MIF

MIF (Maker Interchange Format) is the interchange format for Framemaker documents. Framemaker is a document preparation program designed to handle complex papers, especially for the scientific community.

URLs:

A Complete Example

The Conversion Process

A flow chart explaining MIF to HTML conversion using WebMaker http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.edu/software/frame/www/home.html = framemaker>Framemaker

Information about FrameMaker from its developers at MIT

Detail:

MIF saves binary Framemaker documents in a text format. This allows complex binary Framemaker documents to undergo a conversion to another format, such as HTML, without losing formatting information. Anyone who needs to serve complex documents to the WWW should become familiar with the process of converting Framemaker documents to HTML.

Various commercial programs are available to convert the MIF text files to HTML. CERN offers an example of how Webmaker can perform the conversion (see URL reference numbers 1 and 2). The following is a simplified version of the conversion process, taken from CERN's WebMaker User's Manual.

1. The binary Framemaker files are converted to MIF files.
2. Each MIF file is split so that all text remains in one file, and complex elements such as graphics, tables and mathematical equations are put in separate MIF files. A data file with configurable information for each graphic is made, and graphic MIFs are then converted to the GIF (Graphic Interchange Format, one of the three graphic types that can be read by a browser). The MIF file containing all the text is converted to HTML using the data file for special instructions.