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A
Andreas Eisenhart
Known Participant
August 29, 2011
Question

FM10: Saving documents in FM9 format

  • August 29, 2011
  • 2 replies
  • 3281 views

Is it possible to instruct FrameMaker 10 to save FrameMaker 9 files as FM 9 files by default, as long as I have not explicitly selected the new FM10 format? There's a mixed environment in our company, and its very cumbersome for FM10 users to always do a "Save-As-FM9" for each and any document in order to keep these documents compatible for FM9 users...

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    2 replies

    W
    Wiedenmaier
    Inspiring
    August 29, 2011

    Hi,

    I'm not sure if there is a config setting to change the behaviour of that command, but I don't think so.

    But FM10 supports ExtendScript. So you can create your own "Save as FM9" menu (or hook into the existing one), with a small script

    Hope this helps

    Markus

    A
    Andreas EisenhartAuthor
    Known Participant
    August 31, 2011

    FM09 can indeed open FM10 MIF files (no dialog involved), but (of course?) silently strips off all FM10 features on resave.

    Alas, I have absolutely no knowlegde about scripting or macros in FM,

    Arnis Gubins
    Arnis Gubins
    Inspiring
    February 25, 2013

    Do you know of anyone who offers a downsaving service?

    I am a typesetter. I have a client (translation agency) who translates Fm files for a multinational.

    They translated 1000s pages set up in FM 7 which I tidy up in FM 7.

    A small regional office now uses FM 11. They only need very few pages translating and refuse to downsave their files. Thetranslator cannot argue or risks loosing the 1000s pages in FM 7.

    I can't justify butin a license for FM 11 (£1000) in order to just downsave the files myself, (Trados translation software needs FM7 mifs).

    I only need 10 or 15 files downsaving per month, so would pay per file...

    Thanks


    Nick,

    If the client asks to have the files deilvered in MIF format, then these can be opened with any version of FM. The only caveat is that newer features aren't recognized in the older versions, so they are simply dropped. This may or may not be an issue.

    One other issue though, that may be of significance in your case, is that FM8 & up use unicode for character encoding, while FM7 and earlier use the FrameRoman encoding. So depending upon the fonts used and whether or not codepage mapping is being used, there may be some phunnies happening going from FM11 to FM7 and back.

    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    Bob_NilandCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 29, 2011

    Is it possible to instruct FrameMaker 10 to save FrameMaker 9 files as FM 9 files by default, ...

    If it turns out that the answer is "no", some possible workarounds might include:

    • setting up a macro to use instead of File > Save{As}
    • setting up a script to do that if a macro can't
    • setting up a macro to run the script if needed to make it easier

    These would require that the users run the macro/script rather than used File > Save. This might be as trivial as hitting key F9. I don't know if you could hide/block access to File>Save.

    An alternative to saving in FM9 format might be to routinely save as FM10 MIF. The file name suffixes can remain .book and .fm, even though the content is MIF. FM9 should be able to open them, whether or not they contain FM10 features (I would expect FM9 to dialog about, but ignore any FM10 features).
    ______

    I have limited FM9 experience, and zero FM10 experience.

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