Adobe PDF printer--multiple dialogs for the same settings

[Wendy Fish]

Please excuse if this question is painfully obvious, but I just can’t figure it out.

I’m working with FrameMaker version 8.0p277 (TCS).

As far as I can tell there are at least three places where I can setup preferences for my PDFs

• From the Control Panel, I can right-click on the Adobe PDF printer and set two different joboptions depending on which menu item I choose (Printing Preferences or Properties/Advanced Tab).
• However, when I want to create a PDF from my FrameMaker book or document, I use File>Print to open the Print dialog. When I choose the AdobePDF printer, clicking the Properties button opens the Adobe PDF Document Properties dialog. From the dialog’s Adobe PDF Settings tab I can choose from any of the joboptions in my Settings directory.
• At the same time, I can select the Generate Acrobat Data option, click the PDF Setup button, and choose a completely different joboption from the Settings tab in the PDF Setup dialog.

Can someone please explain the difference between these options? And just which one gets priority if I print directly from FrameMaker to the Adobe PDF printer? (I assume if I print to file (.ps) the options I set in the Distiller get priority.)

Thanks!

Wendy

[Arnis Gubins]

Hi Wendy,

When you set the Preferences for the AdobePDF from the Control Panel via the Printers, these are then default system-wide settings for all applications in the absence of any other information.

From within FM, the Properties setting, when you select the Adobe PDF printer instance, takes you to the same Preferences dialogue as in the first condition. You're temporarily resetting the preferences for the FM session to use. However, this does not change your default preferences set at the system level nor does it affect any other application that is running.

The Generate Acrobat Data PDF Setup option is the last one in the chain and this provides the chance to specify an override for the session settings. This one has the highest priority.

[Wendy Fish]

Hi Arnis,

Thank you very much for your quick response. I kind of suspected as much, but I couldn't figure it out far enough to confirm it.

Thanks again,

Wendy