20 Free Plugins for Adobe FrameMaker

Name: Book2PDF

Type: Freeware

OS: Windows

FM Versions Supported:5.5.6 and 6.0

Company Name: Mekon

Download link: http://www.structured-publishing.com/Software/A-Z/Book2PDF/index.jsp

Description:

1. List generation for FrameMaker 5.5.6—This free Mekon plugin enables Adobe FrameMaker to successfully generate lists in the form of a Table of Contents from a FrameMaker book.
2. Printing to PDF for FrameMaker versions 5.5.6 and 6.0—When a book is printing to PDF as individual files, any cross-references or links going to other folders will be lost. This free Mekon plugin allows you to print directly to PDF without losing any of the links.

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Name: Book-level Conditional Text

Type: Freeware

OS: Windows

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6

Company Name: ElectroPubs

Download link: http://www.electropubs.com/downloads.html

Description: Conditional text is one of FrameMaker's best features when it comes to single-source authoring. Unfortunately, before the release of Version 6, FrameMaker only allowed you to control conditional text at the file level. With 50 separate files in a Book, changing Conditional Text settings can be a tedious and error-prone business.

This utility displays the familiar Conditional Text dialog box on a .BK (book) file's menu. Change the Show/Hide settings, and the settings of all files in the book are automatically updated!

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Name: BookLooker Plugin

Type:Freeware

OS: Win

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6 and 6.0

Company Name: Cudspan Tools

Download link: http://www.freeframers.org/freeware/cud/personales/cud/cssIndex.htm

Description:

Part of Cudspan Tools. Searches across books and performs other book-wide actions.

1. Locks and unlocks files
2. Turns changebars on and off and clears changebars in entire book
3. Bookwide finds of strings, marker text, marker types, cross-references, unresolved cross-references, and document- and book-level hunt for paragraph overrides; creates hypertext linked document of results

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Name: DITA FMx

Type: Freeware

OS: Windows

FM Versions Supported: 7.2

Company Name: Leximation

Download Link: http://www.leximation.com/dita-fmx/

Description: Lets you create and edit DITA XML files in FrameMaker.

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Name: DoBatch

Type: Freeware

OS: Windows

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6, 6.0 and 7.0

Company Name: Cudspan

Download Link: http://www.freeframers.org/freeware/cud/personales/cud/cssIndex.htm

Description: Part of Cudspan Tools. Runs batch processing in documents and books. Save as
MIF, Filtered, ViewOnly, or document; Update a book or document; Import formats; Run another plugin on a book or document.

1. Requires the CudLog plugin.
2. DoBatch can now use your installed export filters to save as other file types.
3. This includes HTML and XML. See the updated docs for more information. (5/23/01)
4. NEW: DoBatch now saves as PostScript. (9/14/01)

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Name: DZbatcher

Type: Freeware

OS: Windows

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6, 6.0 and 7.0

Company Name: Datazone

Download Link: http://www.datazone.com/english/overview/download.html

Description:

1. Print documents using a `print settings' document to control how the documents will be printed.
2. Convert files from Frame document (binary) format to Frame MIF (Maker Interchange Format) or vice versa. You can also batch-convert files to FrameViewer or FrameMaker locked format.
3. Convert files to Acrobat PDF format.
4. Import formats from one document into many other documents.
5. Automate conversion of MS Word, and many other external document types, to FrameMaker.
6. Automate the updating of variables, cross-references and text insets across a large collection of documents.

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Name: CudLog

Type: Freeware

OS: Windows

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6, 6.0 and 7.0

Company Name: Cudspan

Download Link: http://www.freeframers.org/freeware/cud/personales/cud/cssIndex.htm

Description: Part of Cudspan Tools. A logging utility that is used by many of these other
plugins.

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Name: DoBatch

Type: Plugin/Freeware

OS: Win

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6, 6.0, 7.0

Company Name: Cudspan

Download Link: http://www.freeframers.org/freeware/cud/personales/cud/cssIndex.htm

Description: Part of Cudspan Tools. Runs batch processing in documents and books. Save as
MIF, Filtered, ViewOnly, or document; Update a book or document; Import formats; Run another plugin on a book or document.

1. Requires the CudLog plugin.
2. DoBatch can now use your installed export filters to save as other file types.
3. This includes HTML and XML. See the updated docs for more information. (5/23/01)
4. NEW: DoBatch now saves as PostScript. (9/14/01)

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Name: FreeWheel

Type: Plugin/Freeware

OS: Win 9x or Windows NT

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6, 6.0

Company Name: FreeWheel

Download Link: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2060/freewheel.html

Description: Here is a utility to get away from FrameMaker's annoying habit of NOT letting you use the scroll wheel on your mouse. Freewheel provides mouse wheel support for applications that do not directly support the IntelliPoint mouse wheel.

