Despite improvements to table support in most applications, working with Excel tables in applications like Adobe InDesign, FrameMaker and CorelDraw are less than ideal especially if you are working on a deadline. In InDesign, most writers would import the Excel file as text and convert the content to a table and format the table and contents manually in a time consuming process. Other methods would involve converting the table/chart to a vector object in Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw to take advantage of the flexibility of vector objects in page layout applications. The fastest way to import an Excel table to a document is to save the Excel table as a bitmap or PDF and Place/Import the PDF into FrameMaker or InDesign. Unfortunately, this method has similar limitations to converting the table to a vector object - the table loses its text properties and common text tasks such as copy and paste are no longer available once the document is exported to PDF for editing, review or publication.
FrameMaker's table handling has advantages over Adobe InDesign's WYSIWYG approach, but learning Table Designer and FrameMaker's different interface can be trying for new users. This series of articles will discuss one way to import and format Excel articles for use in Adobe FrameMaker 10.
Preparing the Excel Table
This example makes use of a a Microsoft Excel 2007 table with numbers, text and columns of varying widths. To facilitate importing to FrameMaker, remove all formatting and colors. To avoid symbol or font issues, the bullets in the last three columns were formatted using a generic font as is the rest of the text.
A quick way to remove table formatting is to select all the table cells, copy, and paste the cells in a new workbook using the Paste Special command. Select only Values and then save the workbook.
Preparing FrameMaker
Before starting work with tables in FrameMaker, change the display units of the ruler. Since FrameMaker isn't a WYSIWYG application, you will have to manually input values for the table column widths and rows.
To change the Ruler display units:
1. Click View then Options.
2. In the Display Units: item, select your preferred unit measurements.
3. In the Rulers: item, select your preferred unit measurements. For this tutorial, we'll be using mm, which is small for text but large enough to be visible when making increments.
4. Click Set.
When working with Excel tables, you would need both the Paragraph Designer and Table Designer tabs so you can open them before importing the Excel file.
Importing the plain Excel table
To import the Excel table:1. Place the insertion point to where you want the table to appear.
2. Click File then Import.
3. Click File... then select the Excel 2007/2010 file.
4. Select Copy Into Document. Click Import.
Note: If you select the Import by Reference option, you would have click the Convert... button in the Text Inset Properties tab.
5. FrameMaker will display the Unknown File Type window for .xlsx files. Select Microsoft Excel 2007 then Click Convert.
6. In the Import Text Flow by Reference window, select Reformat as Plain Text. Click Import.
The table will appear on your main Body Flow after the paragraph mark if your Text Symbols are visible. Note that most Excel tables are often wider than a typical A4 or Letter-size FrameMaker page. The table will be cut off with parts of it not visible. In most cases, you would have to modify the content of the table in addition to resizing the columns and text sizes.
Note: Unlike InDesign, where you can toggle between views to display non-printing or hidden parts of the work page, you cannot see the missing portions of the table outside the FrameMaker document.
Editing the Table contents, Columns and Text
To make the table fit the FrameMaker page, you would have to edit the text size, cell margins and columns of the table. In this example, the table contains technical information that isn't as necessary for most readers so a compromise between text size and column size. However, check with your technical editor before making any direct edits to the text.
To change text size and font using Paragraph Designer:
1. Place the insertion point inside the table. The text is automatically formatted using the default Paragraph Tag if you followed the import steps above.
2. Create a new paragraph tag in Paragraph Designer. Click Commands, New Format... then Create.
3. Change the text size and font. For this example, a size value of 9.0 pts is used.
4. Select the text/table cells and click Apply. You can select the non-visible portions of the table once they appear on the FrameMaker page. You can also refine formatting of the text later for specific types of text. The objective at the moment is to "shrink" the table and allow the missing portion of the table to appear.
Continued in Unstructured FrameMaker Basics: Importing and working with Excel Tables Part 2
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