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DebbyT01
DebbyT01
Known Participant
October 7, 2019
Question

FraneMaker 2019 compatibility

  • October 7, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 503 views

I'm sure this is probably answered here somewhere, but I haven't been able to find it.  How is the compatiblity between FM 11 and FM 2019?  Any issues to be aware of?

 

We are looking at upgrading soon, so any help you can provide is appreciated.

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3 replies

Barb Binder
Community Expert
Barb BinderCommunity Expert
Community Expert
October 8, 2019

Hi Debby:

 

Support for Pantone colors was dropped in 2019, so if your documents were using them, they will need to be redefined.

 

~Barb

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    Bob_NilandCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 8, 2019

    Yep, I see that the Pantone libraries are gone, but existing documents using the old defs open without error (or any apparent issues). So I presume this is just a matter for new documents or new entity colors.

     

    Whether or not FM, lacking any sort of color management, ever really "supported" Pantone, is another matter. I never used it, because I could never be sure what it would show up as in print or on screen (I defined as RGB, and tagged them in post). Now that Pantone itself publishes sRGB values, my guess is that people use those if handed a PMS spec.

    F
    Community Expert
    FrameMaker-dkCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 7, 2019

    My only really serious compatibility problems have arisen with documents with cyrillic/greek text done in versions predating full Unicode support. I was not able to make text embedded in markers - like an index - work properly. FrameMaker used its very own font mapping system before unicode and it did give some trouble sometimes.

    Bjørn Smalbro - FrameMaker.dk
      Bob_Niland
      Community Expert
      Bob_NilandCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 7, 2019

      Since the specific situation here was FM11, I didn't get into that, but yes, anything earlier than the FM Unicode event horizon (FM8) could have problems with text containing characters outside the then-native FM set. FM8 and later do what they can to port some of those to Unicode code points (which also make back-porting somewhat risky).

      Bob_Niland
      Community Expert
      Bob_NilandCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 7, 2019

      Is there a specific concern, and do you need to port both forward and backward?

      FM forward compatibility has always been stellar. I've opened FM4 and FM7 documents in FM2019 with no issues.

       

      Backward is also at least possible, when the newer files are saved as MIF. Any features not present in the older versions are ignored.

        DebbyT01
        DebbyT01Author
        Known Participant
        October 7, 2019
        Thank you! No specific concerns at the moment. We will likely port the existing FM 11 files into FM 2019, without 'sending anything back'.
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