Automation in FrameMaker

How many times have we heard people say if-only-it-were-more-flexible when they discuss FrameMaker? If you are one of those yeh dil mange more flexibility fans, FrameScript is for you. An easy to use scripting (or macro) language, FrameScript allows you to automate FrameMaker to run redundant and complex tasks.

FrameScript from Finite Matters Ltd works in FrameMaker and FrameMaker + SGML environments. FrameScript supports the Windows and Macintosh versions of FrameMaker. FrameScript version 4.0 is the latest release for FrameMaker Windows edition. For Mac users, the latest version is FrameScript 2.0.

FrameScript has been developed as a wrapper over Adobe FrameMaker Developer Kit (FDK) to interface with FrameMaker. Unlike the FDK, which requires the users to know programming languages, C or C++, to write APIs, FrameScript uses a simplified programming language that does not require the users to have any programming experience. Most of the commands are simple and intuitive.

When you install FrameScript on a PC, a new menu—FrameScript—is added to the FrameMaker application window. The FrameScript menu contains the following options: Run, Install, Uninstall, Script Window, Options, Compile and Scripts. You can either run a script or install it and run it later based on your requirements. When you install a script on the PC, FrameScript creates a sub-menu item for the script under FrameScript > Scripts.

You can use a text editor or the interactive ElmStudio script window (FrameScript > Script Window) to write or edit FrameScript (.fsl) files. FrameScript also provides you a number of sample scripts that address many of the common problems or tasks. The sample scripts basket contains scripts for removing change bars from a book, saving the document into different formats, such as HTML and PDF, generating a list of images used in a book, and so on. You can even use some of the sample scripts as the starting point for writing more complex scripts.

Though there is room for improvement on the quality of the documentation, there is enough information to get you going. Finite Matters' website (www.framescript.com) also provides you some helpful tips in the FAQ section. You may also want to check out framescript-users, a Yahoo group on which hundreds of members share their experience and expertise.

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Contributed by Abhilash Prabhakaran who works as a Senior Technical Writer at FaceTime Communications, Bangalore.

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