Cannot generate a pdf file in Framemaker 9

Report · May 24, 2011

I have been struggling with generating pdf file while they were all in a book, but sometimes it worked. But because I needed to add a pdf that was created in Adobe LifeCycle Designer ES2 to the already generated pdf file and this newly added file would lose its date text boxes, I have decided to get rid of the book and generate separate files altogether. I have saved those files after I had deleted the book file and now I cannot create a pdf file no matter what setting or option I try. Adobe does not exactly make it easy to troubleshoot any kind o issue. Is there someone out there who has run into this kind of problem and found a solution to it? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much,

Simone

Report · May 24, 2011

Can you tell a bit more about your version of FM (the pXXX level), your O/S and version of Acrobat? What's actually happening when you print to the Adobe PDF printer from FM?

Report · May 24, 2011

Hi Jeff,

Sure, the actual version of Framemaker is 9.0p 255, the Distiller is 9.4.2220 and the OS is 7. When I am trying to print to file using Adobe PDF printer driver, it seems at first that it goes through the process, but then the distiller displays the message that the job was flushed and no file was created. I find a distiller file with 0KB in the directory. It's pretty much the same when I do the Save as PDF.

I am at my wits end and am ever so frustrated.

Thank you so much for responding to my post, I so appreciate this.

Simone

-

Jeff_Coatsworth <forums@adobe.com> wrote:

Can you tell a bit more about your version of FM (the pXXX level), your O/S and version of Acrobat? What's actually happening when you print to the Adobe PDF printer from FM?

>

Report · May 24, 2011

Simone and Jeff. I create all my PDFs by printing to CutePDF, a freeware download (cutepdf.com) that, so far, works super. I use Frame 9-255, XP.

Ron Tillotson

Technical Writer

Report · May 24, 2011

Sure, the actual version of Framemaker is 9.0p 255, the Distiller is 9.4.2220 and the OS is Windows 7. When I am trying to print to file using the Adobe PDF printer driver, it seems at first that it goes through the process, but then the distiller displays the message that the job was flushed and no file was created. I find a distiller file with 0KB in the directory. It's pretty much the same when I do Save as PDF. 
 
I am at my wits end and am ever so frustrated.

Report · May 24, 2011

Simone,

Try printing to file (i.e. create a .ps output postscript file) using the Adobe PDF printer instance. Then manually run the Distiller on the resulting .ps file. Watch the Distiller app to see if the file gags on a specific page. If not and a PDF is produced, then there is a configuration issue in your setup.

Do you have a full version of Acrobat installed as well or did you just install the PDF creation tool from the FM installation?

Report · May 24, 2011

Hi Arnis,

I have tried that too, but to no avail. It's not working. Yes, I am working with the full version of Acrobat.I had also tried generating PDF files from Powerpoint files just to see if Acrobat could do it and it worked. Acrobat just doesn't want to work with Framemaker, go figure. Then I tried the CutePDFwriter apps and it worked without a hitch, although, my internal and external links aren't working. I am not sure what to do.

Report · May 24, 2011

Simone, to elaborate a bit on what Arnis and Jeff are suggestiong:

After you make a .ps file, open Adobe Distiller, you should see a white area where any errors will be displayed while the file is being distilled. Now drag the .ps file into Distiller, or double-click on it, either way you should see the white message area begin to process the file.

In the bottom white box it will display page numbers as it processes the file. Watch to see what page number is displayed immediately before you see the error message. That will tell you approximately what page in your FM file is the culprit. Remember that the page numbers shown in Distiller are the "logical" numbers, from "1" on, not the actual page numbers you might have assigned in your FrameMaker document(s), so if the Distiller stops at, say, page 16, you might have 3 pages of TOC and then the first FM content file might start at 1, so the error would be around 16 - 4 = FM page 12.

So then go look at what content is on pages 11 or 12 in your FM document. What unusual kind of content is on those pages? Are there graphics? Inset referenced files?

Unfortunately testing Acrobat from Powerpoint doesn't have much direct comparison to FrameMaker and PDF because Office applications use a completely different process to create a PDF.

Sheila

Report · May 24, 2011

Simone,

What exactly happened? Were you able to create a .ps (postscript) file? Were there any error messages in Distiller? Was any log file produced by Distiller?

Did you install FM before or after Acrobat? Did you also install the Distiller version that came with FM? If you did install both Distillers, then that's probably the source of your problems.