The
following items are known limitations of this tool:
- (This limitation only applies to FrameMaker versions
prior to FM8.) When writing to a text file, FrameMaker writes
high-ASCII characters (those with a decimal ASCII value above 127)
in a way that is not understood by external text editors. Therefore,
when writing a BookVars file
that is to be used by an external editor, a transformation is applied
so the characters are written correctly. When writing to a BookVars file that is to be used
by the internal editor, no transformation is applied. Because of
this, you should carefully choose the Text Editor Type option of
the Generate BookVars File command.
For more information, see Selecting the Text Editor Type.
- The “internal editor” can only handle files of up to 30KB in
size. If you need to edit a BookVars file
larger than that you should use the external text editor option.
The internal editor will display the contents of larger files but
you will be unable to save any edits made to files that are over
30K when opened. (Keeping in mind the high-ASCII issue listed above.)
For information about using an external editor, see Edit BookVars File.
- Use of backslashes in the BookVars file
may not work as desired. If you need a backslash in the resulting variable definition,
you must enter two backslashes; a single backslash may end up “escaping”
the character that follows it, resulting in an incorrect variable. (Note that if you
want to use “special” characters in the BookVars file,
you’ll use the single backslash, for details, see Using special characters in the BookVars file.)
- You should use the front slash as a directory separator in the
AltBookVarsFile parameter.
These will be converted into backslashes when passed to the operating
system.
- Variable names
defined in a BookVars file
are limited in length to 255 characters (it appears that FrameMaker
will accept longer names, but why?). Accordingly, the length of
a variable definition is
limited to 255 characters (which is also the maximum length allowed
by FrameMaker).
- Marker variables are not deleted or renamed
through the Import Variables command or the Delete User Variables
commands. Because of this, if you delete or rename a variable that
is referenced by a marker variable, errors will be reported when
that marker variable is updated. If you need to delete or rename
a variable used by a marker variable, you must manually delete or
rename each marker variable reference. (The MarkerTools plugin provides
a marker export/import command that would help with this process,
see Pubs-Tools: MarkerTools plugin.)
- To prevent FM files from being saved incorrectly, BookVars will not process files
(with the Import and Delete commands) that have errors such as missing
fonts or graphics. If you want to process files that have these
errors, you must open them before running the BookVars command. BookVars will generate
a BookVars INI file
using files with errors since the files are not saved after opening.