You can use the File > Import > File command to import text on all platforms. This method provides more flexibility than using the clipboard.
However, if you’re working on only one platform, you might want to use a platform-specific approach. For information, see Embed objects.
The text you import can be formatted or unformatted. Unformatted text contains only the words; it has no information on fonts, indents, spacing, autonumbering, and so on. Formatted text contains these types of information.
You can import formatted text into a FrameMaker document by importing from the following sources:
•A text flow from another part of the same document
•A text flow from another FrameMaker document
•A text flow from another FrameMaker document that is a Maker Interchange Format (MIF) file
•A file created in another application, such as Microsoft Word, which has an installed filter
When you import text from another FrameMaker document, you also import cross-references, footnotes, variables, markers, tables, and anchored frames. Conditional tags in the flow is also imported. When you import text from another application, some of these special items may be imported, depending on the capabilities of the other application and the filter used.
1)Click where you want to insert the text and choose File > Import > File.
2)Specify the file that contains the flow you want to import and the import method.
3)Click Import.
4)If the Unknown File Type dialog box appears, select a file type and click Convert. The dialog box that appears next depends on the import method you chose in step 2. The Import Text Flow by Reference dialog box contains settings for specifying how to update the imported flow. Choose a body page flow or a reference page flow. Typically, the text you import will come from body pages. Reference pages can contain flows with boilerplate text or graphics for use on body pages.
5)Specify how to format the imported text by doing one of the following:
•To apply the current document’s formats to the imported text whenever their tags match, click Reformat Using Current Document’s Formats. If the tags don’t match, the formatting of imported text is unaffected. Usually, you would also select the options to remove manual page breaks and other format overrides (such as font properties or tab settings) so that the imported text looks like text in the current document with the same tags.
•To remove the formatting from the imported text and apply the character and paragraph formatting used at the insertion point, click Reformat As Plain Text. (Text in tables or anchored frames retains the formatting it had in the source document.)
•To keep the formatting from the source document, click Retain Source’s Formatting. Formats in the imported text aren’t added to the current document’s format catalogs. If you later modify the current document’s formats, the imported text formats won’t be affected—even if the tags in the current document and imported text match.
6)If you are importing the text by reference, specify how to update the text inset by doing one of the following:
•To update the text inset whenever you open the document, click Automatic.
•To update only when you specify, click Manual.
7)Click Import. If you imported the text by reference, it appears as a text inset. (A text inset is linked to the source document and can’t be edited outside that source document.)
When you import the text from an unformatted text file, you specify whether to import it by copying or by reference and how to treat lines in the text file. The imported text adopts the character and paragraph formatting used at the insertion point.
1)Place the insertion point where you want to insert the text, and then choose File > Import > File.
2)Specify the text file you want to import, and the import method.
3)Click Import. The dialog box that appears depends on the import method (Import By Reference or Copy Into Document) you chose.
4)Specify how to treat the imported text by doing one of the following:
•To break the text into paragraphs only at blank lines, click Merge Lines into Paragraphs. Use this option for a paragraph-oriented text file such as a file containing document text.
•To break the text into paragraphs at the end of each line, click Treat Each Line As A Paragraph. Use this option for a line-oriented text file such as a file containing computer code.
•To convert the imported text to a table, click Convert To Table. Specify a table format and other settings. Use this option only if the file contains delimited text, such as text output from a database program.
5)If you are importing the text by reference, specify how to update the text inset by doing one of the following:
•To update the text inset whenever you open the document, click Automatic.
•To update only when you specify, click Manual.
6)If necessary, choose a character encoding from the Text Encoding pop-up menu. Do this only if you know that the preselected encoding is incorrect. If you force an incorrect encoding, character substitution sometimes occurs or some characters appear as question marks.
7)Click Import. If you imported the text by reference, it appears as a text inset.