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Name: Hunt Overrides

Type: Plugin/Freeware

OS: Win

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6, 6.0, 7.0

Company Name: Cudspan

Download Link: http://www.freeframers.org/freeware/cud/personales/cud/cssIndex.htm

Description: Part of Cudspan Tools. Lists instances of paragraph format overrides,separating overrides that are only due to page-breaks from other overrides. The list is a hypertext document you can use to navigate to the override instance.

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Name: Import Formatted Tables

Type: Plugin/Freeware

OS: Win 9x

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6

Company Name: ElectroPubs

Download Link: http://www.electropubs.com/downloads.htm

Description: Use this DLL to import comma-delimited text into pre-formatted table definitions.

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Name: Leximation

Type: Plugin/Freeware

OS: Win

FM Versions Supported: 5, 6, 7

Company Name: Leximation

Download Link: http://www.leximation.com/tools/

Description: There are several free plugins for FramMaker@Leximation.

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Name: MarkerWorker

Type: Plugin/Freeware

OS: Win

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6, 6, 7

Company Name: Cudspan

Download Link: http://www.telecable.es/personales/cud/cssIndex.htm

Description: Part of Cudspan Tools. Generates a list to represent all markers of a specified type in a book or document. Once you generate the list, you can modify the marker text and then rebuild all the listed markers with your new marker text.

Obvious uses include:

1. Globally editing index markers
2. Translating marker content
3. Checking and correcting hypertext markers.

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Name: MIFBrowser

Type: Application/Freeware

OS: Win

Company Name: Graham Wideman

Download Link: http://www.wideman-one.com/gw/tech/framemaker/mifbrowse.htm

Description: Provides a tree view of MIF contents.

Name: MIFMuncher

Type: Application/Freeware

OS: Win

Company Name: HyText Consulting

Download Link: http://stc-carolina.org/tiki-index.php?page=MIF%20Muncher

Description: MIF Muncher massages a FrameMaker MIF (Maker Interchange Format) file to extract information. This version extracts stylesheet (paragraph tag) information from the MIF file and generates a tab-delimited ASCII text file that can be pulled into your favorite word processor and easily formatted into a table.

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Name: PgfWhopper

Type: Plugin/Freeware

OS: Win

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6, 6.0,7.0

Company Name: Cudspan

Download Link: http://www.freeframers.org/freeware/cud/

Description: Part of Cudspan Tools. Lists and deletes unused paragraph formats, character formats, and conditional text tags.

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Name: RefIcons

Type: Plugin/Freeware

OS: Win

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6, 6.0,7.0

Company Name: Cudspan

Download Link: http://www.freeframers.org/freeware/cud/

Description: Part of Cudspan Tools. Inserts icons next to paragraphs. Just design a format/icon pair in your document, then use a single command to save the pair in the RefIcons palette. You can then use the format/icon pair in any document.

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Name: Remove Local Formatting

Type: Plugin/Freeware

OS: Win 9x

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6, 6.0

Company Name: ElectroPubs

Download Link: http://www.electropubs.com/downloads.html

Description: This DLL removes "local" formatting from FrameMaker documents. Local
formatting can be defined as formatting that does not match the definition of the text in the Paragraph Catalog.

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Name: TocBreaker

Type: Plugin/Freeware

OS: Win

FM Versions Supported: 5.5.6, 6.0, 7.0

Company Name: Cudspan

Download Link: http://www.freeframers.org/freeware/cud/

Description: Part of Cudspan Tools. Remembers page breaks and line breaks in your generated lists. Very useful in the later stages of a project when you have decided on custom breaks in the generated files, but you need to regenerate from time to time.

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Name: TOOLBOX Basic

Type: Plugin/Free

OS: Win, Mac

FM Versions Supported: 5.x, 6.0, 7.0

Company Name: System Gmbh

Download Link: http://www.systec-gmbh.com/en/sites/downloads_epub.php

Description: Paragraph/Character Formats

1. Delete all or unused paragraph, character, cross-reference, variables, and table formats with one click.

2. Add paragraph & character formats to catalogs.

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Disclaimer: This list was compiled for the advantage of my fellow technical writers all over the globe. The list includes all the latest information as on the date on posting. For more information on the product, you can always check the developer's website.

