FrameMaker 10 – View and Modify XML Source
I heard through the grape vine that there were some new misunderstandings about how FrameMaker and XML features work.
I am going to address today, one of my favorite new FrameMaker 10 XML features, view XML source. It has been said that you can not edit your XML code in notepad, if you use FrameMaker 10′s new feature to open it.
With that in mind, I pulled together quick captivate video that shows you exactly how you can both view and edit your XML statement in Notepad with a simple turning off of network file locking in your FrameMaker Preferences. I also show you how you can modify the default “View In Notepad” settings to have a choice of XML source editors. My personal favorite is Notepad++.
Enjoy the video and spread the word!
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http://www.aldousxml.com/ViewXMLSource/ViewXMLSource.htm
Tom Aldous
Hi Tom, great video, thanks.
I don’t think there’s a misunderstanding here: the “View in Notepad” feature is just a workaround for a feature which you find in other XML editors. Instead of “View in Notepad” (or any other editor), I had hoped for “View Plain Text” where FrameMaker would just give me a plain text view within FrameMaker with syntax highlighting, of course.
Okay, deselecting the Network File Locking preference helps a bit, but what if people also need to edit binary Fm files on a network drive, in which case this preference is definitely required? You don’t want them to select/deselect the Network File Locking preference and restart Fm each time they need to work with XML files and binary Fm files, do you?
Hi Tom
Thanks for the demo.
One thing I’m still wondering is how does FrameMaker work with MathML. A full XML editor must handle with MathML otherwise it’s NOT a full XML editor.
Does it help, that I can paste the MathML code into the xml from external editor, but FrameMaker doesn’t recognize it?
Is there a workaround how to handle with formula. We are working with some hundreds of thousands of formulas. Today we have to convert them all into vector graphics, which is extremely performance driven.
I truly would love to integrate FrameMaker as full XML editor but until today I haven’t seen any chance to handle a) the formulas within MathML and b) the CALS table model is not fully supported (especially in the writing mode).
Kind regards and thanks for the blog…
Claude
FrameMaker 10 does have the ability to roundtrip equations as mif filles. All you have to do is add a readwriterule. I will be doing a video soon to show you how.