FrameMaker hangs and can't print to Adobe PDF

[Guest]

FrameMaker has been hanging and blowing up on me. Specifically, it hangs when I try to save all the chapters in a book. Some of these books are very small, maybe 20 or 30 pages. After I stop Frame thru Task Manager and reboot, I can reopen the book and my changes appear to be there. I looked through the forum and saw something that said it might be because the PC doesn't have enough memory. It has 3.5 GB RAM. Isn't that enough?

Also, when I print (to my default printer = Adobe PDF), if I unselect "print to file," nothing happens - no Distiller window opens - I don't see any new files generated. I can "save as PDF" just fine. I can "print to Adobe PDF" from other apps, just not from Frame. I can "print to file" and then open the resulting .ps; then Distiller opens and creates the PDF file. This is annoying - it used to automatically launch Distiller and create the PDF in one step instead of two.

I'm putting both this issues in a single topic because they both started at about the same time.

I tried re-installing Frame and Acrobat, but I didn't uninstall first.

I'm using Windows XP Pro and Frame 8.0p277.

So where do I go from here?

Thanks

[Art Campbell]

For PDFing...

Is the Adobe PDF printer set as your system default, or are you using the SetPrint utility (http://www.sundorne.com/FrameMaker/Freeware/setPrint.htm) to set it for Frame?

Have you installed the Microsoft HotFix for PostScript printers? http://support.microsoft.com/?id=952909 It's a bug fix release that t applies to all PS printers, including the logical PDF.

***

Yes, that should be more than enough RAM.

Did all the books work prevkously?

Can you save and print the individual chapters?

Art

[Guest]

Art

I installed the hot fix and it does not seem to change anything. I have Adobe PDF set as my default windows printer.

If I try to print a whole book or just a chapter, I get the same results:

1. If I select Print to File, then it creates a .ps file. I can double-click that file, and Distiller will launch and create a PDF.

2. If I do not select Print to File, nothing happens. I can't find any new files so it does not seem to be doing anything.

I'm inserting a graphic showing most of my print parameters.

Thanks,

Cheryl

[Art Campbell]

OK...

More questions:

So if you uncheck Print To File so the distiller generates the PS file and distills it automatically, nothing happens, right? It just sits there?

and

Have you tried selecting a different Job Option, like Standard, or High Quality?

I've forgotten -- are you using a full version of Acrobat, or just the limited version with Distiller that ships with Frame?

[AxialInfo]

Cheryl, in the middle dialog shown in your graphic, the Print

Setup dialog box has something odd in it, in the "Where" entry, notice that the characters are munged.

Mine says "Desktop\*pdf".

I'm thinking that this is a good indication that your Acrobat setup is corrupted and that's why you can't do Print to File, because it's not pointing to a valid location.

I believe Art's question about exactly which Acrobat install you're using is key to getting started with sorting this out.

Sheila

[Mike Wickham]

Adding to what Sheila said, go to Start Menu> Printers and Faxes.

Right-click on "Adobe PDF" and choose "Properties." Then click on the

"Ports" tab and see which port is checked. Typically, it will be a port

marked "My Documents\*.pdf" or "Desktop\*.pdf."

[Guest]

Yes, the location for the Adope PDF printer had garbage in it. I fixed that. That has now fixed the problem.

However, Art's reply gave me an idea. I am using FrameMaker 8.0p277 (the version that came with Tech Comm Suite). Also, Acrobat 8 3D came with it.

Since then, however, I have installed Acrobat 9 Pro (which also provided Distiller 9).

Could it be that FrameMaker is trying to call Distiller 8, which no longer exists on my computer)?

Answering prev questions:

"So if you uncheck Print To File so the distiller generates the PS file and distills it automatically, nothing happens, right? It just sits there?

and

Have you tried selecting a different Job Option, like Standard, or High Quality?"

Yes, if I uncheck Print to File, nothing happens and no .ps or .pdf is created.

On the properties of my Adobe PDF printer

There are actually four entries. It does not seem to matter which one I choose.

I'm working now on seeing if I can get Acrobat re-installed.

[Art Campbell]

There's a possiblity that there's some drek left over from the installs / uninstalls....I'm kind of half-remembering that there's an Adobe Uninstall / clean up utility for scrubbing everything, but I can't find a name or link, and I don't have time for an exhaustive search. I suspect that the free Revo Uninstaller would do a fine job and it's easier to find.

When you reinstall, I'd definitely go with 9, but be aware that there are at least 3 patches out that you need to add.

[Arnis Gubins]

Cheryl,

The Adobe Clean-up script for Acrobat 8 is here: http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cs3clean.html

Run that after un-installing Acrobat 8.

If you also want to re-install Acrobat 9 Pro, then run the CS4 clean-up script after uninstalling and only then re-install. The script is found here: http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cs4clean.html

[Guest]

Update

I uninstalled both Acrobat 8 and Acrobat 9, then re-installed 9. The printing problem still occurs.

Incidentally, the problem with FrameMaker hanging may be fixed. At least, it hasn't happened after installing the hot fix.

Arnis, those cleanup scripts say they're for Creative Suite, which I don't have. So I did not run any of them.

Cheryl

[Mike Wickham]

I uninstalled both Acrobat 8 and Acrobat 9, then re-installed 9. The

printing problem still occurs.

That was probably the source of your problem. Adobe recommends installing

only one instance of Acrobat or the PDF creation add-on that comes with

FrameMaker on the same machine. They can conflict with each other. For the

same reason, they recommend against having Acrobat and Adobe Reader on the

same computer.

[ArnisG]

Cheryl,

Those clean up scripts are for the "products" within the CS Suites, which includes Acrobat...

[Guest]

I uninstalled Reader & Acrobat. Then I tried to run the cleanup scripts but got an error that I don't have MS Windows Cleanup Utility installed. I tried typing cleanmgr in the Run window, and the Cleanup manager started and analyzed my C: drive just fine. I bet that's not the Utility it was looking for.

As of now, Acrobat has been re-installed (again) but my problem with printing persists. I suspect it's time to try Adobe's support. I will post any results here.

Cheryl

[Mike Wickham]

>I uninstalled Reader & Acrobat. Then I tried to run the cleanup scripts but

>got an error that I don't have MS Windows Cleanup Utility installed. I

>tried typing cleanmgr in the Run window, and the Cleanup manager started

>and analyzed my C: drive just fine. I bet that's not the Utility it was

>looking for.

>

You may want to install and run the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility and

run your script again. You can get it here.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/9/d/e9d80355-7ab4-45b8-80e8-983a48d5e1bd/msicuu2.exe.

It has fixed a couple of reinstallation problems for me. Here's a link

explaining what it does:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/9/d/e9d80355-7ab4-45b8-80e8-983a48d5e1bd/msicuu2.exe.

[Guest]

Hi Cheryl,

You said: "Also, when I print  (to my default printer = Adobe PDF), if I unselect "print to file,"  nothing happens - no Distiller window opens - I don't see any new files  generated. I can "save as PDF" just fine. I can "print to Adobe PDF"  from other apps, just not from Frame."

I too had this issue (FM 8.0p277 and Vista) and tried in vain to "fix" it because I understood it to be "best practice" to print to Adobe PDF rather than Save as PDF. I tried many suggestions from the good folks on this list to no avail. I finally decided I spent way too much time on it. As you said I can save as PDF just fine, so I will not consider it an issue for now...or are there problems with that method that you didn't mention?

Janice