I researched the internet and complied all the information. I did not develop this information and do not consider this to be a copyrighted document. In many cases, descriptions have been copied directly from the creator’s web site.

Happy FrameMaking!
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Top 10 Proofreading Tips

Proofreading is a very essential skill to have to make you the complete writer. Proofreading is a specialist job. It is not everybody’s cuppa of chai. It is a "good-to-acquire and hard-to-have" skill. A word of caution: It might increasingly give you a feeling of a thankless job. Occupational hazard, you might say. To quote Richa, my technical editor "Alas, the technical editor never gets direct credit for the job done."

Most of the time, your peers, senior members, or the one who has build up a reputation of being an 'eagle eye' takes over the task of proofreading. Oh wait… did I tell you that nobody, I repeat nobody likes their work to be edited and proofread? If at all you come across any writer who tells you he/she likes that his/her work is being edited or proofread, he/she is lying.

Proofreading can be categorized into three types:

a) Comparison proofread: As the name suggests, it is where you need to compare the original document with the new one. The original document could be handwritten notes, a typed document that needs to be re-typed because it was lost, a document with changes, or documents that change according to the products, especially for finance, banking and mortgage companies.

For example: XYX Mortgage Company has 25 different mortgage products for 25 different states of the US. Now, imagine a scenario where each product document changes (a few lines and paragraphs) according to the laws of each state. That is one huge task, and for one, risky, simply because miss one line or paragraph and the company might suffer huge losses.

As Mark Twain said in a different context, “Be careful about reading medical books. You could die of a misprint. So also, you could lose your job of proofreading inaccurately.

b) Content: Content proofreading is your everyday proofreading. It includes the usual spotting errors in grammar, spelling, structure, consistency and so on.

c) Format: The most difficult of the three – simply because you are looking for formatting mistakes. First of all you must know the document you are checking, whether it is the release notes, user's guide, or even a business letter. Formatting rules change for different documents. You also have to look for the alignment mistakes, spaces/double spaces, numbers, and footnotes and so on.

Top 10 Proofreading Tips

Understand the Human body: The brain, mind and the eyes have to be trained to see things others can not see. A keen eye for details is the need of the hour. Start the proofreading work at a time when you are being the most alert and attentive. Also, take short breaks when needed and come back fresh. A fresh look at the document and you could find mistakes you missed out.

Switch it off: Switch off your mobile phones, pagers or PDAs. Log-off from the chat client, mail client, social networking sites or any other communication tool. Isolate yourself in a room with your proofreading work. Silence will work its wonders.

Print the document: Proofreading works better on a hard copy. It is so much easy to catch the mistakes on paper, but make sure you get the latest printout of the work you want to proofread. At times, we end up precious time wasting in proofreading the document, which is not the latest copy. Online, on the other hand, might work for a few, but with a printed copy the percentage of finding mistakes goes up.

Get to know the rules of the game: No space before comma, no double spaces, single space after comma and the list goes on and on.

Proofreading group: Let your peers review your work and vice versa. No matter how good a writer you are, when it comes to proofreading your, own work typos and other errors slip out.

Double filter: The first filter of proofreading should be yourself; the second should be your critic, the eagle eye from your group. Add one or more filters of proofreading as per your needs and criticality of the project.

List of mistakes: Make a list of errors/mistakes you want to find out while proofreading. If you are starting with "typos”, make sure you look for typos right through. Run a spelling check first.

Do not try and find everything at one go. Your list of proofreading mistakes might include:

a) Typos
b) Confusing words (e.g., "except" for "expect" and "your" for "you're").
c) Ambiguity
d) Inconsistencies
e) Formatting problems
g) Missing words
h) Contractions

The Old trick in the book: Read backwards, as it makes you concentrate on words and not the meaning.

The last nail in the coffin: When you are done with the proofread. Ask someone to correct the mistakes in the document, referring your hand written or marked copy. When the mistakes are corrected, take a printout and cross-check the new document with your hand written or marked copy with it. Compare it carefully; remember if the mistakes are not corrected, all your hard work will be wasted. To repeat again, make sure you get the 'latest' printout of the document. Read the document for the last time, before it is ready to be delivered.


Proofreading is learning: Learning from your own and others’ mistakes. You can also get to know the proofreading marks/symbols which are used by editors.
Google for Proofreading marks to find innumerable sites.
http://www.journalismcareers.com/articles/downloads/proofreadingsymbols.pdf


References
Proofreading tips at http://www.clickz.com
Proofreading tips at http://ny.essortment.com/proofreadingtip_rvww.htm


~Vijayendra