Saving a FrameMaker file to as an older version

[ronaldh49617469]

Can I save a FrameMaker file to an older version of FrameMaker?

[Jeff_Coatsworth · Accepted solution]

Yes, use file save as to see the choices - older versions won't be able use any new features present in FM2019. You can always go the MIF route for backward compatibility.

[ronaldh49617469]

I have used structured FrameMaker to write manuals, but am not sure what MIF is.

Ron Horton

[frameexpert]

Maker Interchange Format is a plain text representation of a FrameMaker document. See File > Save As. The MIF parser is meant to be "forward compatible." For example, if you open a MIF file created with FrameMaker 2019 in an older version of FrameMaker, it will simply discard any constructs ("features") that it doesn't understand and still try to render the file in that version of FrameMaker. It actually works quite well.

If you have batches of files that you need to convert, please see my ConvertDocs script at frameexpert dot com.

[ronaldh49617469]

Thank you very much.

[nr48385538]

@frameexpert  Does this work with FM2020 and FM 2022?

[frameexpert]

Yes, ConvertDocs works with any FrameMaker version 10 and higher. Note that you can only "push down" to lower versions. For example, if you have FrameMaker 2022, you can convert down to any previous version. However, if you only have FrameMaker 2020, you can't "pull down" a FrameMaker 2022 file. ConvertDocs has to be able to open the document in order to save it to a different version.

Another use case is to "pull up" to a new version. For example, say you upgrade to FrameMaker 2022. You can use ConvertDocs to convert a bunch of older files to the new version.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

MIF = Maker Interchange Format - a text representation of the FM binary files

[ronaldh49617469]

Thank you.