Converting PageMaker to Ascii and saving links to TIFF as markers

[micmit]

I need to convert to a certain format which would be suitable for subsequent parsing. Ascii with layout ( or tagged text ) would be the most preferable but there is a problem with the links to external graphical files which are just dropped after conversion. Conversion to HTML does keep those links ( <IMG> tag ) but at the same time it is almost impossible to automate extraction of other information from HTML file. Is there any way to preserve links to the graphics either via certain global find/replace before doing conversion to ASCII or somehow else.

TIA
Michael

 

[jimoblak]

Can you give a more descriptive example of what you are trying to do? Are the images inline with the text or separate objects? Why are you doing this? There may be a totally different approach. How large is the document?... would exporting from the story editor help? Are there several stories or just one?

Framemaker and InDesign may offer more exporting options. PageMaker is pretty slim on it's output options.

 

[micmit]

Firstly, I was not involved in preparing this document ( should say have zero knowledge about PageMaker also ) and my aim to load some information from that into relational database. I am reluctant to parse PageMaker binary file directly , so I am trying to convert it to something else.
Two possible formats are HTML and ASCII ( either with layout or tagged text )

Images are separate objects and identified on right mouse click as a link to TIF file.

When converted to HTML this links are referenced but from other hand any layout lost. By losing layout I mean the original table-like structure where positions are driven by tabs is not preserved.

HTML output
<P> 09A <IMG SRC=&quot;../../INBOUN~1/html/LITRE13.JPG&quot; WIDTH=&quot;3&quot; HEIGHT=&quot;7&quot;
ALIGN=&quot;BOTTOM&quot;> . . Other
<P>s 2203.00.22 _ Containing more than 2.5 % vol., but not more than <BR>
4.35 % vol. <I>per l
al</I> $21.096<SUP>2</SUP> AU $21.096<SUP>2</SUP>

I can't give a proper example for ASCII because it is going to be wrapped anyway , but I am able to do parsing based on certain positions for the cells when layout is preserved.

Document is about 3MB.

I did exporting from story editor selecting all stories ( in this case I have an additional problem footnotes which are separate stories don't follow the page itself ) and directly from file which preserves layout , but references to external files lost ( <IMG SRC=&quot;../../INBOUN~1/html/LITRE13... ) plus footnote link ($21.096<SUP>2</SUP>) .

After installing trial edition, at the first sight, I didn't find in InDesign more options for exporting.

 

[jimoblak]

RE: InDesign exporting...
Click on the text tool, then click anywhere in your story. You can now do File>Export>Adobe InDesign Tagged Text

You can also export XML

The trial of InDesign may lack all export functions in the full version.

Exporting in these formats require that you have established a document structure within InDesign or FrameMaker. Most page layout is done haphazardly and structure cannot be easily exported. Images are not often exported since they are not often inline graphics.

You may be better off recreating this document 'from scratch'.