Compatibility limitations between FrameMaker releases?

Report · Jun 01, 2009

We're running FM 7.0p579 on Windows XP. Does anyone know what the compatibilties are for working with files from earlier and later releases of FM, or a resource showing same?

I ask because I'm unable to open FM files provided by a way-offsite associate, who is unavailable for a few days. A message states that the files can't be opened with this (FM 7.0) release of FM. So are they files from an earlier or a later release, or is this some quirky error? I'd like to know how the FrameMaker releases, earlier and later, relate to each other in this file compatibility.

I searched Knowledgebase and looked through Adobe support info--nothing.

Thanks,

Mike

Report · Jun 01, 2009

You'd get this message if they're FM 8 or 9 files. If they were earlier versions, you'd get a message saying what version the file was and asking if it should be converted to FM 7 format.

If you're going to juggle multiple releases, especially something as old as 7, you may want to standardize on a MIF format you can live with. The downside is that newer version's features will be disabled. Also, if you're working in 7 with 8 or 9 files, you may run into character set problems because 8 adn 9 support unicode chracters; 7 didn't.

You could download the 9 eval and back-save them to the 7 format....

Art

Report · Jun 01, 2009

FM is usually quite good about backwards compatibility. The message usually indicates that you've gotten files that are a newer release than the 7.0 that you are using.

You'll need to have the files sent to you in MIF format or saved with backwards compatibility to FM7 , if they are from FM8.

If you're really stuck and in a rush to work on these, you could always try downloading the latest trial version of FM9 (available at http://www.adobe.com/products/tryadobe/download.jsp?ftpID=3336 ) , and then open & save as MIF so that you can continue to work on them with your version of FM.

Report · Jun 01, 2009

If you you need to know the version that created the FM file, CAREFULLY open it in a word processor or text editor. The first line will be something like: <MakerFile 9.0H>. DO NOT SAVE THE FILE.

In this case, it indicates FrameMaker 9.0.

As others have said, FM has almost no problems opening an earlier-release's file, but cannot open a newer release's .fm file. MIF is the interchange format; you need to create the MIF in the newer release, so the older release can open it.

The first line in a MIF file is something like <MIFFile 9.0H>.

HTH

Regards,

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

EDIT: FM versions later than 7.x use UNICODE. This can change some characters in some fonts and languages when moving forward and backwards from version to version.

Report · Jun 01, 2009

All: Thanks for the helpful and quick replies!! The files are in FM 8--no problems there. Now I have a related question about TCS.

It so happens that today I installed TCS 2 and will be testing and exploring FM, RH, and Acrobat before upgrading team members. That means that they will continue with FM 7, RH 5, and Acrobat 7 for about a week. My understanding from your replies is that as long as I save any work I do in FM 9 as FM 7, it will be biz as usual for team members working in FM 7 to access and work with those files. Correct me if I have that wrong.

Is it possible that the same applies to RH 8 and Acrobat 9?? I recall that in previous RH upgrades, once files are opened in a new version they can't be used in the old version. So I may want to take care with that until we're all on board TCS. I think that new Acrobat versions usually don't have problems with older files, so I'm assuming it's the same with Acro 9. About right?

Also, I expect that one or more of us may have both old version and new version of one or more of these tools installed concurrently. Like I do now. Any known or potential problems to that?

It seems like Adobe would have a standing FAQ about this.

Thanks,

Mike

Report · Jun 01, 2009

Neither RH nor Acrobat support multiple version installs.

Also, when you install the newer version of Actobat, you may need to move existing job options (is you want to save them) to the Acrobat 9 location, which is different than A7.

Art