Last updated: Feb. 12, 2002

Before converting your FrameMaker sources to HTML, you should:

• Check out the list of FrameMaker boo-boos.

• Make sure your book is using the latest FrameMaker templates.

• Install WebWorks 2000; ask Barry for the CD.
• Copy the following directory to any directory on your PC:

  /udir/fscott/DocTemplates/WebWorksTemplate
  

  Just to give us a starting point, how about if you copy it to

  C:\TEMP\WebWorksTemplate
  

Converting Your Book

Here's how to convert your book:

1. Start WebWorks Publisher 2000 (WWP).
2. Choose File>New, or click the New Project button.
   The Project Launcher appears.
3. Under Create a New Project, click the Browse button.
   The Select Project To Use As Template file selection box appears.

4. Navigate to the directory in which you copied to WebWorks template, for example c:\temp\WebWorksTemplate. and select awesomest.wdt).

5. You are now presented with an unnamed screen that asks you to supply the following information:
   • Please choose a name for this project: Pick anything; it doesn't matter.
   • Please choose a folder location: I'd go with the default, but it doesn't really matter.
   • Please choose a default charset: Don't touch this; just leave it as is.

6. Another unnamed screen apears, this one asking for the FrameMaker book(s) or document(s) to be converted:. Click Browse, select the FrameMaker book file you want to convert, and click Next >.
   WWP starts FrameMaker and displays a Progress Indicator. Wait for it to complete.
7. The New Project Wizard displays a table for mapping FrameMaker styles to WWP styles. You shouldn't have to do anything. Just click Next >.
8. Select the radio button to convert contents later, and click Finish.
   WWP creates the project directory for your book.
9. In WWP, right-click and choose Properties from the pop-up menu to delete the titlepage.fm file from the WWP project. (Don't worry, this doesn't change your FrameMaker book.) In other words, the FrameMaker ~toc file must be the first file in the project, and the ~ix file must be the last file in the project.
10. Select and highlight the FrameMaker and Generated Files folder.
11. Right-click and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. (You can also choose Project>Properties.)
    The File Properties dialog box appears.
12. Select the Output tab.
13. In the Filename column, rename the following two files:
    • Rename the table of contents (.toc) file to index.htm.
    • Rename the index (.ix) file to realindx.htm. Yes, my friends, that's realindx.htm, not realindex.htm.

14. Click OK twice to save your changes.
    The File Properties dialog box disappears.
15. Either choose Style>Designer or click the S toolbar button.
    The Style Properties dialog box appears.
16. Select the User Macros tab.
17. Select UMBookTitle from the Name drop-down list, and change the text to the title of your book.
18. If you are converting your book for the final version that is to be shipped with the product, see Preparing the Final, To-Be-Shipped Version of Your Book.

19. Click OK to save your changes.
20. Choose Project>Generate All to generate the .html files that correspond to your .fm files. This may take a few minutes.
21. Open YourProject/Output/index.htm in your browser to verify the results. (/Output is the HTML directory, index.htm is the default TOC file, and all graphic files are in /Output/images. All paths are relative.)

After Converting Your Book

After you have looked at the book in your own browser, run it through the HTML checker on boreal:

1. Put the resulting /Output directory into the /fscott/BooksInProgress_HTMLandPDF/html directory.
2. Then, run the HTML checker program and let it do its groove thang.

Preparing the Final, To-be-Shipped Version of Your Book

You probably noticed the word DRAFT next to your book title and all over the page. You must remove these marks for the final version (but not before) by editing two WWP user macros.

You must also change the product version at the bottom of the page with another user macro. (You already edited a user macro to set the book title in step 19 of "Converting Your Book to HTML".)

Complete the following steps:

1. After step 19 in "Converting Your Book" (in which you set the UMBookTitle user macro), and before you click OK, select the UMBodyTag user macro. This macro sets the gray DRAFT background image for the HTML page.

2. Use HTML comments to hide or show the <body> tag in the macro with the appropriate background.

   To show the DRAFT background, the macro looks like this:

   <body background="images/draftbg.jpg">
<!--<body bgcolor="#ffffff">-->

   To show a plain white background for the final book, change the macro to look like this:

   <!--<body background="images/draftbg.jpg">-->
<body bgcolor="#ffffff">

3. Next, select the UMDraft user macro, which creates the red DRAFT next to the book title at the top and bottom of each HTML page.

4. Use HTML comments to remove it, like this:

   <!--&nbsp;&nbsp;<font color=#cc0000>DRAFT</font>-->

5. Next, select the UMProductVersion user macro that specifies the product version information. By default, this says "Cheetah preliminary draft." After we know what the real product name and version number will be, change it.

   Note that this information is being kept intentionally separate from any document version information so we can publish updated documents between product releases. The document version is set to be the date you run WWP to build the HTML files.

6. Return to step 21, in "Converting Your Book".