatting in your tables into at least one table style sheet in Flare. You can use this option to determine whether tables should be imported again as table styles when you re-import.
You might want to keep this check box selected for some re-imports, but other times you might want to deselect it when re-importing.
example
Let’s say you want the formatted tables in your FrameMaker documents to be converted to table styles when you perform the initial import into a Flare project. Therefore, in the import wizard, you turn on the "Convert Table Styles" option. As a result, let's say that Flare creates a new table style and calls it "FormatA.css."
After the initial import, you realize you want the tables to look a little different. Therefore, in the Flare project, you modify the properties of the FormatA.css table style sheet.
Awhile later, let's say you want to re-import the FrameMaker documents. The problem is that you've already changed the table style sheet in Flare. You probably want to keep the tweaked table style so that you don’t have to modify it again after the import.
This is where the new "re-import" option comes into play. It determines whether or not a second new table style sheet will be created, based on the old look from the tables in the FrameMaker documents.
Here's one scenario. Let's say that before you re-imported the FrameMaker documents, you selected the "Reimport Table Styles" option in the Frame Import Editor. And during the import when you were prompted, you selected not to overwrite the existing FormatA.css table style sheet. In that case, Flare keeps your tweaked style sheet in the project, but it also creates another table style sheet called "FormatA1.css" that has the old look and feel. All of the re-imported content now links to the FormatA1.css style sheet instead of FormatA.css.
Here's a different scenario. Let's say that you perform the same steps described above, except this time you deselected the "Reimport Table Styles" option in the Frame Import Editor. In that case, the second FormatA1.css file is not created. The imported content is linked to the FormatA.css table style sheet that you previously modified, since it already exists in the project.
- Stylesheet If you already have a cascading style sheet (CSS) file that you want to associate with the imported files, click the Stylesheet button. Then navigate to the style sheet and select it.
- Preserve
- Don't Preserve
-
Conversion Styles This opens the Import Styles Editor, which lets you specify how to convert each property of the FrameMaker styles. If you do not enter a property value, the value from the FrameMaker document is used. If you enter a property value, it overrides the value from the FrameMaker document. This button is used only if you have selected "Preserve FrameMaker Styles."
example
You might use this button, for example, if you need to change a cross-reference format coming from FrameMaker into something more meaningful in Flare. There are some cross-reference building blocks in FrameMaker that do not have an equivalent in Flare. In cases such as these, the formats are preserved after conversion to Flare. However, the formats may therefore appear to be broken, but they are preserved to let you know that there was some formatting in a cross-reference style that Flare did not understand; you can then make changes to the cross-reference style in the style sheet. Therefore, if you already know ahead of time that you have a cross-reference style that will need to be modified for use in Flare, you can use the Conversion Styles button and change the cross-reference format to something that Flare understands.
The style is added to the Flare Style column. When you are finished importing the documents and the new Flare project is loaded, the content that had been associated with the style in the
The style is added to the Flare Style column. When you are finished importing the documents and the new Flare project is loaded, the content that had been associated with the style in the
example
Let's say you have a style in your
Click the Cross-Reference tab to map cross-reference (x-ref) styles from the FrameMaker documents to Flare's cross-reference styles, including those from the style sheet you may have selected. In this way, you can have your FrameMaker style take on the appearance of the Flare style that you map it to. To map a style, click the style in the FrameMaker Style column on the left, click a style in the Flare Styles section on the far right, and then click the Map button.
The style is added to the Flare Style column. When you are finished importing the documents and the new Flare project is loaded, the content that had been associated with the FrameMaker style in the FrameMaker document will now be associated with a new style that has the appearance of the style that you mapped it to.
After you have made the necessary changes, click Import at the top of the Frame Import Editor.
The Accept Imported Documents dialog opens. The files that will be created as a result of the import are listed on the left. A preview of each file can be seen to the right when you click the file.
When you are finished previewing the files to be created, click Accept.
The new topics are added to the project.
See Also