We have an enormous product catalog (hundreds of pages) that was
originally created (by someone else) in FrameMaker. We would like to
convert those files into QuarkXpress or PageMaker in a Macintosh
environment. Are converters available? How are they rated in terms of
accuracy and ease of use? Are there any good web sites or books that
provide guidelines for this procedure?

---

Request for Question Clarification by xemion-ga on 05 Jun 2002 13:54 PDT

How about converting it into HTML or Word documents?  Will that suit
your needs?  Maybe you can import the Word document in Quark or
PageMaker?

---

Request for Question Clarification by mvguy-ga on 05 Jun 2002 16:58 PDT

It's likely you may have to do something along the lines of what
Xemion suggests -- exporting it into a "universal" format such as XML
and then importing it.  Could you please indicate what version of
FrameMaker was used? Also, are there lots of graphics involved, and
are the designs of each page complex?  Depending on the particulars,
you could lose information in each direction. Part of the problem here
is that while the capabilities of the various page-design programs
overlap, they aren't really designed for the same types of projects
(FrameMaker was probably the best choice for that size of catalog).

I was unable to find a direct conversion tool, either.  But doing some
searches on Google found a few resources that can help.  If you want
to do it yourself, you'll probably need to save the FrameMaker files
as HTML or another "transitional" format (there's a link to a tutorial
below), and then import it into PageMaker or QuarkExpress.

Alternately, you may want to investigate whether PageMaker can read
FrameMaker files (since they're both Adobe products).  As a last
resort, you may have to pay a company to do the conversion for you.

Here are the resources I found:

1. "FrameMaker Tutorial: Conversion Techniques"
http://www.io.com/~tcm/etwr2372/planners/frame/frame_conversion.html

This tutorial will guide you through the process of converting from
FrameMaker to another format.  Be sure to read the last section of the
document, covering conversion to HTML.

2. eDoc Publish Inc.
http://www.gnscd.com/pdf.htm

This company claims it can "convert virtually any document into any
other format."  They offer a 24-hour turnaround service, too.  Among
the electronic formats they can convert are:

Quark Express
HTML
PDF
FrameMaker
PageMaker
InDesign
Illustrator
Photoshop

3. National Data Conversion Institute
http://www.nsri.com/

Another company that offers conversion services.

Google search terms used:
framemaker quark express conversion
framemaker conversion

I would recommend converting to HTML and then importing into the
desired program.  I think that's the only way you'll be able to "do it
yourself." I hope this can get you on your way!

I didn't get exactly what I wanted; but the perfect answer may not exist.