Frame9 to Acrobat9 SaveAs Woes - Followup

[orand...@comcast.net]

I made a post on this topic on February 3rd.
Below the asterisks is text from that original post for reference.
The responses I received pointed to issues of earlier versions, such as mixed 
Acrobat versions, font mapping, etc. none of which were relevant for me. I did 
get a response that the rasterized pdf imports are a known problem and that a 
bug has been filed.
Doing more research, I found that by checking the "Convert CMYK to RGB" box 
that all of the issues went away, and that the result is then the same as if 
"print to PDF" were used. 
NOTE: The documented issues of Save As vs Print have never been a problem for 
our use/operations using earlier versions. Now, by checking this box, the same 
is true for Version 9.

The bottom line is that the "Preserve CMYK"  feature is seriously trashed on 
several fronts. It is like a reincarnation of the issues of years ago when 
folks were trying to create pdf files using printers other than the virtual one 
recommeded or using non-postscript printers to create pdf. At this time, if you 
need to preserve your CMYK, my message is "you all be careful out there". For 
the rest of you, check the box to turn off the preservation and life will be 
good.
***
I just loaded Tech Comm Suite 2 onto a brand new Dell Precision M6300.
I was using Frame 8 & Acrobat 8 on a Dell Latitude until this week.
I have always used the Save As PDF, both for Web versions of small size and 
print versions of high quality with excellent results on the Latitude. This has 
always been seamless and wonderful.
When I opened the Frame file in Version 9 and did a Save As to Acrobat Version 
9, using exactly the same settings, the PDF file became unusable garbage on 
several fronts:
Fonts were not mapped correctly. (They were a disaster)
Simple raster images became heavily pixelated and garbage (worse than the image 
in Frame)
Problems included, but were not limited to:
*Impact font did not map at all, became boxes.
*Arial Black was mapped to Times.
*Random areas had strings of characters mapped to different characters, whereas 
other characters using the exact same font and settings mapped OK.
*The file included (Import by reference) PDFs created from Word that have 
several different fonts. These fonts were rasterized garbage, whereas in 
Version 8 they were pass-through fonts that were great at any zoom setting.
*I have Adobe PDF set as the default printer.
I tried different job options and font embedding settings with absolutely no 
difference in the output results. It was like most settings were being ignored 
and was like it was trying to use a non-postscript printer (not Adobe PDF) to 
create the PDF. Postscript functions were not working, that is for sure.

Save As PDF from Frame 9 to Acrobat 9 Woes

[orand...@comcast.net]

I just loaded Tech Comm Suite 2 onto a brand new Dell Precision M6300.
I was using Frame 8 & Acrobat 8 on a Dell Latitude until this week.
I have always used the Save As PDF, both for Web versions of small size and 
print versions of high quality with excellent results on the Latitude. This has 
always been seamless and wonderful.

When I opened the Frame file in Version 9 and did a Save As to Acrobat Version 
9, using exactly the same settings, the PDF file became unusable garbage on 
several fronts:
Fonts were not mapped correctly. (They were a disaster)
Simple raster images became heavily pixelated and garbage (worse than the image 
in Frame)
Problems included, but were not limited to:
*Impact font did not map at all, became boxes.
*Arial Black was mapped to Times.
*Random areas had strings of characters mapped to different characters, whereas 
other characters using the exact same font and settings mapped OK.
*The file included (Import by reference) PDFs created from Word that have 
several different fonts. These fonts were rasterized garbage, whereas in 
Version 8 they were pass-through fonts that were great at any zoom setting.
*I have Adobe PDF set as the default printer.
I tried different job options and font embedding settings with absolutely no 
difference in the output results. It was like most settings were being ignored 
and was like it was trying to use a non-postscript printer (not Adobe PDF) to 
create the PDF. Postscript functions were not working, that is for sure.

I finally did a print to PDF (which is much less convenient and more 
troublesome), changing nothing but the method of creating the PDF (Save As vs. 
Print). (all settings the same). It came out perfect, with all fonts and raster 
images of the expected quality, basically equal to the Frame 8 Acrobat 8 
version.
So do I have a setting wrong, or do we have a major bug here? I really need the 
Save As to work. I never had issues like these with earlier versions.

