Question re. adding files to a document (not a book) 1

[spherey]

Hello all.

I've already made a book file out of 30 individual docs. I'd also like to make one great big doc file out of all those smaller docs. In most other programs out there that can handle text & images (at least the ones I'm used to - Acrobat and Word and various other text programs), adding one file to another file to create a third file containing the first two in sequential order is easy and readily obvious. And although that may also be the case re. Framemaker, I don't know how to make it do that. So my question is: how can I open the first file, and one by one paste the other 29 files after it?

Another alternative way of doing this would be if there were some option to make the book file that I've created look like, well, a book. Instead of a table of contents which I can only view as a book one chapter at a time. If there is some way to open the book AS a book, in such a way that as the last page of the first file ends, the first page of the second file will follow, and so on, that would of course be just as good.

Would anyone be game to talk me through either of these options?

Thanks very much,

Spherey

 

[frameuser]

If I understand what you're saying, the book file is exactly what you want.

You can move through all the files in the book just by pressing the Page Down and Page Up buttons. When you come to the end of one file and press one of the Page buttons, Frame will automatically open the file before or after the file that you're in.


To make all the files appear as one large document, adjust the Numbering properties for all the files:

1. Select the files in the book file, right-click, and click Numbering on the shortcut menu that appears.

2. Set the options on the various tabs to make the numbering continuous throughout the files.


To create then create a PDF file for the book . . .

1. Open the File menu, and click Save Book As.

2. In the dialog box that appears, select PDF in the Save As Type list and click Save.

3. In the PDF Setup for Selected Files dialog box that appears, select your options for the PDF file and click Set.

FrameMaker (and Distiller) then create a PDF file of the entire book file.

Were you talking about something different?


Rick Henkel
Senior Systems Developer

http://frameuser.docspages.com

 

[spherey]

Well, sort of. I was talking about pasting one document after another, and another one after that, and so on, so that you'd end up with all the smaller documents combined as one .fm file instead of as a .book file. I actually didn't know about the page up/page down feature, and that's helpful, but not exactly what I'm looking for. I thought I had hit on a solution for accomplishing what I'd wanted to do: I simply created a blank page after the last page of the first file, import the next file with its original formatting, created a blank page after that one, and so on. That worked for something like 23 consecutive files, and then inexplicably stopped working. Now when I do the same thing I'd been doing, I get, instead of the 66-page document I'm importing, a single indent marker. I don't know what would make that document not convert/import in the same way as all the others, but that's the current holdup.
Also, when I create a .pdf from the .book file, the .pdf only includes the first three chapters, and then ends. I can find no explanation for that, either.

Thanks for your help, though.

 

[frameuser]

Personally, I think creating one large Frame file kinda defeats the purpose of the book file. The book allows you to have smaller Frame files that, combined together, appear as one large file in your output.

Do you get any kind of error message when you create the PDF file?

Rick Henkel
Senior Systems Developer

http://frameuser.docspages.com

 

[spherey]

I worked it out. Thanks for your time.

I don't recall what the error message was that I was receiving, but I was able to work around it by creating the .pdf using the individual Frame files instead of the book file. I convinced the users that creating a giant Frame file when there was already a .book file and a .pdf was pointless.