Adobe FRAMEMAKER 10 - Macro Statements

ADOBE FRAMEMAKER 10
MIF Reference
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Macro statements
MIF has two statements that allow you to define macros and include information from other files. Although these
statements usually appear near the beginning of a MIF file, you need not put them in that position. However, the
MIF interpreter does not interpret a macro that occurs before its definition.
define statement
The define statement creates a macro. When the MIF interpreter reads a MIF file, it replaces the macro name with
its replacement text. A
define statement can appear anywhere in a MIF file; however, the macro definition must
appear before any occurrences of the macro name.
Syntax
Usage
Once a macro has been defined, you can use the macro name anywhere that the replacement text is valid. For
example, suppose you define the following macro:
define (Bold, <Font <FWeight `Bold'>>)
When you use the macro in MIF statements, write <Bold>. The interpreter replaces <Bold> with <Font <FWeight
`Bold'>>
. Note that it retains the outer angle brackets in the replacement text.
Note that when you use a macro in a MIF file, you must enclose macro names in brackets to comply with the MIF
syntax (for example, write
<Bold> instead of Bold). The MIF parser requires these brackets to interpret the macro
correctly.
include statement
The include statement reads information from other files. It is similar to an #include statement in a C program.
When the MIF interpreter reads a MIF file, it replaces the
include statement with the contents of the included file.
An
include statement can appear anywhere in a MIF file. However, make sure that the contents of the included file
appear in a valid location when they are read into the MIF file.
Syntax
Usage
The pathname argument specifies a UNIX-style pathname, which uses a slash (/) to separate directory names (for
example,
/usr/doc/template.mif). For the Windows version of FrameMaker, use the following guideline for
specifying absolute pathnames:
• For Windows versions, start an absolute pathname with the drive name. For example, to include the file
myfile.doc from the directory mydir on the c: drive, specify the pathname c:/mydir/myfile.doc. Don’t start
an absolute path with a slash (/).
If you specify a relative pathname, the MIF interpreter searches for the file to include in the directory or folder that
contains the file being interpreted. In UNIX versions of FrameMaker, the MIF interpreter also searches the
$FMHOME/fminit and the $FMHOME/fminit/filters directories for a file with a relative pathname.
define ( name , replacement )
Creates a macro
include ( pathname )
Reads in a file