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dks_nzed
Participating Frequently
November 28, 2020
Question

Opening .fm file from 2018 crashes Framemaker 2019

  • November 28, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 193 views

In opening a small file (2 page letter) that was created two years ago, caused Framemaker 2019 to crash back to the desktop (I tried to attach the file but when I clicked 'Post' it got stripped out, saying the file doesn't match its file extension). Several other files from the same time period cause the same behavior. The file header says <MakerFile 12.0>

Can anyone shed some light on this?

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    2 replies

    W
    Community Expert
    Winfried RengCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 30, 2020

    Hi,

     

    If the first line of the file says <MakerFile 12.0>, then the version with which this file was last saved is FrameMaker 12. Still FrameMaker 2019 or 2020 (as Bob suggested) should not crash!

    If you cannot open the file also with FM 2020 and after restarting Windows and FrameMaker, you might try "heroic open".

    Here are some infos about it:

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/framemaker/a-strong-quot-last-sttraw-quot-heroic-open/m-p/11432155?page=1#M67538

    https://community.adobe.com/t5/framemaker/i-could-not-open-the-fm-file/m-p/10511995?page=1#M61638

     

    There this command is explained. When you can open the file, then I would copy the content into a new file.

    Additionally save the file which you opened heroically as MIF, open the MIF and save as FM again. (MIF wash, also explained in the posts above.)

    Good luck.

     

    Best regards

     

    Winfried

    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    Bob_NilandCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    November 28, 2020

    If there are any imported objects in the .fm document, try copying the file to some other directory, and see if it opens there.

    You could also download a trial copy of FM2020 (perhaps on another machine), and see if that does the trick, and if so…

    Not that it's of much help now, but I make a point, on wrapping up any document or project, of re-saving all the .fm files as .mif. This is mostly in case they need to be opened with a prior version, but it does provide a Plan B for when a newer version won't open it either. If the FM2020 trick works, save as MIF from it.

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