Been chasing all manner of mysterious layout problems with another blog I’m responsible for, that seem to only hit Internet Explorer 6… I’m using the infinitely cool Wordpress Tabbed Widgets plugin to show off a bunch of RSS feeds. Firefox, Safari and IE7 are immune… but the bedbug is biting me on this one.
After much mystification, what finally seems to be happening is called by some the Internet Explorer 6 peekaboo bug:
http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer/peekaboo.html
A liquid box has a float inside, and content that appears along side that float. All is well, until it’s viewed in IE6. “Wah? Where’s my content?!” You reload the page, and nothing. When you scroll down, or perhaps switch to another window, upon returning to the ’scene of the crime’ there it all is, fat ‘n sassy! …
There are three ways we know to prevent this bug.
- Keep the clearing div from touching the float, or avoid using a background on div#floatholder. Not exactly ideal.
- Give both div#floatholder and div#float ‘position: relative’. Be sure to fully test this method.
- Give div#floatholder hasLayout (now the preferred method)
Now if only I can decipher their discussion, I’ll be thrilled because I can work around it. 
but it’s pretty clear this is the source of my woes.
I’m getting too old for this stuff.
http://www.lancelhoff.com/2008/06/22/microsoft-windows-updates-fail-to-install/
I try to tip my hat whenever I run into a situation where Windows or Framemaker fails and someone else’s site helps me sort it out. Just recently I hit a situation where Windows updates were consistently failing during installation. THe solution was at the above link:
How to fix the Microsoft Windows Update failure:
- Click Start -> Run, type cmd and click Ok
- Type the following commands and press Enter after each command
- regsvr32 wuapi.dll
- regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
- regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll
- regsvr32 wucltui.dll
- regsvr32 wups.dll
- regsvr32 wups2.dll
- regsvr32 wuweb.dll
- Once finished, attempt to run Windows Update again and your downloads should complete and install.
Kudos to whoever figured this out. Saved my bacon!
Another interesting-looking product, from CambridgeDocs. Java MIF Driver lets you process Framemaker docs from Java. Provides an indirect way to process Framemaker documents on Linux boxes.
http://www.cambridgedocs.com/products/overview/mif2xml.htm
As part of its integrated multi-step process in transforming data, xDoc is able to convert your Adobe FrameMaker MIF (Maker Interchange Format) files into XML through the use of the Java MIF Driver.
The Java MIF Driver, which is the most complete Java-based means of processing FrameMaker documents on the market today, outputs a stylistic XML rendering of the MIF content. This stylistic XML gives you tremendous programmatic access to the MIF content, including its formatting and document structure, and allows you to convert the data into DocBook or DITA XML schemas / DTDs, index the content in a database, and thereby unlock the latent potential of your document department.
| Java MIF Driver Benefits: |
No FM license required, from what I can tell.
Sooner or later you need to put your structured Framemaker/XML content on the Web. WebWorks is certainly one path people have taken to get there… Here’s an overview of the different versions of the product, from Quadralay.
http://www.webworks.com/Introduction/What_is_ePublisher.shtml
ePublisher is a powerful online conversion platform that transforms FrameMaker, Word, and DITA content into Web and online help deliverables. The ePublisher solution comprises three software components: Pro, Express, and AutoMap. Each component plays a specific role in the ePublisher workflow.
ePublisher Pro is the tool used to create and design the ePublisher Stationery. The Stationery is the file that contains the user’s desired online formats and the custom look and feel of the customer’s output. Creating the Stationery is the first necessary step before using any of the other ePublisher tools. ePublisher Pro’s key benefit is its design interface for the creation and maintenance of the ePublisher Stationery.
ePublisher Express is the tool used to transform the content online based on the information in the Stationery file. ePublisher Express is simply installed on the desktop and appears as an option from the menu of the user’s authoring environment. ePublisher Express’s key benefit is the ability it gives a user to proof and prepare a content file for final delivery.
ePublisher AutoMap is the tool that automates the online transformation of content. ePublisher AutoMap allows the user to schedule online conversions, to perform batch processing, and to integrate ePublisher with a content management or version control system. ePublisher AutoMap’s key benefit is the immense time savings achieved by automating what is typically a manual process.
Automap is of special interest, IMHO– life is way too short to do this stuff by hand.
Rumor: Adobe is no longer selling Frame 7.2 and is pushing customers up to 8.0 ASAP. Can anyone confirm this?
Someone raises this once or twice a year:
http://groups.google.com/group/adobe.framemaker/browse_thread/thread/a19b64b15f0ba761/0f05c1fd25f7461a?hl=en&lnk=st&q=framemaker+daylight+savings+time+#0f05c1fd25f7461a
Framemaker generates warnings about files having already been modified on disk after a daylight savings time “Fall back”, as is coming up soon. I banged my head against this every year for a few years, but never did find a satisfactory answer– from what I remember, though, after 24 hours after the changeover I think you could then do open and save on all of your files (or maybe an Update Book) and things seemed to settle down. So if you can afford to just wait it out 24 hours, this problem may go away.
