FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
This is definitely NOT a Visio issue with Framemaker, but a general MS OLE implementation issue. OLE has always been dangerous in many aspects even though it may seem to work OK at first sight on the local machine. Apart from effectively preventing document portability, OLE object linking are likely to force you into a life with many artifacts such as e.g. ackward font styles, text spacing and colours. You may also find curves sliced up into small line segments and perhaps also stroked curves and lines appear as filled outlines -- depending on your display card driver. In my view OLE linking and embedding is a complete disaster for production workflows where reliability is a must-have. And Framemaker is not the one to blame :-) Best regards / Med venlig hilsen Jacob Sch?ffer | Chief Developer Grafikhuset (House of Graphics) Paradis All? 22, Raml?se DK-3200 Helsinge, Denmark Phone: +45 4439 4400 Email: js at grafikhuset.dk Web: www.grafikhuset.net
RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
This is definitely NOT a Visio issue with Framemaker, but a general MS OLE implementation issue. OLE has always been dangerous in many aspects even though it may seem to work OK at first sight on the local machine. Apart from effectively preventing document portability, OLE object linking are likely to force you into a life with many artifacts such as e.g. ackward font styles, text spacing and colours. You may also find curves sliced up into small line segments and perhaps also stroked curves and lines appear as filled outlines -- depending on your display card driver. In my view OLE linking and embedding is a complete disaster for production workflows where reliability is a must-have. And Framemaker is not the one to blame :-) Best regards / Med venlig hilsen Jacob Schäffer | Chief Developer Grafikhuset (House of Graphics) Paradis Allé 22, Ramløse DK-3200 Helsinge, Denmark Phone: +45 4439 4400 Email: j...@grafikhuset.dk Web: www.grafikhuset.net ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
As a victim of OLE compatibility/stability, I also support the method described here. You will find far fewer encumbrances to production workflow by using the import-by-reference method...Kelly. -Original Message- From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Art Campbell Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2009 8:50 AM To: framers at lists.frameusers.com Cc: tnahal99 at yahoo.com Subject: Re: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views OLE support does seem to be improved in FM 9, but given the history of Microsoft support and the general high level of problems associated with it, I wouldn't ever consider using it in a production environment. (In passing, the reason SP3 "broke" OLE was because the fix plugged a hole that was supposed to allow remote execution on the host machine.) Generating a PDF or PNG from Visio is quick and importing it by reference in Frame is easy. If something changes in the graphic, you can export from Visio to the same file name and it'll all just continue to work. Art Art Campbell art.campbell at gmail.com "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson No disclaimers apply. DoD 358 On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 4:46 AM, Dov Isaacs wrote: > On the off-chance that you were not joking and on behalf of Adobe, > let me assure you that Adobe has no "built-in timer in FM itself" for > any purpose of forcing users to upgrade to "make money selling upgrades." > > The only so called "timers" in any Adobe products are associated with > controlling test releases and trial versions of our products. > > And NO, FrameMaker 9 does NOT officially support Visio. It supports OLE > and to the degree that a particular combination of Visio and Windows works > together to specification, Visio is "supported" in that manner. Personally, > given Microsoft's tepid support for OLE these days, I would more likely > recommend playing Russian Roulette than using OLE with FrameMaker or any > other application! > >- Dov > > > -Original Message- > > From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto: > framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 6:41 PM > > To: framers at lists.frameusers.com; Combs, Richard > > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > > > > Dear Richard Combs, > > > > I appreciate your detailed response. Actually, I had posted a message > realated to Visio sometime > > around late August 2008 on the framers list. There were some good > responses, but there was no real > > solution. The problem was triggered by XP SP3 upgrade that altered > something in the OS which caused FM > > to become hostile to Visio, or perhaps it was triggered by some sort of > built-in timer in FM itself. > > (I guess Adobe makes money by selling upgrades!) > > > > Yes, we moved Visio files as OLE objects into FM. Naturally, it does have > the application > > overhead, but the output is better and making any changes is easier. Some > of our engineering drawings > > are done in Visio and it makes it easier for us to stick to that format. > > > > Adobe Tech Support told me few days ago that FM9 does support Visio. I > will download the trial version > > and try it and see how it works. > > > > Again, thanks for sharing you experience. > > > > Best regards > > > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sr. Technical Writer > > > > Atheros Communications, Inc. > > > > > > > > --- On Fri, 1/23/09, Combs, Richard wrote: > > > > From: Combs, Richard > > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > > To: tnahal99 at yahoo.com, framers at lists.frameusers.com > > Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 1:50 PM > > > > Tarlochan S. Nahal wrote: > > > > > We are a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. > > > Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio > > > drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current > setup. > > > Maybe it was automatic Windows SP upgrade that did the mischief. It > > > suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format > (.vsd). > > > The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we > are > > > not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! > > > > FM has _never_ been able to i
RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
Dear Kelly McDaniel, Thanks for sharing your experience. I am a believer in import-by-reference myself which has worked pretty reliably for me for many many years. I inherited some docs with many OLE diagrams and this method worked well for a while until this problem started to occur about five months ago. The situation is so ugly that simply double-clicking an existing OLE Visio drawing (and thus launching Visio) causes Frame to reject the drawing. You need to purge that drawing before you can save the FM doc. Now we know the limitations and will certainly give it a thought if we want to continue with this methodology. Best regards Tarlochan S. Nahal Sr. Technical Writer --- On Mon, 1/26/09, Kelly McDaniel wrote: From: Kelly McDaniel Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views To: "Art Campbell" , framers@lists.frameusers.com Cc: tnaha...@yahoo.com Date: Monday, January 26, 2009, 7:10 AM As a victim of OLE compatibility/stability, I also support the method described here. You will find far fewer encumbrances to production workflow by using the import-by-reference method...Kelly. -Original Message- From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Art Campbell Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2009 8:50 AM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com Cc: tnaha...