Structure View Won't Appear

[orand...@comcast.net]

You can use Windows keyboard commands to locate most boxes and applications 
when they are 'off screen'. This often happens when you use a laptop with a 2nd 
monitor at the base, and then undock it for a presentation or other portable 
use. This stuff you want is on the 'other monitor'.
For most items, use the following:

Make the item active (click the icon, etc.)
Ctr-[spacebar]
m
[arrow key] (not the ones on the numeric keypad0
Move the mouse until the item appears. (Do not click a button0
When in view, click the left button.

Try this with any active item. This is not Frame specific.

However, the FrameMaker Structure View is different, and usually needs an 
offshoot of this procedure. This issue that you cannot make the View active by 
clicking the icon if you dlick somewhere else after the first time.
So close Frame, open it, click the icon once and do the above procedure. This 
keeps the View active so that you can move it.
This procedure is for XP. Don't know if Vista works the same.
Oran Petersen

FrameImage (was Equation Editor Issues)

[orand...@comcast.net]

Question: What does "Save  FrameImage with Imported Graphics" do?
Answer: Back in the early days when FrameMaker was a true cross-platform tool 
that would allow you to work the same Frame file on Windows, Mac and various 
flavors of Unix, FrameImage was an equilizer giving you a common format across 
the three platforms for imported raster images.
While you could probably still use it with mif, etc. I doubt that many need it 
today. FrameImage is mostly an artifact. Turning it on will bloat your file 
sizes and give you little or no benefit.

Next Pgf Tag is Broken in the Paragraph Designer 8.0p273

[orand...@comcast.net]

I use FrameMaker 8.0p273.
This version ignores the setting in the Paragraph Designer "Next Pgf Tag"  on 
the Basic tab. I get only a duplicate of the previous paratag, regardless of 
paratag selected in the pop-up.
This always worked in all previous versions.
Does anyone know a fix?
Has this been squawked to Adobe?

Framers Digest, Vol 29, Issue 14

[orand...@comcast.net]

Hi Gary
When I tried to open your TempNext file I got a message that it needed as 
"converter". Did you get a new version of Word that is not compatible with 
earlier versions or is it a corrupt file? I am opening other Word inputs 
without issue.
Sometimes e-mail will mess up an attachment.
Please re-send.
If a new Word version, please downsave to an earlier version.
Thanks
Oran

PS: you are the April cover car. Nice write-up.
-- Original message -- 
From: framers-requ...@lists.frameusers.com 

