When printing a book to PDF, bookmark definitions are not saved

[Limiz]

I recall seeing another post about this issue and I can't find it now, but none of the workarounds mentioned there worked for me, so here goes:

I am working on a book migrated from FM 9 to FM 11, and when I print to PDF, I specify the bookmarks I want to display in the Bookmarks tab of the PDF Setup for Selected Files dialog. The PDF prints fine, but when I want to print the book again, FM doesn't remember my settings, forcing me to set the bookmarks from scratch every time. This has proven pretty tedious seeing that I'm working with an old book in which the styles aren't intiutive, so trying to remember all of them every time isn't the best of fun. When I print a single file in the book, the settings are saved properly.

In the previous post, I remember reading that this was a bug in FM and trying the following suggested workarounds (none of which worked): Switching to structured mode; saving the desired setting in one file in the book, printing that document, and then printing the book (was supposed to result in FM remembering the settings for the entire book); saving the book right after it prints; selecting all files in the book and saving as PDF, as opposed to selecting the book and then File > Save as PDF.

I'd be glad to know if anyone has any ideas, or if Adobe are planning to post a fix for this issue.

[Van Kurtz · Accepted solution]

It is my understanding that FrameMaker uses the setting stored in the first document of the book when creating a PDF from a book. So, open the first file in the book and make a PDF, setting your bookmarks as you want for the whole book. Then create the PDF of the book. Check the settings before you click Print to make sure they are what you want. You may have to make a few changes, but it should remember them the next time.

I work with FM 9, so this may not be relevant to FM11. I find it necessary to open the PDF settings dialog each time I make a PDF of a book, and click Save/OK/whatever, to make sure the bookmarks are created correctly. The settings are always correct, no changes needed; but I find it necessary to open the dialog and close it to get the bookmarks correctly indented in resulting PDF. It may have been fixed in FM11.

Van

[Limiz]

Can't believe it but saving the settings for the first file and printing did the trick! Thanks a lot for this workaround

[ScottPrentice]

I believe that you also need to make sure that all of the documents in the book define the same paragraph tags (if you're using p-tags for bookmarks). It doesn't mean that they have to be defined the same, the tag names just need to all exist in all documents.

This may be a version-specific thing, so may not apply to all versions .. YMMV.

But either way .. the default settings are defined by the first document in the book.

Cheers,

...scott