Style Designers not saving correctly

Report · Feb 02, 2021

Hello folks,

I am currently evaluating Framemaker as a new program for my company, and I've hit a snag. I'm not sure if this is user error, a side effect of currently being on a trial version of the software, or a bug.

I've been experimenting with the paragraph designer, table designer, and color definitions, and at first really liked the interface. I open one of the designers, create a new style (let’s say "Test Body Text") and then apply it to the paragraph I'm writing. It looks great, I make sure the style is saved, and I close the designer and move on.

However, after closing and opening a file, or switching the authoring view, the paragraph with the Test Body Text style will revert to its previous style, and the style I created disappears from the Paragraph catalog. This has also happened with custom table styles and new colors. I’ve double checked that the catalogues are set to show all options, and it appears whatever I created has been erased.

Does anyone know why this would be happening?

Report · Feb 02, 2021

What version are you running? Is it all patched up? Did you install it with admin rights?

Report · Feb 02, 2021

I'm running the 64 bit Framemaker 2019, it should be patched up as far as I know (I've had it less than three weeks), and yes, I installed it with admin rights.

Report · Feb 02, 2021

You running it as Structured or Unstructured? And why not FM2020 btw?

Report · Feb 02, 2021

Structured. And as to why it's not 2020, you'd have to ask the Adobe Free Trial downloader that question. This is what I got access to. 🙂

Report · Feb 02, 2021

That's strange - I thought they only served up FM2020 for trials (btw - the trial is exactly the same as the "real" verson - just with an expiry).

Ok, I suspect the issue is that you're running Structured - not being a Structured-FM person, I'm taking a guess, but my understanding is that in that flavour, you don't specify formatting in the authoring process; it's all defined by the EDD & XLST files when you publish (I could be completely wrong, so hopefully the Structured gurus will pop in here).

Report · Feb 02, 2021

You could be right, but if that's the case I'm confused as to why the paragraph styles are even accesable in the Structured mode.

Report · Feb 02, 2021

Email techcomm@adobe.com and ask them for help downloading FM2020 as a trial.

I swear, sometimes I think Adobe is trying to kill off FrameMaker. Despite the development resources they're expending, they make it next to impossible to acquire it. As an ACP I asked for and received a subscription code for 2020, but it took a lengthy email exchange before I got a link to a page where I could redeem it.

Report · Feb 02, 2021

Sorry about the trouble on that Lin. We are working on fixing some of these issues. Being part of the beta program, i am sure you would be aware of all the new development underway in FrameMaker and we have a long roadmap list to complete for 2021 already 🙂

We will look into the license issue you talked about.

Thanks

Amitoj Singh

Report · Feb 02, 2021

No need. As I said, I got it dealt with, thank you! I was eventually given the link to the correct redemption page, and once I changed from Chrome to Edge (ugh), I was also able to download the FrameMaker 2020 installation files.

My basic gripes aren't so much the development as the people running the Adobe web sites. As you saw above, someone wanted to download the FM2020 trial but could only access FM2019.

The FM downloads page at the time I was talking to techcomm support (about January 20th) didn't have a link to download FM2020, although it does today (I just checked).

The link from the My plans page in my personal (not work, that's what I'm signed in on here) account that should let me download FrameMaker takes me to Creative Cloud, instead. This has been the case for more than a year that I know of.

You can't use the Update button in FM to update from FM2019 to FM2020 even with an active subscription; instead you have to go to the Get Trial page, fill out the form, and THEN you can download.

The information Silvia was originally given to send to me included information on how to redeem a code for a Creative Cloud subscription, and a link to the redeem code page for Creative Cloud, but there was no mention of how to download FrameMaker or where to redeem the code. She simply wasn't given the right information to give me.

I emailed techcomm@adobe.com for help and they got me the right links and, as I said, once I changed browsers I was able to download the correct files, but honestly, it should not be this messed up. It seems every group at Adobe other than the FrameMaker development group automatically defaults to Creative Cloud without even thinking about whether that's appropriate.

Report · Feb 02, 2021

Oh, good to know! I'll reach out to them about that.

Report · Feb 02, 2021

Just to be certain, you're reopening the same file you created the new paragraph tag in, right, and finding that it isn't in the paragraph catalog? And you clicked Create Style on the Paragraph Designer, not Apply?

Report · Feb 02, 2021

Yes, to both those questions. It's also disappeared from the paragraph catalog after changing my view with the icons at the top of the window, without even closing the file.

Report · Feb 02, 2021

Charlotte,

Using the structured FrameMaker user interface allows you to edit both structured and unstructured documents. Is your document strucgtured? If so, are you saving it as a FrameMaker document or XML? If you are saving a single document as XML, the result is an XML document without formatting information. Each time you open an XML document, FrameMaker applies formatting defined in a template associated with an XML application. To preserve formatting you've applied manually (and changes to the catalogs), you'll need to save the file as a FrameMaker document or make the changes in the template in the XML application.

--Lynne

Report · Feb 02, 2021

When you download the trial through the Trial Download page (accessible on the FrameMaker procuct page through the Free Trial button at the top) you get the latest FrameMaker version, which is FrameMaker 2020.

As your write "or switching the authoring view" I assume that you are creating XML documents, probably DITA. Can you confirm that?

If so, it's like Lynne wrote: Formatting/Styling information is not stored in the XML file, as DITA has no mechanism to do so. Everything is template driven. When opening XML in FrameMaker, FrameMaker "loads" the XML into a template and formats it according to the Formatting rules of the Structured Application. The formatting rules are stored in the Element Definition Document (short "EDD").

Choose Structure > Structured Application Designer to open the Structtured Application Designer and check wich template is used.

Select the Application you are working with (probably DITA_1.2_topic in your case) and check the template path:

For DITA 1.2 Topics it's by default:

$STRUCTDIR\xml\DITA_1.2\app\technicalContent\template\topic.template.fm

$STRUCTDIR is in a stadard installation C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe FrameMaker 2020\Structure\

Or in full: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe FrameMaker 2020\Structure\xml\DITA_1.2\app\technicalContent\template\topic.template.fm

Copy that file to somewhere else and edit layout and styles as you like. Then go back into the dialog and select the new template with the [...] button and click "Save". Best to restart FrameMaker once.

From now on, all your DITA 1.2 XML files will pick up that template and render in the style you have defined.