Is there a way to not auto-convert documents to FrameMaker 9 when opening lower version files?

maiemaie,

Like Niels said, the file will be marked as changed; this happens in every software I know if something is lifted up from a previous version. But all this happens in memory only, you can just close the document without saving it and it will be unchanged on disk.

BTW, as far as I understand the EULA lingo, the Adobe licensing agreement allows you to keep previous versions installed on the same machine, even after having bought and installed an upgrade.

- Michael

*** haven't checked, because I don't have any pre-9.0 files easily available ***  ... but from what I remember, if you're really just viewing the files in 9.0 you should need to save them explicitly back to an earlier version. FM may mark the files as "changed" when it opens them, but that's because it checks things like datestamps and cross-references. If you do not, yourself, explicitly change any content in the file you have opened, you don't need to save the changes; just close the file unsaved.  Check my supposition with a couple of files before relying on it! And other people will be able to give you a more detailed explanation of why file you haven't touched yourself still show up as "changed".