Why is FM crashing during import of PDF comments?

[lindaw2396]

I'm running FM 9.0p255 on Windows 7 and using Acrobat Pro 9.4.5 (running in Windows XP on another computer) to enable commenting in Adobe Reader. After saving the file, in Windows 7 I open Adobe Reader 9.2.0 and make comments, then save the file. In FM 9 I open my 2-page file and import pdf comments. FM crashes. I've been trying everything to eliminate the problem, all the way down to creating an FM file with just the words "This is a test" in it. I went through the Acrobat comment process and added one word. When I tried importing pdf comments, I got this error:

"The modification date of the source file is newer than creation date of the tagged PDF. PDF comments may not be imported correctly. Click Yes to continue."

When I click Yes, FrameMaker crashes.

What is strange is that my FM file has 8/5/2011 4:39 PM as the Date modified.

My commented PDF has 8/5/2011 4:43 PM as the Date modified.

I've tried rebooting my computer and that didn't help. Does anyone know anything else I can try?

[Harish_Dhawan]

Can you please send the crash log generated at %APPDATA%\Adobe\FrameMaker\9\Framelog_*.txt (where * contains the date and time of the crash).

This log may give some hint.

Does the Framemaker crash if you comment using Acrobat rather than Adobe Reader?

~Harish

[lindaw2396]

Sorry, I've been on vacation. Yes, FrameMaker crashes if I comment using Acrobat, too. I can't locate the log file. I searched my C drive for "Framelog*" and came up with only a file with a June 11 date. What irks me is that I got the pdf comments import to work ONCE and was thrilled! Now I can't get it to work even with a simple file.

Linda M. Williams

Composition Manager

Peterson's, a Nelnet company

2000 Lenox Drive

Lawrenceville, NJ 08648

phone: 800.338.3282 ext. 53316

fax: 609.896.1811

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Make sure that you save the FM file first, then create the review PDF. Don't touch the FM file again. You can't import comments back if the FM file has been saved or has changed after the review PDF has been created.

[Bob_Niland]

Make sure that you save the FM file first, then create the review PDF.  Don't touch the FM file again. You can't import comments back if the FM  file has been saved or has changed after the review PDF has been  created.

We aren't yet using this import PDF comments feature, but I'm surprised to see that FM is apparently checking file revision dates so rigorously.

Our documents all (100%) contain master page text with the current timestamp (ISO 8601 to the minute), that are visible during edit and draft rendering.

Just opening one of these files always causes it to be detected as changed, due to the timestamps being brought up to date.

Unless FM has a way of special-casing these timestamps, and other harmless auto-revisions, and ignoring them for rev comparison, I'm guessing that we will not be able to use the import PDF comments feature. True?

[AxialInfo · Accepted solution]

Linda, I'm wondering if there's some "conflict" being triggered because you're using both Win 7 and WinXP --

Specifically, I wonder if the two systems have off-kilter time stamps, and that's why FM is giving the "newer creation date" problem.

I don't quite understand what role the XP system has in your test, though -- can you not just use FM == and == make the PDF on the same Win7 box, make the comment on that box, then import the comments?

Understandably you will probably eventually need to be able to import comments from all sorts of other systems, but for troubleshooting could you try making the full create-comment-import cycle on the Win7 box only?

If that does work, then you might see of you can set the system time on the XP box to be somewhat slower than the Win7 box, and re-try with the XP box in the mix.

Edit: changing the system time clock is suggested only as a testing procedure, to see if we can isolate the exact cause, I'm not suggesting that in order to work reliably all your reviewers would need to synchronize their systems 🙂

Sheila

[lindaw2396]

I agree. Working on getting everything on Windows 7 now and will come back with results hopefully later this week. Thanks!

Linda M. Williams

Composition Manager

Peterson's, a Nelnet company

2000 Lenox Drive

Lawrenceville, NJ 08648

phone: 800.338.3282 ext. 53316

fax: 609.896.1811

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

[Guest]

Sorry to be bearer of bad news, but I am having the same problem, and I'm running both FM 10 & Acrobat 9 on Windows 7!

I was able, however, to import PDF comments into another guide, even after getting a similar bogus error message warning me the book modify date is more recent than PDF create date. Unlike with the other guide, clicking "OK" did NOT crash FM.

[lindaw2396]

I'm wondering if the Technical Communication Suite allows the importing of PDF comments? We're trying to make a decision whether to upgrade to FM 10 or get the suite. We need RoboHelp to make ebooks and didn't think we needed the suite. Does anybody have any experience with the suite and importing PDF comments?

[AxialInfo]

You'd get a much better focus about "current issues" by scanning the multiple Robohelp and TCS forums, over here -- there are many, many folks over there who have incredible depth of knowledge -- and probably keep the gods of the forums happy by not muddying the subject waters 😉

http://forums.adobe.com/community/robohelp

http://forums.adobe.com/community/technical_communications_suite

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I believe that the standalone FM allows the import of comments, but if you need RH, then getting the suite makes much more sense financially.

[AxialInfo]

Edit #2: "slower" ??  yecccchh -- I meant earlier, as in a time-warp, not slower as in a time slowdown. Sheila.

[lindaw2396]

That seems to have been the problem. I am now running FM 9 and Acrobat Pro 9 on the same

Windows 7 machine and I got my comments!! I'm in business!! Thank you all for your input. Sheila, I was all set to start testing other scenarios if this didn't work but I'm very happy this worked! Next challenge: FM 10 and RoboHelp 9 and ebooks!

[AxialInfo]

Linda and seh, do either of you have FM's "automatic Save every x minutes" turned on? I wonder if that could account for the source file (FM file) getting a newer timestamp than the imported PDF file.

Another less-likely possibility, are your files copied to or stored in any SVN, or moved from/to a network repository, that might touch the timestamp.

In your tests, have you closed FM completely (not just closed the file, but closed FM) while you make the comment in the PDF?

Another test (scratching for ideas) -- could you create a test FM file. Save it as FM. Save it as MIF. Then compare importing the comments into the FM vs. the MIF.

[Guest]

Update:

I've had better results when I did the following:

• created a new blank document in FM 10, and copied the contents of my legacy chapter into the new document.
• use ONLY text insert, text delete, and text note commenting options!
  • text replace was NOT reliable.
  • tip: get the SME to number text inserts. If some inserts aren't imported correctly into FM, numbering makes it easier to track them down in the PDF.

• I also upgraded from Reader 9 to X, so that I was using same version of FM, Acrobat, and Reader. Not sure if this really helped any, though.

As we are rebuilding our guides, copying legacy chapters into new documents is not a big deal. I suspect our problem is an overly cluttered template: the fewer styles in the chapter, the more success with importing PDF comments (i.e. importing into a chapter of unformattted text works perfectly).

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

@seh72 - you don't mention if you are running the full version of Acrobat Pro or not. If you are, then you don't need the Reader installed (in fact, I've seen several posts from Dov Isaacs strongly recommending you DON'T have both installed).