2.2 Naming FrameMaker formats

Mif2Go does not impose restrictions on FrameMaker format names. However, your conversion projects might go more smoothly if you adhere to the following guidelines. Avoid using format names that:

are identical for a paragraph format and a character format

differ only in case (such as Body and body)

contain punctuation or other non-alphanumeric characters.

Paragraph and character format names must differ for HTML

Using the same name for a paragraph format and a character format is an issue only if you are converting to HTML and need to make a conversion setting in [HtmlStyles] for the format, because you can include both types of formats in that section. See §21.3.6 Overriding paragraph properties and §21.4.2 Overriding character properties for more information.

Do not rely on difference in case

A common issue is using (for example) both Bulleted and bulleted as paragraph format names, with different definitions. This is valid in FrameMaker, but nowhere else, because most other programs—including browsers that process CSS, and Microsoft Word—do not consider a difference in case alone to constitute a difference in identity. These are not issues for Mif2Go, but for the downstream software that must interpret the results of your conversion.

Escape reserved characters

The characters “=”, “;”, and “[” must be escaped with a backslash when a format name is referenced in a Mif2Go configuration file.

Eschew wildcard characters in names

It is best not to use wildcard characters “*” and “?” in any names. However, you can turn off wildcard use (and turn on case sensitivity) if you need to accommodate formats with such names. See §5.1.7 Specifying how to treat cases, spaces, and wildcards for more information.

Spaces in format names can be a problem for HTML

Spaces in format names are harmless if you are converting to RTF. If you are converting to HTML, spaces are a problem only if you have two format names that become the same when spaces are removed (which is required for CSS). For example, if your document uses both heading 1 and heading1, there will be a conflict in the CSS file.