@yahoo.com Subject: Re: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views OLE support does seem to be improved in FM 9, but given the history of Microsoft support and the general high level of problems associated with it, I wouldn't ever consider using it in a production environment. (In passing, the reason SP3 "broke" OLE was because the fix plugged a hole that was supposed to allow remote execution on the host machine.) Generating a PDF or PNG from Visio is quick and importing it by reference in Frame is easy. If something changes in the graphic, you can export from Visio to the same file name and it'll all just continue to work. Art Art Campbell art.campb...@gmail.com "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson No disclaimers apply. DoD 358 On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 4:46 AM, Dov Isaacs wrote: > On the off-chance that you were not joking and on behalf of Adobe, > let me assure you that Adobe has no "built-in timer in FM itself" for > any purpose of forcing users to upgrade to "make money selling upgrades." > > The only so called "timers" in any Adobe products are associated with > controlling test releases and trial versions of our products. > > And NO, FrameMaker 9 does NOT officially support Visio. It supports OLE > and to the degree that a particular combination of Visio and Windows works > together to specification, Visio is "supported" in that manner. Personally, > given Microsoft's tepid support for OLE these days, I would more likely > recommend playing Russian Roulette than using OLE with FrameMaker or any > other application! > >- Dov > > > -Original Message- > > From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto: > framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 6:41 PM > > To: framers@lists.frameusers.com; Combs, Richard > > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > > > > Dear Richard Combs, > > > > I appreciate your detailed response. Actually, I had posted a message > realated to Visio sometime > > around late August 2008 on the framers list. There were some good > responses, but there was no real > > solution. The problem was triggered by XP SP3 upgrade that altered > something in the OS which caused FM > > to become hostile to Visio, or perhaps it was triggered by some sort of > built-in timer in FM itself. > > (I guess Adobe makes money by selling upgrades!) > > > > Yes, we moved Visio files as OLE objects into FM. Naturally, it does have > the application > > overhead, but the output is better and making any changes is easier. Some > of our engineering drawings > > are done in Visio and it makes it easier for us to stick to that format. > > > > Adobe Tech Support told me few days ago that FM9 does support Visio. I > will download the trial version > > and try it and see how it works. > > > > Again, thanks for sharing you experience. > > > > Best regards > > > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sr. Technical Writer > > > > Atheros Communications, Inc. > > > > > > > > --- On Fri, 1/23/09, Combs, Richard wrote: >
FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
Dear Kelly McDaniel, ? Thanks for sharing your experience. ? I am a believer in import-by-reference?myself which has worked?pretty reliably for me for?many many years.?I inherited?some docs?with?many?OLE diagrams and this method worked well for a while until?this problem started to occur about five months ago. The situation is so?ugly that simply double-clicking an existing OLE Visio drawing (and thus launching Visio) causes Frame to reject the drawing. You need to purge that drawing before you can save the FM doc.?Now we know the limitations and will certainly give it a thought if we want to continue with this methodology. ? Best regards ? ? Tarlochan S. Nahal ? Sr. Technical Writer --- On Mon, 1/26/09, Kelly McDaniel wrote: From: Kelly McDaniel Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views To: "Art Campbell" , framers at lists.frameusers.com Cc: tnahal99 at yahoo.com Date: Monday, January 26, 2009, 7:10 AM As a victim of OLE compatibility/stability, I also support the method described here. You will find far fewer encumbrances to production workflow by using the import-by-reference method...Kelly. -Original Message- From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Art Campbell Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2009 8:50 AM To: framers at lists.frameusers.com Cc: tnahal99 at yahoo.com Subject: Re: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views OLE support does seem to be improved in FM 9, but given the history of Microsoft support and the general high level of problems associated with it, I wouldn't ever consider using it in a production environment. (In passing, the reason SP3 "broke" OLE was because the fix plugged a hole that was supposed to allow remote execution on the host machine.) Generating a PDF or PNG from Visio is quick and importing it by reference in Frame is easy. If something changes in the graphic, you can export from Visio to the same file name and it'll all just continue to work. Art Art Campbell art.campbell at gmail.com "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson No disclaimers apply. DoD 358 On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 4:46 AM, Dov Isaacs wrote: > On the off-chance that you were not joking and on behalf of Adobe, > let me assure you that Adobe has no "built-in timer in FM itself" for > any purpose of forcing users to upgrade to "make money selling upgrades." > > The only so called "timers" in any Adobe products are associated with > controlling test releases and trial versions of our products. > > And NO, FrameMaker 9 does NOT officially support Visio. It supports OLE > and to the degree that a particular combination of Visio and Windows works > together to specification, Visio is "supported" in that manner. Personally, > given Microsoft's tepid support for OLE these days, I would more likely > recommend playing Russian Roulette than using OLE with FrameMaker or any > other application! > >- Dov > > > -Original Message- > > From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto: > framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 6:41 PM > > To: framers at lists.frameusers.com; Combs, Richard > > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > > > > Dear Richard Combs, > > > > I appreciate your detailed response. Actually, I had posted a message > realated to Visio sometime > > around late August 2008 on the framers list. There were some good > responses, but there was no real > > solution. The problem was triggered by XP SP3 upgrade that altered > something in the OS which caused FM > > to become hostile to Visio, or perhaps it was triggered by some sort of > built-in timer in FM itself. > > (I guess Adobe makes money by selling upgrades!) > > > > Yes, we moved Visio files as OLE objects into FM. Naturally, it does have > the application > > overhead, but the output is better and making any changes is easier. Some > of our engineering drawings > > are done in Visio and it makes it easier for us to stick to that format. > > > > Adobe Tech Support told me few days ago that FM9 does support Visio. I > will download the trial version > > and try it and see how it works. > > > > Again, thanks for sharing you experience. > > > > Best regards > > > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sr. Technical Writer > > > > Atheros Communications, Inc. > > > > > > > > --- On Fri, 1/23/09, Combs,
RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
