Adobe FRAMEMAKER 10 User Manual page 15

In UNIX versions, FrameMaker saves a document in text format in the ISO Latin-1 character encoding. You can
change the character encoding to ASCII by changing the value of an X resource. See the description of character
encoding in the online manual Customizing FrameMaker. In the Windows version, press Esc F t c to toggle between
FrameMaker's character encoding and ANSI for Windows.
Importing MIF files
You can use the File menu's Import>File command to import MIF files into an existing document, but you must
make sure that the imported statements are valid at the location where you are importing them. A MIF file can
describe both text and graphics; make sure that you have selected either a place in the text flow (if you are importing
text or graphics) or an anchored frame (if you are importing graphics).
For example, to import a MIF file that describes a graphic, first create an anchored frame in a document, select the
frame, and then import the MIF file (see
When you import or include MIF files, make sure that object IDs are unique in the final document and that refer-
ences to object IDs are correct (see
objects (TextRect, TblId, Group, and AFrame use the ID for identification) in the document.
Editing MIF files
You normally use a text editor to edit a MIF file. If you use FrameMaker to enter text into a MIF file, be sure to open
the MIF file as a text file and turn off Smart Quotes. If you leave Smart Quotes on, you must use a key sequence to
type the quotation marks that enclose a MIF string (
straight quotation mark, type Control-'.
Although MIF statements are usually generated by a program, while you learn MIF or test and debug an application
that generates MIF, you may need to manually generate MIF statements. In either case, you can minimize the
number of MIF statements that your application needs to generate or that you need to type in.
The following suggestions may be helpful when you are working with MIF statements:
•
Edit a MIF file generated by FrameMaker.
•
You can edit a MIF file generated by FrameMaker or copy a group of statements from a MIF file into your file
and then edit the statements. An easy way to use FrameMaker to generate a MIF file is to create an empty document
by using the New command and then saving it as a MIF file.
•
Test one object at a time.
•
While testing an object in a document or learning about the MIF statements that describe an object, work with
just that object. For example, if you work with a document that contains both tables and anchored frames, start by
creating the MIF statements that describe tables. Then add the statements that describe anchored frames.
• Use the default properties provided by FrameMaker.
• If you are not concerned with testing certain document components, let FrameMaker provide a set of default
document objects and formats.
MIF file layout
FrameMaker writes the objects in a MIF document file in the following order:
This section
File ID
Units
"Bar chart example" on page
"Generic object statements" on page
`'
Contains these objects
MIF file identification line (
MIFFile
Default units ( Units statement)
221).
105). The object IDs must be unique for all
). To enter a left quotation mark, type Control-`. To enter a
statement)
ADOBE FRAMEMAKER 10 10
MIF Reference