Hello Barb I,

You are correct, there is no automated upgrade from manual to automated test.
But if I understand you correctly,
then recording steps into a manual script using RFT is probably not what you desire.
I am guessing you actually want to run test from RQM in an automated way, correct?

If that is the case and you have the manual scripts already,
then I would suggest the following:
Execute the manual tests while RFT is recording.
Once the manual test is done you can stop recording.
This way you make sure you get a first recording in RFT as an automated script while being sure all steps are followed in your test as expected through the manual script.
The next step is to edit the RFT script to make sure it can run in an automated fashion.
(Think about pre-, post conditions, application setup steps, waiting for user input on the server side and all other goodies that make an automation work unattended).
Use RFT to playback that script and see if all works fine.
You get the two versions of your tests; manual and automated tests, advancing your test efforts.
Then add the RFT into RQM's test case by importing it (see http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/clmhelp/v4r0m2/topic/com.ibm.rational.test.qm.doc/topics/t_import_ref_external_resource.html for details).
And then automate it through an Execution schedule.
Now you can run the schedule over night and have your results ready in the morning.

Hope this helps to make more of RQM and RFT.
Gerd Schiering
IBM TechSupport