Can documents be opened from the book without updating references?

[Van Kurtz]

I just received FrameMaker 9 and have found that documents open rather slowly. The user guide says one can Ctrl-click the Open button in the open dialog box to open a file without updating the references, which causes the file to open quicker than normal. I almost always work within a book file, but I cannot find a way to open files from a book without updating the references. Has anyone found a way?

Thanks,

Van

[Arnis Gubins]

Van,

In FM9, with the Book file open, try

Edit > Suppress Automatic Reference Updating...

[Van Kurtz]

Thanks, but it doesn't seem to help. I have noticed that the first document I open from a book, no matter which one, opens slowly. Subsequent documents open quickly. Does anyone know why it works this way? Or does anyone know what I can do to make that first document open quicker?

Thanks,

Van

[Arnis Gubins]

Van,

You don't mention anything about your configuration. Are the files on local drives or on networked drives?

Do you have lots of variables, markers or graphics in these files and does your workspace have the marker/variables/insets pods (typically at the bottom of your screen) open? If so, try closing these pods first in your workspace.

[TarunGarg_TG_]

Hi Van,

As I understood from your post, it is taking more time to open the first document from book. Thereafter it is not that much an issue.

In case, there is no other documet(apart from book) already open in FM, when you open the first document, the UI/Dialogs also get loaded (& updated) as per the workspace you are using.To verify that whether it is the document opening that is taking time or is it the UI part that is taking time, you can set the workspace to contain no open dialogs & then try opening the same document.

Regards,

Tarun Garg (TG)

Adobe Certified Expert, FrameMaker

[Van Kurtz]

Thanks Tarun,

I tried creating a workspace that shows nothing but the document and the book, saving both, and opening the document again. It is still very slow. It seems that maybe FrameMaker is populating all those UI boxes and panels behind the scenes. After the document is open, I can change the workspace to show all the panels I need, and it displays them quickly.

The other interesting think is that a book file need not be involved. If I open a document by itself (no book file open), it takes a long time to open. The second document opens quickly, as does the third and fourth. If I close them all, and open one file, it takes a long time to open. It seems that as long as at least one document is open, documents open quickly.

Van

[TarunGarg_TG_]

Van,

Probably you have not closed the dialogs. Rather you have hidden them. To close the dialogs you need to unset the option 'Hide Panels on Close' in Interface Preferences dilaog ('File->Preferences->Interface'), before closing the dialogs.

To verify this, you can go to 'Window->Panels' menu in FM. In case, the dialogs are hidden in your workspace, they shall get listed there without a tick-mark.

Also, would it be possible for you to share the documents & the order in which they shall be opened to get the issue.

Regards,

Tarun Garg (TG)

Adobe Certified Expert, FrameMaker

[Arnis Gubins]

Van,

Have you updated your new installation with the 9.0.1 patch (brings it up to FM9.0p230)?

One of the issues in this patch deals with the slowness. As Tarun suggested it's tied in to FM still keeping the panels/pods open but hidden, so FM is taking it's own sweet time populating these. You may also need to make an adjustment to your maker.ini.

From the patch readme file:

10. (Ref – 2284304) : File

‐>preferences‐>interface‐ > Hide Panel on Close ,should be checked OFF by

default.

This preference was ON by default in 9.0 making the panels stay open in the background resulting

in slow speed of the system. Now with this fix, the make.ini in the installation directory will

have "HidePanelsOnClose=Off" entry. Pls. note that if old maker.ini is already present in the

user area, one needs to manually make "HidePanelsOnClose=Off" in it. If no maker.ini is present

in user area, FrameMaker will create one on the first launch automatically

[Van Kurtz]

Yes, I have the latest update. I turned OFF all three options about panels in the interface preferences. After that the first document opens quickly; however, now even turning ON hide panels on close, the first document opens quickly. So, I am turning OFF these options and happy that documents are opening quickly.

I must say that the descriptions of these options in the user guide are not clear. Anyway, it works for now.

Thanks guys,

Van