As a victim of OLE compatibility/stability, I also support the method described here. You will find far fewer encumbrances to production workflow by using the import-by-reference method...Kelly. -Original Message- From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Art Campbell Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2009 8:50 AM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com Cc: tnaha...@yahoo.com Subject: Re: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views OLE support does seem to be improved in FM 9, but given the history of Microsoft support and the general high level of problems associated with it, I wouldn't ever consider using it in a production environment. (In passing, the reason SP3 "broke" OLE was because the fix plugged a hole that was supposed to allow remote execution on the host machine.) Generating a PDF or PNG from Visio is quick and importing it by reference in Frame is easy. If something changes in the graphic, you can export from Visio to the same file name and it'll all just continue to work. Art Art Campbell art.campb...@gmail.com "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson No disclaimers apply. DoD 358 On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 4:46 AM, Dov Isaacs wrote: > On the off-chance that you were not joking and on behalf of Adobe, > let me assure you that Adobe has no "built-in timer in FM itself" for > any purpose of forcing users to upgrade to "make money selling upgrades." > > The only so called "timers" in any Adobe products are associated with > controlling test releases and trial versions of our products. > > And NO, FrameMaker 9 does NOT officially support Visio. It supports OLE > and to the degree that a particular combination of Visio and Windows works > together to specification, Visio is "supported" in that manner. Personally, > given Microsoft's tepid support for OLE these days, I would more likely > recommend playing Russian Roulette than using OLE with FrameMaker or any > other application! > >- Dov > > > -Original Message- > > From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto: > framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 6:41 PM > > To: framers@lists.frameusers.com; Combs, Richard > > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > > > > Dear Richard Combs, > > > > I appreciate your detailed response. Actually, I had posted a message > realated to Visio sometime > > around late August 2008 on the framers list. There were some good > responses, but there was no real > > solution. The problem was triggered by XP SP3 upgrade that altered > something in the OS which caused FM > > to become hostile to Visio, or perhaps it was triggered by some sort of > built-in timer in FM itself. > > (I guess Adobe makes money by selling upgrades!) > > > > Yes, we moved Visio files as OLE objects into FM. Naturally, it does have > the application > > overhead, but the output is better and making any changes is easier. Some > of our engineering drawings > > are done in Visio and it makes it easier for us to stick to that format. > > > > Adobe Tech Support told me few days ago that FM9 does support Visio. I > will download the trial version > > and try it and see how it works. > > > > Again, thanks for sharing you experience. > > > > Best regards > > > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sr. Technical Writer > > > > Atheros Communications, Inc. > > > > > > > > --- On Fri, 1/23/09, Combs, Richard wrote: > > > > From: Combs, Richard > > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > > To: tnaha...@yahoo.com, framers@lists.frameusers.com > > Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 1:50 PM > > > > Tarlochan S. Nahal wrote: > > > > > We are a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. > > > Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio > > > drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current > setup. > > > Maybe it was automatic Windows SP upgrade that did the mischief. It > > > suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format > (.vsd). > > > The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we > are > > > not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! > > > > FM has _never_ been able to import native Visio files
FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
OLE support does seem to be improved in FM 9, but given the history of Microsoft support and the general high level of problems associated with it, I wouldn't ever consider using it in a production environment. (In passing, the reason SP3 "broke" OLE was because the fix plugged a hole that was supposed to allow remote execution on the host machine.) Generating a PDF or PNG from Visio is quick and importing it by reference in Frame is easy. If something changes in the graphic, you can export from Visio to the same file name and it'll all just continue to work. Art Art Campbell art.campbell at gmail.com "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson No disclaimers apply. DoD 358 On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 4:46 AM, Dov Isaacs wrote: > On the off-chance that you were not joking and on behalf of Adobe, > let me assure you that Adobe has no "built-in timer in FM itself" for > any purpose of forcing users to upgrade to "make money selling upgrades." > > The only so called "timers" in any Adobe products are associated with > controlling test releases and trial versions of our products. > > And NO, FrameMaker 9 does NOT officially support Visio. It supports OLE > and to the degree that a particular combination of Visio and Windows works > together to specification, Visio is "supported" in that manner. Personally, > given Microsoft's tepid support for OLE these days, I would more likely > recommend playing Russian Roulette than using OLE with FrameMaker or any > other application! > >- Dov > > > -Original Message- > > From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto: > framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 6:41 PM > > To: framers at lists.frameusers.com; Combs, Richard > > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > > > > Dear Richard Combs, > > > > I appreciate your detailed response. Actually, I had posted a message > realated to Visio sometime > > around late August 2008 on the framers list. There were some good > responses, but there was no real > > solution. The problem was triggered by XP SP3 upgrade that altered > something in the OS which caused FM > > to become hostile to Visio, or perhaps it was triggered by some sort of > built-in timer in FM itself. > > (I guess Adobe makes money by selling upgrades!) > > > > Yes, we moved Visio files as OLE objects into FM. Naturally, it does have > the application > > overhead, but the output is better and making any changes is easier. Some > of our engineering drawings > > are done in Visio and it makes it easier for us to stick to that format. > > > > Adobe Tech Support told me few days ago that FM9 does support Visio. I > will download the trial version > > and try it and see how it works. > > > > Again, thanks for sharing you experience. > > > > Best regards > > > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sr. Technical Writer > > > > Atheros Communications, Inc. > > > > > > > > --- On Fri, 1/23/09, Combs, Richard wrote: > > > > From: Combs, Richard > > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > > To: tnahal99 at yahoo.com, framers at lists.frameusers.com > > Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 1:50 PM > > > > Tarlochan S. Nahal wrote: > > > > > We are a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. > > > Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio > > > drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current > setup. > > > Maybe it was automatic Windows SP upgrade that did the mischief. It > > > suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format > (.vsd). > > > The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we > are > > > not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! > > > > FM has _never_ been able to import native Visio files. You weren't > > previously importing _files_, you were importing OLE2 _objects_ (complete > with > > all the Visio application overhead and potential instability). If you > moved an > > FM file containing those OLE2 links onto a PC that didn't have Visio > > installed, the links would be broken, even if the Visio files were there. > The > > links open Visio. > > > > IMHO, OLE linking and embedding was never a
Re: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
