Limitations

Known limitations in the current version of DITA-FMx.

The following list describes the currently known issues:

• References made to files on a UNC path (“\\servername”) will result in that file being referenced using an absolute path even if the target file is in the same folder. When working with files on a network, it is best to use named drives for those locations.

• Indexterms with multiple child elements that are siblings, will not round-trip properly. On import, the sibling indexterms are incorrectly converted into FM index syntax, which means the exported indexterms will be nested rather than siblings. A workaround is to disable indexterm conversion on import and export (although this will not allow you to generate a FM index). This will be fixed in a future update.

• Xrefs within the link/desc element will not resolve properly on file open. After file open, running the Update References command will resolve these references. This may be fixed in a future update.

• The Generate Book From Map command disallows the building of a book from a DITA map that references files on multiple disk drives. This appears to be a core FrameMaker limitation.

• If an XML file is “pretty-printed” and a line breaks after an inline element (such as a <ph>), when opened in Frame the space between that element and the following word will be lost.

• Child elements within an xref or link are lost on import if the Auto-Load Xrefs option is enabled. If your xrefs contain child elements, disable this option.

• For the Apply Ditaval as Conditions command, currently only the “prop” ditaval element is supported. Other elements may be recognized in a future release if that is seen as beneficial.

• Conrefs within titles won’t be included when you run the Update References command in a DITA map unless the target file is already open. If you have conrefs in your titles, you should open the file first before running the Update References command.

• Deleting an fm-topicreflabel element from a DITA map file without deleting the entire topicref, may result in the “plus” symbol being left in the map. This is a temporary issue and will go away the next time you open the file; it has no effect on the ability to process the files.

• In the FM7.2 version of DITA-FMx, double-byte characters are garbled in the fm-topicreflabel elements, and don’t update properly. (The FM8 version of DITA-FMx works fine in this respect.)

Using DITA-FMx for DITA authoring in binary FrameMaker files has the following limitations:

• A file that can’t be opened due to missing fonts or images and it is the target of a conref or xref, the Reference Manager won’t display when the conref or xref is double-clicked. This can be resolved by opening the referenced file before double-clicking the conref or xref.

• Double-clicking a conref then choosing Update, will delete the conref.

Please send any problems or suggestions to <ditafmx-help AT leximation DOT com>.