You will need an import/export license.
You will need an Editor install with the import/export feature installed.
You will export FrameMaker to MIF.
You will create at least one map (links FrameMaker tags and formatting to XML elements and attributes).
You will create at least one project (links MIF files, map files, and output files).
You will run the project.
Typically you run the project and develop your maps and scripts iteratively, perhaps against a representative subset of your complete library.
You will finish with a celebratory beverage, preferably cold.
If you have only a handful of documents and/or only a couple thousand pages, consider using cheap labor to do a copy/paste conversion.
If you have thousands of documents and/or millions of pages, work with an experienced, referred vendor.
If you fall in between, then figure out what resources are most scarce and make the most of what you've got. Don't forget to consider the organizational friction some resources represent in your evaluation.
Conversions are street fights. Don't be pedantic about doing anything "the right way"! Results are all that matters.
You will need to determine how much of your conversion will be:
* FrameMaker pre-processing by hand
* Arbortext mapping
* Programmatic pre- and post-processing run by import/export
* Text based post-processing (think Textpad find/replace for example)
* Script based post-processing (perl, for example)
* XSL/XSLT transformations
* XML editor based post-processing (Arbortext Editor of course)
Note: import/export has an intermediary XML format that can be accessed and processed.
The step by step bits you'll want to look for should be in the help (or maybe documentation) for import/export. There may also be samples in the Editor install tree. Look for folders named import or export.
Good luck!