OLE support does seem to be improved in FM 9, but given the history of Microsoft support and the general high level of problems associated with it, I wouldn't ever consider using it in a production environment. (In passing, the reason SP3 "broke" OLE was because the fix plugged a hole that was supposed to allow remote execution on the host machine.) Generating a PDF or PNG from Visio is quick and importing it by reference in Frame is easy. If something changes in the graphic, you can export from Visio to the same file name and it'll all just continue to work. Art Art Campbell art.campb...@gmail.com "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson No disclaimers apply. DoD 358 On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 4:46 AM, Dov Isaacs wrote: > On the off-chance that you were not joking and on behalf of Adobe, > let me assure you that Adobe has no "built-in timer in FM itself" for > any purpose of forcing users to upgrade to "make money selling upgrades." > > The only so called "timers" in any Adobe products are associated with > controlling test releases and trial versions of our products. > > And NO, FrameMaker 9 does NOT officially support Visio. It supports OLE > and to the degree that a particular combination of Visio and Windows works > together to specification, Visio is "supported" in that manner. Personally, > given Microsoft's tepid support for OLE these days, I would more likely > recommend playing Russian Roulette than using OLE with FrameMaker or any > other application! > >- Dov > > > -Original Message- > > From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto: > framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 6:41 PM > > To: framers@lists.frameusers.com; Combs, Richard > > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > > > > Dear Richard Combs, > > > > I appreciate your detailed response. Actually, I had posted a message > realated to Visio sometime > > around late August 2008 on the framers list. There were some good > responses, but there was no real > > solution. The problem was triggered by XP SP3 upgrade that altered > something in the OS which caused FM > > to become hostile to Visio, or perhaps it was triggered by some sort of > built-in timer in FM itself. > > (I guess Adobe makes money by selling upgrades!) > > > > Yes, we moved Visio files as OLE objects into FM. Naturally, it does have > the application > > overhead, but the output is better and making any changes is easier. Some > of our engineering drawings > > are done in Visio and it makes it easier for us to stick to that format. > > > > Adobe Tech Support told me few days ago that FM9 does support Visio. I > will download the trial version > > and try it and see how it works. > > > > Again, thanks for sharing you experience. > > > > Best regards > > > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sr. Technical Writer > > > > Atheros Communications, Inc. > > > > > > > > --- On Fri, 1/23/09, Combs, Richard wrote: > > > > From: Combs, Richard > > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > > To: tnaha...@yahoo.com, framers@lists.frameusers.com > > Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 1:50 PM > > > > Tarlochan S. Nahal wrote: > > > > > We are a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. > > > Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio > > > drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current > setup. > > > Maybe it was automatic Windows SP upgrade that did the mischief. It > > > suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format > (.vsd). > > > The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we > are > > > not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! > > > > FM has _never_ been able to import native Visio files. You weren't > > previously importing _files_, you were importing OLE2 _objects_ (complete > with > > all the Visio application overhead and potential instability). If you > moved an > > FM file containing those OLE2 links onto a PC that didn't have Visio > > installed, the links would be broken, even if the Visio files were there. > The > > links open Visio. > > > > IMHO, OLE linking and embedding was never a very good idea exc
RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
On the off-chance that you were not joking and on behalf of Adobe, let me assure you that Adobe has no "built-in timer in FM itself" for any purpose of forcing users to upgrade to "make money selling upgrades." The only so called "timers" in any Adobe products are associated with controlling test releases and trial versions of our products. And NO, FrameMaker 9 does NOT officially support Visio. It supports OLE and to the degree that a particular combination of Visio and Windows works together to specification, Visio is "supported" in that manner. Personally, given Microsoft's tepid support for OLE these days, I would more likely recommend playing Russian Roulette than using OLE with FrameMaker or any other application! - Dov > -Original Message- > From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com > [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of > Tarlochan S. Nahal > Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 6:41 PM > To: framers@lists.frameusers.com; Combs, Richard > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > > Dear Richard Combs, > > I appreciate your detailed response. Actually, I had posted a message > realated to Visio sometime > around late August 2008 on the framers list. There were some good responses, > but there was no real > solution. The problem was triggered by XP SP3 upgrade that altered something > in the OS which caused FM > to become hostile to Visio, or perhaps it was triggered by some sort of > built-in timer in FM itself. > (I guess Adobe makes money by selling upgrades!) > > Yes, we moved Visio files as OLE objects into FM. Naturally, it does have the > application > overhead, but the output is better and making any changes is easier. Some of > our engineering drawings > are done in Visio and it makes it easier for us to stick to that format. > > Adobe Tech Support told me few days ago that FM9 does support Visio. I will > download the trial version > and try it and see how it works. > > Again, thanks for sharing you experience. > > Best regards > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > Sr. Technical Writer > > Atheros Communications, Inc. > > > > --- On Fri, 1/23/09, Combs, Richard wrote: > > From: Combs, Richard > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > To: tnaha...@yahoo.com, framers@lists.frameusers.com > Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 1:50 PM > > Tarlochan S. Nahal wrote: > > > We are a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. > > Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio > > drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current setup. > > Maybe it was automatic Windows SP upgrade that did the mischief. It > > suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format (.vsd). > > The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we are > > not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! > > FM has _never_ been able to import native Visio files. You weren't > previously importing _files_, you were importing OLE2 _objects_ (complete with > all the Visio application overhead and potential instability). If you moved an > FM file containing those OLE2 links onto a PC that didn't have Visio > installed, the links would be broken, even if the Visio files were there. The > links open Visio. > > IMHO, OLE linking and embedding was never a very good idea except for casual, > occasional use. > > There was some discussion on this list a while ago about an XP upgrade that > introduced the more serious problem you're seeing. Use Google to search the > archives (by adding "site:lists.frameusers.com" after your search > string) for posts about Visio import. > > I don't think upgrading to FM 9 will solve your problem. Unless it was > added very late in the development cycle (I haven't used the released > version), FM 9 doesn't have a Visio file import filter either. > > Assuming you have the full version of Acrobat, the best way to include Visio > drawings is to make PDFs and import those into FM. Your archive search should > turn up a post or three of mine discussing this. > > All that said, upgrading to FM 9 offers a number of other benefits. It > supports > Unicode (introduced in FM 8), which is a big deal if your docs need to be > translated. It has a very slick, highly configurable new interface. It can > import comments/edits from a review PDF and manage them through the Track Text > Edits feature. Books are much more flexible in FM 9 -- they can be nested, > contain folders, etc. And there's lots of new stuff relating to structure, > all of which means nothing
FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
On the off-chance that you were not joking and on behalf of Adobe, let me assure you that Adobe has no "built-in timer in FM itself" for any purpose of forcing users to upgrade to "make money selling upgrades." The only so called "timers" in any Adobe products are associated with controlling test releases and trial versions of our products. And NO, FrameMaker 9 does NOT officially support Visio. It supports OLE and to the degree that a particular combination of Visio and Windows works together to specification, Visio is "supported" in that manner. Personally, given Microsoft's tepid support for OLE these days, I would more likely recommend playing Russian Roulette than using OLE with FrameMaker or any other application! - Dov > -Original Message- > From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces at > lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of > Tarlochan S. Nahal > Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 6:41 PM > To: framers at lists.frameusers.com; Combs, Richard > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > > Dear Richard Combs, > > I appreciate your detailed response. Actually, I had posted a message > realated to Visio?sometime > around late?August 2008 on the framers?list. There were?some good responses, > but there was no real > solution. The problem was triggered by XP?SP3 upgrade that?altered something > in the OS which caused FM > to become hostile to Visio, or perhaps it was triggered by some sort of > built-in timer in FM itself. > (I guess Adobe makes?money?by selling?upgrades!) > > Yes, we?moved Visio files as OLE objects into FM. Naturally, it does have the > application > overhead,?but?the output is better and making any changes is easier. Some of > our? engineering drawings > are done in Visio and it makes it easier for us to stick to that format. > > Adobe Tech Support told me few days ago that FM9 does support Visio. I will > download the trial version > and try it and see how it works. > > Again, thanks for sharing you experience. > > Best regards > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > Sr. Technical Writer > > Atheros Communications, Inc. > > > > --- On Fri, 1/23/09, Combs, Richard wrote: > > From: Combs, Richard > Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views > To: tnahal99 at yahoo.com, framers at lists.frameusers.com > Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 1:50 PM > > Tarlochan S. Nahal wrote: > > > We are?a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. > > Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio > > drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current setup. > > Maybe it was?automatic Windows?SP upgrade that did the mischief. It > > suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format (.vsd). > > The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we are > > not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! > > FM has _never_ been able to import native Visio files. You weren't > previously importing _files_, you were importing OLE2 _objects_ (complete with > all the Visio application overhead and potential instability). If you moved an > FM file containing those OLE2 links onto a PC that didn't have Visio > installed, the links would be broken, even if the Visio files were there. The > links open Visio. > > IMHO, OLE linking and embedding was never a very good idea except for casual, > occasional use. > > There was some discussion on this list a while ago about an XP upgrade that > introduced the more serious problem you're seeing. Use Google to search the > archives (by adding "site:lists.frameusers.com" after your search > string) for posts about Visio import. > > I don't think upgrading to FM 9 will solve your problem. Unless it was > added very late in the development cycle (I haven't used the released > version), FM 9 doesn't have a Visio file import filter either. > > Assuming you have the full version of Acrobat, the best way to include Visio > drawings is to make PDFs and import those into FM. Your archive search should > turn up a post or three of mine discussing this. > > All that said, upgrading to FM 9 offers a number of other benefits. It > supports > Unicode (introduced in FM 8), which is a big deal if your docs need to be > translated. It has a very slick, highly configurable new interface. It can > import comments/edits from a review PDF and manage them through the Track Text > Edits feature. Books are much more flexible in FM 9 -- they can be nested, > contain folders, etc. And there's lots of new stuff relating to structure, > all of which means no
RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
Dear Richard Combs, I appreciate your detailed response. Actually, I had posted a message realated to Visio sometime around late August 2008 on the framers list. There were some good responses, but there was no real solution. The problem was triggered by XP SP3 upgrade that altered something in the OS which caused FM to become hostile to Visio, or perhaps it was triggered by some sort of built-in timer in FM itself. (I guess Adobe makes money by selling upgrades!) Yes, we moved Visio files as OLE objects into FM. Naturally, it does have the application overhead, but the output is better and making any changes is easier. Some of our engineering drawings are done in Visio and it makes it easier for us to stick to that format. Adobe Tech Support told me few days ago that FM9 does support Visio. I will download the trial version and try it and see how it works. Again, thanks for sharing you experience. Best regards Tarlochan S. Nahal Sr. Technical Writer Atheros Communications, Inc. --- On Fri, 1/23/09, Combs, Richard wrote: From: Combs, Richard Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views To: tnaha...@yahoo.com, framers@lists.frameusers.com Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 1:50 PM Tarlochan S. Nahal wrote: > We are a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. > Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio > drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current setup. > Maybe it was automatic Windows SP upgrade that did the mischief. It > suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format (.vsd). > The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we are > not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! FM has _never_ been able to import native Visio files. You weren't previously importing _files_, you were importing OLE2 _objects_ (complete with all the Visio application overhead and potential instability). If you moved an FM file containing those OLE2 links onto a PC that didn't have Visio installed, the links would be broken, even if the Visio files were there. The links open Visio. IMHO, OLE linking and embedding was never a very good idea except for casual, occasional use. There was some discussion on this list a while ago about an XP upgrade that introduced the more serious problem you're seeing. Use Google to search the archives (by adding "site:lists.frameusers.com" after your search string) for posts about Visio import. I don't think upgrading to FM 9 will solve your problem. Unless it was added very late in the development cycle (I haven't used the released version), FM 