FrameMaker 8 crashing constantly

Folks, I am having the same issue with 8.0p273 (the latest)...We are totally up against the wall with this. ANY HELP ANYWHERE????

Larry,

You mentioned: "I can produce PDFs fine (with the highly publicized "fix"), "

What fix is this? You mean FM build 266?

Ken Whitaker
Seattle, WA 98012

Thanks Dennis

Tried the Print to Adobe PDF printer driver (guess that came along with Adobe Acrobat Professional 8) and it crashes also.

Crap.

Ken Whitaker
Seattle, WA

Ken...

As an additional weapon for your Frame arsenal, you might want to look at your installed printers on your computer. You should find one that is named "Adobe PDF."

Instead of creating PDFs using the Save as PDF menu selection, try "printing" the book using the Print command. Select Adobe PDF as the Printer and make certain that the Print to File check box is UNCHECKED. You will be prompted for a location to print the PDF, and you can edit the name of the PDF while you're at it.

If you have cross-references, hyperlinks and such that you want to preserve in the PDF, check the Generate Acrobat Data box after reviewing and configuring what you want via the PDF Setup button.

The Print method always works perfectly for me. I have had all kinds of problems using the Save As PDF approach, including crashes.

The free SetPrint plug-in is useful for ensuring that the Adobe PDF printer becomes your "default" printer just for FrameMaker when it is launched. Here is a link to SetPrint:

http://www.sundorne.com/FrameMaker/Freeware/setPrint.htm

I hope this helps...either way, Happy New Year!

Dennis...
Grass Valley, CA

Yes, updated FM to build 266 and Adobe Acrobat Distiller 8 to 8.1.0 (which is part of Adobe CS3 Professional v8 package).

I've uploaded the book template that I created and Adobe Support is apparently reviewing it. Hopefully, they have internal tools that can assist diagnosing what is wrong.

What used to be simple when you would get Distiller tied with the FM has now gotten far complicated - especially those of us who also use other Adobe tools (like CS3 suite packages which can include its own updated Distiller).

I have done an interesting test since I have created like doc templates in both InDesign CS3 and with FrameMaker 8 (this exercise would make a great book!) and although I prefer FrameMaker for historical reasons, InDesign works without a hitch. I'm just not sure if InDesign CS3 uses Distiller because when I do a Save to PDF, I don't see Distiller do anything... Does anyone know?

Also, I have another question - under FrameMaker 8, I also update all references with the Book Update (Generate TOC and Lists) command. And it too crashes sometimes. Yet if I do a Save As XML which is another way to traverse through my documents in a book, it always works. Has anyone seen this behavior?

best regards,
Ken Whitaker
Seattle, WA
Dec 27, 2007

- Removed duplicate response. -

Sorry to hear additional folks are having FM 8 crash problems. I feel your pain...

I am using a Dell Inspiron 1505 Duo Core 1662Mhz/WindowsXP Pro with all Packs and updates. Initially had a lot of cashes which I could not pinpoint to a single Frame function causing them.

After talking with Adobe Tech Support and reading this forum, I rebuilt the templates from scratch to rule out corruption carried forward from templates created with earlier Frame versions, increased my RAM to my lap top's physical limit (2.GB), and consistently check temp files and delete all prior to launching Frame (Start - Run - type in %temp% and hit enter, Ctrl-A, delete). It seems the increase in RAM helped the most.

A recent patch from Adobe (151MB) seemed to also help quiet down the crashes, and (gulp) shutting down my virus scanner helped as well. Still have 1-2 crashes a day but a big improvement as compared to having over a dozen...

Another issue which may be related is the Track Change function. I used the Track Change function while reviewing documents (editing, updating para formats, etc.). After opening a doc that most likely crashed earlier (so many crashes could not keep track), a good portion of the document has green, underlined text which looks like an insert. I have not been able to remove or set it back to black text without underlines no matter how I tried. I contacted Adobe about this to ensure I did not miss something in regard to its correct functionality and they could not figure it out over the phone. The tech requested I send the file for him to look at (haven't heard back from anyone yet). Have dead lines 12/31 and decided to retype the chapter.