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> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific 
> than "Re: Contents of Framers digest..." 
> 
> 
> Today's Topics: 
> 
> 1. RE: FM abruptly closes with no save (Diane Gaskill) 
> 2. Re: FM abruptly closes with no save (Yves Barbion) 
> 3. Re: IXgen Key Word (Art Campbell) 
> 4. Re: FM abruptly closes with no save (Mike Wickham) 
> 5. RE: FM abruptly closes with no save (richard.melanson at us.tel.com) 
> 6. FM*.TMP files cause Instability (Owen, Clint) 
> 7. Recovery (Harold Winberg) 
> 8. RE: Recovery (Michael O'Neill) 
> 9. Re: Recovery (Art Campbell) 
> 10. RE: Recovery (Gagne, Bernard (Bolton)) 
> 11. RE: Recovery (Fred Ridder) 
> 12. Re: Recovery (Stuart Rogers) 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Message: 1 
> Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:02:59 -0800 
> From: "Diane Gaskill" 
> Subject: RE: FM abruptly closes with no save 
> To: 
> Message-ID: 
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" 
> 
> Hi Framers, 
> 
> I run FM8.02 on a laptop running XPSP2 with 2GB of RAM. I have recently 
> experienced several crashes in situations that I never had crashes with when 
> using FM7.0. Sometimes it saves and I get a recovery file, but most of the 
> time it does not save, it just halts and the FM window closes. When it 
> comes back up, it acts like nothing happened. No error messages, no 
> nothing. Business as usual. Wot, who me? 
> 
> I know that Adobe people do monitor this list (and have for many years) so I 
> need to ask - what is the best way to report this? I have a couple of dumps 
> I can send. 
> 
> I'd also suggest to the other FM users on the list who have posted about 
> their crashes, that they report their crashes too. Posting them on the list 
> is good and maybe someone knows a workaround for some situations, but the 
> more Adobe has to work with, the better chance they have of finding the bug 
> and fixing it. It sounds like a bug to me. 
> 
> Diane Gaskill 
> (former tech support engineer) 
> = 
> 
> 
> -Original Message- 
> From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com 
> [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com]On Behalf Of Brewster, 
> Christopher C 
> Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 8:08 AM 
> To: framers at lists.frameusers.com 
> Subject: RE: FM abruptly closes with no save 
> 
> 
> I think the memory issue is indeed the cause for this. I did my process 
> again and saved after each insertion. No problems occurred. But I think 
> software should handle a memory issue much more gracefully than simply 
> closing without saving-such as warning me, or refusing to execute the 
> step that would make it close. (Do Adobe people monitor this list?) 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> From: Dennis Brunnenmeyer [mailto:dennisb at kvmr.org] 
> Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 8:50 PM 
> To: Shmuel Wolfson 
> Cc: Brewster, Christopher C; framers at lists.frameusers.com 
> Subject: Re: FM abruptly closes with no save 
> 
> 
> 
> Hi... 
> 
> No one in this thread has mentioned that, when working with graphics, 
> FrameMaker likes to have plenty of RAM available to it, especially if 
> other applications are open and also have images loaded. There's no 
> "rule of thumb" that I know of, but I wouldn't attempt to do much with 
> multiple graphic files unless I had at least 1GB or preferably 2GB or 
> more of RAM on my system. 512MB or less is an invitation to a crash. 
> 
> Dennis Brunnenmeyer 
> eMail: dennisb /at/ chronometrics /dot/ com 
> 
> ** 
> 
> At 09:14 AM 2/13/2008, Shmuel Wolfson wrote: 
> 
> 
> 
> I've had it close when scrolling a document that has embedded Corel 
> graphics, when I scrolled too fast and did not wait for the embedded 
> graphics to appear. 
> 
> 
> Regards, 
> Shmuel Wolfson 
> 052-763-7133 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ___ 
> 
> 
> You are currently subscribed to Framers as dgcaller at earthlink.net. 
> 
> Send list messages to framers at 

Bugs, or features, in FM8

[orand...@comcast.net]

I have been using FM8 and Acrobat 8 for some months now without any sign of a 
hyperlink issue. I use cross-references, internal and external hyperlinks, 
TOC's, Indexes. I make lists of markers, elements, paragraphs, etc. all of 
which are "hot" All of the links seem to work as intended in PDF. They work 
both when I use the Save As PDF abd when I use the print & distill method. 
Since we are about to upgrade a very large project involving thousands of 
unique manuals and hundreds of thousands of pages monthly, I am curious as to 
what your workflow/setup is. If there is a flaw, I have not found it so far.
As to your file lock/unlock issue, FM8 has an icon on the Formatting Toolbar 
"Toggle View Only" that lets you switch with a mouse click. You no longer need 
"Esc F l k" (Not "Ctrl") unless you prefer the shortcut over the icon. If you 
wish to save it in view only mode, you do "Save As" Save as type: View Only. 
Your file will then be in view only mode when next opened. The Formatting 
toggle icon allow you to exit View Only for editing purposes as you wish. You 
are not really "locking" the file (even though Adobe uses this term in help and 
other places). The "lck" file that Frame creates for all opened files just 
informs others that the file is already open for editing if they attempt to 
also open it. Many confuse this "lck" with the View Only "locking".
If you really like shortcuts, you can save your non View Only file as View Only 
with this sequence: Alt f a Tab v Tab Enter Tab Enter. (There will be a test on 
this later).
Oran Petersen
=
From: Austin Meredith 
Subject: Bugs, or features, in FM8

Since our Kouroo project now has an effective workaround for the fact 
that the hypertext linkage between FM8 and PDF files has not yet been 
implemented (by way of first saving a FM8 file as a FM7 MIF file 
before distilling a PDF), the initial panic has subsided. It turns 
out that it's not a big deal and our project can wait patiently for 
Adobe to fix this.

I've noticed something else, however. I've always been in the habit 
of using the locking/unlocking feature of FM, using the keystrokes 
"Ctrl F l k" to transit the files back and forth between a locked 
"use condition" to an unlocked "edit condition." However, in FM8, if 
you do a "Ctrl s" save before you do the "Ctrl F l k Ctrl w" to lock 
and close a file, your "Ctrl F l k" is wasted effort as the file 
simply doesn't stay locked.