9 doesn't have a Visio file import filter either. Assuming you have the full version of Acrobat, the best way to include Visio drawings is to make PDFs and import those into FM. Your archive search should turn up a post or three of mine discussing this. All that said, upgrading to FM 9 offers a number of other benefits. It supports Unicode (introduced in FM 8), which is a big deal if your docs need to be translated. It has a very slick, highly configurable new interface. It can import comments/edits from a review PDF and manage them through the Track Text Edits feature. Books are much more flexible in FM 9 -- they can be nested, contain folders, etc. And there's lots of new stuff relating to structure, all of which means nothing to me right now. :-) FM 9 can open older FM docs, but it can only save back to FM 8 (in binary form). You can save as a 7.2-compatible MIF file, however. Any older files you open, templates or not, are converted to FM 9 format when you save them. So by all means, upgrade. But you'll still need to change your workflow regarding Visio. PDF, I tell you! PDF! :-) Richard Richard G. Combs Senior Technical Writer Polycom, Inc. richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom 303-223-5111 -- rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom 303-777-0436 -- ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
Dear Richard Combs, ? I appreciate your detailed response. Actually, I had posted a message realated to Visio?sometime around late?August 2008 on the framers?list. There were?some good responses, but there was no real solution. The problem was triggered by XP?SP3 upgrade that?altered something in the OS which caused FM to become hostile to Visio, or perhaps it was triggered by some sort of built-in timer in FM itself. (I guess Adobe makes?money?by selling?upgrades!)? ? Yes, we?moved Visio files as OLE objects into FM. Naturally, it does have the application overhead,?but?the output is better and making any changes is easier. Some of our? engineering drawings are done in Visio and it makes it easier for us to stick to that format. ? Adobe Tech Support told me few days ago that FM9 does support Visio. I will download the trial version and try it and see how it works. ? Again, thanks for sharing you experience. ? Best regards ? Tarlochan S. Nahal Sr. Technical Writer ? Atheros Communications, Inc. ? --- On Fri, 1/23/09, Combs, Richard wrote: From: Combs, Richard Subject: RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views To: tnahal99 at yahoo.com, framers at lists.frameusers.com Date: Friday, January 23, 2009, 1:50 PM Tarlochan S. Nahal wrote: > We are?a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. > Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio > drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current setup. > Maybe it was?automatic Windows?SP upgrade that did the mischief. It > suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format (.vsd). > The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we are > not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! FM has _never_ been able to import native Visio files. You weren't previously importing _files_, you were importing OLE2 _objects_ (complete with all the Visio application overhead and potential instability). If you moved an FM file containing those OLE2 links onto a PC that didn't have Visio installed, the links would be broken, even if the Visio files were there. The links open Visio. IMHO, OLE linking and embedding was never a very good idea except for casual, occasional use. There was some discussion on this list a while ago about an XP upgrade that introduced the more serious problem you're seeing. Use Google to search the archives (by adding "site:lists.frameusers.com" after your search string) for posts about Visio import. I don't think upgrading to FM 9 will solve your problem. Unless it was added very late in the development cycle (I haven't used the released version), FM 9 doesn't have a Visio file import filter either. Assuming you have the full version of Acrobat, the best way to include Visio drawings is to make PDFs and import those into FM. Your archive search should turn up a post or three of mine discussing this. All that said, upgrading to FM 9 offers a number of other benefits. It supports Unicode (introduced in FM 8), which is a big deal if your docs need to be translated. It has a very slick, highly configurable new interface. It can import comments/edits from a review PDF and manage them through the Track Text Edits feature. Books are much more flexible in FM 9 -- they can be nested, contain folders, etc. And there's lots of new stuff relating to structure, all of which means nothing to me right now. :-) FM 9 can open older FM docs, but it can only save back to FM 8 (in binary form). You can save as a 7.2-compatible MIF file, however. Any older files you open, templates or not, are converted to FM 9 format when you save them. So by all means, upgrade. But you'll still need to change your workflow regarding Visio. PDF, I tell you! PDF! :-) Richard Richard G. Combs Senior Technical Writer Polycom, Inc. richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom 303-223-5111 -- rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom 303-777-0436 --
FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
I have the trial version of 9 and I can open all our 7.1 and 7.2 templates just fine. Still playing with the new look and feel of it. I do like that it supports windows cmyk. Scott White Media Production Manager Implementation Coordinator 210-704-8239 swhite at alamark.com On Jan 23, 2009, at 3:03 PM, Tarlochan S. Nahal wrote: > > Dear Frame Users, > > We are a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. > Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any > Visio drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the > current setup. Maybe it was automatic Windows SP upgrade that did > the mischief. It suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their > native format (.vsd). The situation is so bad that even if we can > import a Visio drawing, we are not able to save the document until > we purge that drawing! > > I called Adobe Tech Support few times and finally learned from them > that they do not support Visio on FM 7.2 anymore! Of course, we can > import jpeg, pdf, tiff, etc. So we are contemplating on upgrading to > FM 9. > > I would appreciate if some of you could answer some of my questions. > > 1. Is it backward compatible with older versions? If so, how far > back does it go? For example, can it open FM 6 docs and Save As FM6 > or FM7 docs? > > 2. We use FM 7.x templates. Would there be any compatibility issues? > > 3. What are the primary new features of FM9 and what is your overall > experience with it? > > I will appreciate any feedback. > > Regards > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sr. Technical Writer > > ___ > > > You are currently subscribed to Framers as swhite at alamark.com. > > Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com > or visit > http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/swhite%40alamark.com > > Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit > http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. > >
FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