On the same topic, I find the Track Change function a great addition to Frame, but as it currently functions on my system it is Worhtless. When entering text, Frame is slowwwwwwwwwwwwww and always "behind," skipping over the characters you type - and I am not a fast keyboardist. If you want to use the info you input, you'll have to retype it - Slowly! I won't use it again.

If I had an inkling to the problems I was going to face with FM 8, I never would have brought it in as our main doc tool until these issues are corrected.

Both FM 8 and Adobe Acrobat 8 have been patched since release... Are y'all up-to-date?

Art

I have performed many test steps on both Adobe FM 8 and 7.1 using a very simple book template and found similar results all with the latest Adobe Acrobat Distiller 8 that comes with Adobe CS3 Design Suite. I've sent sample files to Sumeer at Adobe (tried to send them, IF we can get the attachment past Adobe's IT e-mail filters)!!!

Any other findings from you guys out there in FM-land?

Frustrated and confused,
Ken

With Windows XP Professional SP2, FrameMaker 8 crashes with about 20 documents in a book whenever I either do an Update Book and Generate Lists or Save As PDF. I am not using a font manager but have installed Adobe CS3 including Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional. I assumed that Acrobat 8 is a superset of the version of Acrobat Distiller that comes with FrameMaker 8 and hopefully should work.

My configuration is:
FrameMaker 8.0.0 for Intel
Build: 8.0p266
Window System: MSWindows XP Professional SP2
Operating System: Windows NT 5.1 (major.minor.build: 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2)
System: Quad-Core, 4GB RAM, plenty of available disk storage, two 24 inch monitors
Adobe Acrobat: 8.1.1
Adobe Distiller: 8.1.0 (Note that I started this up and this is what was displayed in the log text window (Im not sure if this is a problem):

Acrobat Distiller 8.0
Started: Monday, December 24, 2007 at 15:29:07

Adobe PostScript software version: 3016.102
CID support library initialization completed.
Error in PDFX4 2007.joboptions:
/CheckCompliance out of range

The book uses OpenType/Type 1 fonts, cross-references, tables, and links to graphic files. Page size is 8 in. x 9.25 (so it is smaller than letter page size). I made sure that no other Adobe CS3 application was running and I did the following with this book:
1. Save [the book] As XML. Worked (all files were processed successfully to create the XML).
2. Print [the book] to an HP Laserjet as a PRN file. Worked.
3. Update Book and Generate Lists. Crash with Error number 8004 (Internal Error: 8004, 8443407, 4460228, 4414681).
4. Save As PDF with PDF Job Options of Standard (just to keep it simple). Crash with Error number 8004:

And then, in this case, when I click OK, another error window is automatically displayed.

Bam!

Im not sure if:
The book has too many chapters.
The book has content that FM 8 doesnt like.
There is a coordination issue with Acrobat Distiller (does FM 8 still use Distiller?).

So, I made a simplified book with four files (Title, TOC, 1 chapter, and index).
1. Saved As XML. Worked.
2. Update Book. Worked! (This is great, compared to the long book example that crashed)
3. Save As PDF. Crashed with error 8004.

I am packaging the files to send to Sameer of Adobe (looks like he volunteered in a prior posting) but I am having to keep both InDesign and FrameMaker documents updated cause I am not trusting FrameMaker 8 at the moment. If, as Larry Carey, says in a prior posting that there is a much publicized fix, Id sure like to know about it.

With Adobe CS3 installed I really dont want to remove / uninstall Acrobat 8 if I can help it. The Activate/De-activate feature can be a mess. I also dont quite know how to diagnose this issue because the number of possible causes of these errors are almost endless and I dont have the time. I still have FrameMaker 7.1 installed (is that the cause?) so I guess I could try that too.

Please, any suggestions???

Ken (Software Maniac)
Seattle, WA