Save as PDF stops and FrameMaker does not respond

[Winfried Reng]

Hi,

FrameMaker 17.0.2.431

For about two weeks now I have a problem when I want to create PDFs.

I use Save as PDF (which is the same as Publish and then double-clicking PDF) with FrameMaker's internal PDF engine and not Acrobat Distiller. (I will test, if this happens also with Acrobat Distiller.)

FrameMaker starts saving as PDF and shows its dialog box with the current step. However, at some point FrameMaker stops and does not proceed.

In the last days this was at: Postprocessing PDF document

Today at: Removing empty tags

Then I have to close FrameMaker with the task manager.

The files which I work on for the last two weeks are very short, just one page DIN A5. But this happened also with larger PDFs (50 pages).

I did a MIF wash, but this did not help.

Usually I can create about 5 to 10 PDFs on a day until this happens. Then I restart FrameMaker, and then I create the PDF without any issues. Therefore I would think that it's not something which is related to a specific file.

My files are on my local SSD. Windows 10. 16 GB memory.

Acrobat PDF is my default printer.

And only a few other applications are running, Outlook, Acrobat, Excel, Teams, web browser.

Does anyone know what I could do?

Best regards, Winfried

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

If nothing has changed in "FM-world" then my suspicion would be something has changed in your environment recently that is interfering in the process. Windows update? Anti-virus? Group Policies? 

[Winfried Reng]

Yes. That's something which I thought of as well. But as far as I know nothing has changed.

[K.Daube]

FrameMaker starts saving as PDF and shows its dialog box with the current step. However, at some point FrameMaker stops and does not proceed.

In the last days this was at: Postprocessing PDF document

Today at: Removing empty tags

Then I have to close FrameMaker with the task manager.

I'm not working much with FM-17, but the same phenomenon is common for me in FM-16 and FM-15. It happens less often if I delete an existing pdf which I want to update with a new generation (in the Save dialogue i can delete the existing pdf it is there..)

[Winfried Reng]

Hi Klaus,

Thank you very much for your comment!

Maybe I create and update more of these short PDFs than I would with longer documents. And then this issue arises.

Do you use FrameMaker's internal PDF engine? Or Acrobat Distiller?

After I switched to Distiller (with the Use Acrobat Distiller option in the Publish pod), FrameMaker behaved correctly. But that can also be mere conincidence.

Best regards, Winfried

[K.Daube]

I use the distiller route only if anything else fails - or if there are TimeSavers or the like involved. So mostly I use the PDF engine introduced with FM-15

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

Apologies for the basic items mentioned below, but they are good advice for those without years of Fm experience...

Have you tried renaming your Prefs folder? Since it's painless, that is the first thing I do when something suddenly stops working.

Are you able to open all the files in your book without alerts, and update your book without error logs? Most of those types of stoppers have been fixed over the years, but if you've suppressed the error dialogs, something may be hanging the process if you don't open all files in book prior to saving as PDF.

-Matt

[FrameMaker-dk]

other "magic" tricks...

Delete *.tmp files

Open Acrobat Distiller before you start publishing

Use Print to PDF using the Acrobat PDF Print driver or another PDF printer driver. Microsoft PDF is excellent if you don't use eps files.