Tarlochan S. Nahal wrote: > We are?a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. > Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio > drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current setup. > Maybe it was?automatic Windows?SP upgrade that did the mischief. It > suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format (.vsd). > The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we are > not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! FM has _never_ been able to import native Visio files. You weren't previously importing _files_, you were importing OLE2 _objects_ (complete with all the Visio application overhead and potential instability). If you moved an FM file containing those OLE2 links onto a PC that didn't have Visio installed, the links would be broken, even if the Visio files were there. The links open Visio. IMHO, OLE linking and embedding was never a very good idea except for casual, occasional use. There was some discussion on this list a while ago about an XP upgrade that introduced the more serious problem you're seeing. Use Google to search the archives (by adding "site:lists.frameusers.com" after your search string) for posts about Visio import. I don't think upgrading to FM 9 will solve your problem. Unless it was added very late in the development cycle (I haven't used the released version), FM 9 doesn't have a Visio file import filter either. Assuming you have the full version of Acrobat, the best way to include Visio drawings is to make PDFs and import those into FM. Your archive search should turn up a post or three of mine discussing this. All that said, upgrading to FM 9 offers a number of other benefits. It supports Unicode (introduced in FM 8), which is a big deal if your docs need to be translated. It has a very slick, highly configurable new interface. It can import comments/edits from a review PDF and manage them through the Track Text Edits feature. Books are much more flexible in FM 9 -- they can be nested, contain folders, etc. And there's lots of new stuff relating to structure, all of which means nothing to me right now. :-) FM 9 can open older FM docs, but it can only save back to FM 8 (in binary form). You can save as a 7.2-compatible MIF file, however. Any older files you open, templates or not, are converted to FM 9 format when you save them. So by all means, upgrade. But you'll still need to change your workflow regarding Visio. PDF, I tell you! PDF! :-) Richard Richard G. Combs Senior Technical Writer Polycom, Inc. richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom 303-223-5111 -- rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom 303-777-0436 --
RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
To be fairly clear about this, FrameMaker never natively supported import of Visio drawings. What FrameMaker does support is Microsoft's OLE, Object Linking and Embedding protocol by which you can place content from one application into another effectively as a Window to that application. In the case cited, whenever FrameMaker would encounter a .VSD file, it would effectively run Visio via OLE to get display or print GDI stream associated with that content. In other words, FrameMaker knows nothing about what is in the .VSD file, but lets Windows dynamically handle the association between .VSD and Visio as well as the requests to Visio to return the appropriate display and/or print GDI data. This linkage also allows for clicking on such data and allowing the edit of the data in the OLE-compliant application, in this case Visio. Unfortunately, Microsoft has increasingly backed off of enthusiastic support for OLE over the last eight to ten years. They pulled OLE support from the Macintosh (never was a MacOS X version). The Visio OLE implementation seems to have always been somewhat problematic. And reports are that Windows XP SP3 caused further incompatibilities. (It is this general lack of continued support by Microsoft even back in 1999 plus a few other technical factors that lead Adobe to not support OLE in InDesign!) I tried a sample .VSD import (actually object placement) into a FrameMaker 8 document under Vista 32-bit SP1. It seemed to work although Visio 2007 SP1 seems to crash every time it closes. When I get back into the office on Monday, I'll attempt to see whether FrameMaker 9 likewise works with OLE and Visio 2007 in my environment. However, because of any number of problems we have heard about with XP SP3, I cannot vouch for the FrameMaker, OLE, and Visio combination working if you upgrade to FrameMaker 9. Too many variable outside of Adobe's control here. In general, though, even if you could get a FrameMaker / OLE / Visio combination to work, I would most strongly advise that you migrate away from this type of solution given its general instability and Microsoft's apparent lack of commitment to it in both Windows and Visio. A more stable solution is creation of PDF from Visio and placement of that PDF into FrameMaker! - Dov From: Tarlochan S. Nahal Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 1:03 PM Dear Frame Users, We are a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current setup. Maybe it was automatic Windows SP upgrade that did the mischief. It suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format (.vsd). The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we are not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! I called Adobe Tech Support few times and finally learned from them that they do not support Visio on FM 7.2 anymore! Of course, we can import jpeg, pdf, tiff, etc. So we are contemplating on upgrading to FM 9. I would appreciate if some of you could answer some of my questions. 1. Is it backward compatible with older versions? If so, how far back does it go? For example, can it open FM 6 docs and Save As FM6 or FM7 docs? 2. We use FM 7.x templates. Would there be any compatibility issues? 3. What are the primary new features of FM9 and what is your overall experience with it? I will appreciate any feedback. Regards Tarlochan S. Nahal Sr. Technical Writer ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
To be fairly clear about this, FrameMaker never natively supported import of Visio drawings. What FrameMaker does support is Microsoft's OLE, Object Linking and Embedding protocol by which you can place content from one application into another effectively as a Window to that application. In the case cited, whenever FrameMaker would encounter a .VSD file, it would effectively run Visio via OLE to get display or print GDI stream associated with that content. In other words, FrameMaker knows nothing about what is in the .VSD file, but lets Windows dynamically handle the association between .VSD and Visio as well as the requests to Visio to return the appropriate display and/or print GDI data. This linkage also allows for clicking on such data and allowing the edit of the data in the OLE-compliant application, in this case Visio. Unfortunately, Microsoft has increasingly backed off of enthusiastic support for OLE over the last eight to ten years. They pulled OLE support from the Macintosh (never was a MacOS X version). The Visio OLE implementation seems to have always been somewhat problematic. And reports are that Windows XP SP3 caused further incompatibilities. (It is this general lack of continued support by Microsoft even back in 1999 plus a few other technical factors that lead Adobe to not support OLE in InDesign!) I tried a sample .VSD import (actually object placement) into a FrameMaker 8 document under Vista 32-bit SP1. It seemed to work although Visio 2007 SP1 seems to crash every time it closes. When I get back into the office on Monday, I'll attempt to see whether FrameMaker 9 likewise works with OLE and Visio 2007 in my environment. However, because of any number of problems we have heard about with XP SP3, I cannot vouch for the FrameMaker, OLE, and Visio combination working if you upgrade to FrameMaker 9. Too many variable outside of Adobe's control here. In general, though, even if you could get a FrameMaker / OLE / Visio combination to work, I would most strongly advise that you migrate away from this type of solution given its general instability and Microsoft's apparent lack of commitment to it in both Windows and Visio. A more stable solution is creation of PDF from Visio and placement of that PDF into FrameMaker! - Dov From: Tarlochan S. Nahal Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 1:03 PM Dear Frame Users, We are a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current setup. Maybe it was automatic Windows SP upgrade that did the mischief. It suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format (.vsd). The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we are not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! I called Adobe Tech Support few times and finally learned from them that they do not support Visio on FM 7.2 anymore! Of course, we can import jpeg, pdf, tiff, etc. So we are contemplating on upgrading to FM 9. I would appreciate if some of you could answer some of my questions. 1. Is it backward compatible with older versions? If so, how far back does it go? For example, can it open FM 6 docs and Save As FM6 or FM7 docs? 2. We use FM 7.x templates. Would there be any compatibility issues? 3. What are the primary new features of FM9 and what is your overall experience with it? I will appreciate any feedback. Regards Tarlochan S. Nahal Sr. Technical Writer
