Expert: Wayne Johnson - 12/16/2011

Question
QUESTION: I’m using FM 9. I need to use linked images and then save the completed book and graphics to a standalone disk.
I vaguely remember a function in FM 7 that would fetch all used graphics and save them to a new directory along with the completed book.
Is there a way in FM 9 to accomplish this automatically?

ANSWER: Chris - I am assuming that you have imported your graphics "by reference." Which means they have not been copied into the document. It is not the "book" that makes the links to the graphics, it is the individual files. The Book only makes the link to the individual file (i.e it is just a shortcut to the files). It is each individual file that stores the information on where the graphics should be located. You will get an error message if you move the individual files, from where the Book thinks they should be located. If you move the graphics to a different folder, you will get an error message when you open the document, but you will be given the option to select the new location of the graphics.
If your Frame book is in a folder and your graphics are in sub folders within the same main folder, then just copy the complete folder to your stand alone disk.
Example of the folder Structure:
C Drive
 Documents (Folder)
     Frame Documents (Folder)
     Frame.book
       Document 1 (File)
       Document 2 (File)
       Document 3 (File)
        Graphics (Folder)
         Graphic 1
         Graphic 2
         Graphic 3
As long as you keep your Frame.book - in the same relative position to the Document files and "Graphics" folder then you can move your Frame book and its correspond files anywhere you want without any problem. But (for example) if you moved the Frame.book file directly to the Documents (folder) the Book would not be able to find the document or graphics files.
In short if you just renamed the Frame Documents (Folder) to Frame Documents Master Files, everything would remain the same, (i.e. Framemaker know to "drill" down to find the files).

Hope this helps you out.
Regards, Wayne.




        

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for your quick response Wayne.  
These things I knew, I was hoping to have FM "fetch" all referenced graphics and store them in a new location. (e.g. I'm using a few images from a shared directory with a large number of images and want FM to copy the images used to a new directory).  
Admittedly, it's been sometime since I've used FM, I thought I remember doing this with FM 7 SGML.
Thanks for your time.

Answer
Chris - There is not any way that I know of to have FM "auto" update the new location of graphics when they are imported by reference.
It may be possible to do it with FRAME SGML - but I am not familiar enough with SGML to give you any guidance.

Regards, Wayne