RE: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
Tarlochan S. Nahal wrote: > We are a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. > Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio > drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current setup. > Maybe it was automatic Windows SP upgrade that did the mischief. It > suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format (.vsd). > The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we are > not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! FM has _never_ been able to import native Visio files. You weren't previously importing _files_, you were importing OLE2 _objects_ (complete with all the Visio application overhead and potential instability). If you moved an FM file containing those OLE2 links onto a PC that didn't have Visio installed, the links would be broken, even if the Visio files were there. The links open Visio. IMHO, OLE linking and embedding was never a very good idea except for casual, occasional use. There was some discussion on this list a while ago about an XP upgrade that introduced the more serious problem you're seeing. Use Google to search the archives (by adding "site:lists.frameusers.com" after your search string) for posts about Visio import. I don't think upgrading to FM 9 will solve your problem. Unless it was added very late in the development cycle (I haven't used the released version), FM 9 doesn't have a Visio file import filter either. Assuming you have the full version of Acrobat, the best way to include Visio drawings is to make PDFs and import those into FM. Your archive search should turn up a post or three of mine discussing this. All that said, upgrading to FM 9 offers a number of other benefits. It supports Unicode (introduced in FM 8), which is a big deal if your docs need to be translated. It has a very slick, highly configurable new interface. It can import comments/edits from a review PDF and manage them through the Track Text Edits feature. Books are much more flexible in FM 9 -- they can be nested, contain folders, etc. And there's lots of new stuff relating to structure, all of which means nothing to me right now. :-) FM 9 can open older FM docs, but it can only save back to FM 8 (in binary form). You can save as a 7.2-compatible MIF file, however. Any older files you open, templates or not, are converted to FM 9 format when you save them. So by all means, upgrade. But you'll still need to change your workflow regarding Visio. PDF, I tell you! PDF! :-) Richard Richard G. Combs Senior Technical Writer Polycom, Inc. richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom 303-223-5111 -- rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom 303-777-0436 -- ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Re: FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
I have the trial version of 9 and I can open all our 7.1 and 7.2 templates just fine. Still playing with the new look and feel of it. I do like that it supports windows cmyk. Scott White Media Production Manager Implementation Coordinator 210-704-8239 swh...@alamark.com On Jan 23, 2009, at 3:03 PM, Tarlochan S. Nahal wrote: > > Dear Frame Users, > > We are a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. > Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any > Visio drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the > current setup. Maybe it was automatic Windows SP upgrade that did > the mischief. It suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their > native format (.vsd). The situation is so bad that even if we can > import a Visio drawing, we are not able to save the document until > we purge that drawing! > > I called Adobe Tech Support few times and finally learned from them > that they do not support Visio on FM 7.2 anymore! Of course, we can > import jpeg, pdf, tiff, etc. So we are contemplating on upgrading to > FM 9. > > I would appreciate if some of you could answer some of my questions. > > 1. Is it backward compatible with older versions? If so, how far > back does it go? For example, can it open FM 6 docs and Save As FM6 > or FM7 docs? > > 2. We use FM 7.x templates. Would there be any compatibility issues? > > 3. What are the primary new features of FM9 and what is your overall > experience with it? > > I will appreciate any feedback. > > Regards > > Tarlochan S. Nahal > > Sr. Technical Writer > > ___ > > > You are currently subscribed to Framers as swh...@alamark.com. > > Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com > or visit > http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/swhite%40alamark.com > > Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit > http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. > > ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
Dear Frame Users, We are a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current setup. Maybe it was automatic Windows SP upgrade that did the mischief. It suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format (.vsd). The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we are not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! I called Adobe Tech Support few times and finally learned from them that they do not support Visio on FM 7.2 anymore! Of course, we can import jpeg, pdf, tiff, etc. So we are contemplating on upgrading to FM 9. I would appreciate if some of you could answer some of my questions. 1. Is it backward compatible with older versions? If so, how far back does it go? For example, can it open FM 6 docs and Save As FM6 or FM7 docs? 2. We use FM 7.x templates. Would there be any compatibility issues? 3. What are the primary new features of FM9 and what is your overall experience with it? I will appreciate any feedback. Regards Tarlochan S. Nahal Sr. Technical Writer ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to fram...@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
FM 9 Upgrade - Please share your views
? Dear Frame Users, ? We are?a small Tech Pubs group using FM 7.2 on Windows XP platform. Recently, it started to behave strangly and refused to import any Visio drawings. There seems to be no known cure for it with the current setup. Maybe it was?automatic Windows?SP upgrade that did the mischief. It suddenly stopped accepting Visio drawings in their native format (.vsd). The situation is so bad that even if we can import a Visio drawing, we are not able to save the document until we purge that drawing! ? I called Adobe Tech Support few times and finally learned from them that they do not support Visio on FM 7.2 anymore!? Of course, we can import jpeg, pdf, tiff, etc. So we are contemplating on upgrading to FM 9. ? I would appreciate if some of you could answer some of my questions. ? 1. Is it backward compatible with older versions? If so, how far back does it go? For example, can it open FM 6 docs and Save As FM6 or FM7 docs? ? 2. We use FM 7.x templates. Would?there be?any?compatibility issues? ? 3. What are the primary new features of FM9 and what is your overall experience with it? ? I will appreciate any feedback. ? Regards ? Tarlochan S. Nahal ? Sr. Technical Writer ?
