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jane_writer
Known Participant
July 6, 2014
Question

why won't Adobe FrameMaker 11 generate PDF?

  • July 6, 2014
  • 1 reply
  • 1791 views

Why won't Adobe FrameMaker 11 generate a PDF?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    1 reply

    Arnis Gubins
    Arnis Gubins
    Inspiring
    July 6, 2014

    How were you trying to do it? Were there any error messages? Was the AdobePDF printer instance the FM default printer? Were you using the RGB or CMYK mode? What joboptions did you specify?  Do you have the latest patched level for FM11?

    Without further  details, it's kind of difficult to guess what occurred.

    J
    jane_writerAuthor
    Known Participant
    July 7, 2014

    I was working on this problem a few months ago, but my workload made me simply use the FM 11 and FM 7.2 on my old XP PC. I now REALLY need to find time to focus on the FM 11 and Adobe tech comm suite on my Win 7 Professional PC. I "forced" myself to work on this today.

    Here are answers to your questions:

    I was trying to "save book as" PDF and it starts as if generating PDF with Distiller, but tps file is zero bytes. NO error messages. No, I never had to have Adobe PDF printer as the FM default printer in the past. But I just tried it with Adobe PDF as default printer, and it didn't work. Used RGB mode. Job option = "Standard". Yes, I checked for FM updates and it says there are none and that 11.0.2.384 is the latest version.

    I am most frustrated and have tried everything. I have worked with FrameMaker for 15 years, and I thought I understood it well. But this has me stumped.

    About two months ago, I took the PC to the office (I normally work from home but go there about once a month for meetings at the Dallas office) and sat with my PC side-by-side with the other technical writer. Compared what happened, and we were both stumped. I need to go back and do that again. My inclination is to uninstall Adobe Tech Comm Suite 4 and selective install only FM 11 with Distiller. Then I can go back and selectively install RoboHelp 10 for HTML help.

    I REALLY appreciate your willingness to help. I am not sure what to do next. THANK YOU very much for responding. Like I said, I think I need another session at the office to compare notes step-by-step; I think it has something to do with the PDF printer/converter, but not sure why it works on other writer's PC and not mine. I might have to make time and call Adobe to see whether they can remotely access my PC and try to assist. But that assumes they have some expert available who REALLY understands this software.

    Thanks again.

    jane noble

    Arnis Gubins
    Arnis Gubins
    Inspiring
    July 7, 2014

    yes, I updated Acrobat again yesterday. I have thought more about it, and I think that the Adobe PDF printer is somehow not correct. I need to pursue that (again - I worked on this once before but had to give up to keep my sanity and to do other work - using my XP PC, which is so far working correctly). I do not have TCS on XP, only FM and Distiller.

    Thank you for ANY and ALL suggestions, comments.


    Jane,

    What was your installation order from the TechComm Suite, i.e. did you install Acrobat before FM? If so, did you tell FM to NOT install the PDF Creator option (which is the limited version of Distiller for creating PDFs if the full Acrobat isn't installed). The PDF Creator option will stomp all over an Acrobat Distiller installation. You might have to uninstall and re-install depending upon how that was done.

    I would highly recommend getting the Sundorne SetPrint utility (see: http://sundorne.com/FrameMaker/Freeware/setPrint.htm ). This will ensure that the AdobePDF is always seet as the default during an FM session (and automatically reverts to your default system printer when FM closes).

    Examine the printer properties of the Adobe PDF printer instance and check the following:

    - Ports (should be set to a specific destination  like "Documents\*.pdf")

    - Advanced > Driver - should be "Adobe PDF Converter"

    - Advanced tab - set Spooling on and enable "Start printing immediately";  Also enable "Print spooled documents first"

    Under Printer Preferences > Adobe PDF Settings tab, the "Rely on system fonts only; do not use document fonts" option should NOT be enabled.

    Finally click the "Print Test Page" on the General tab of the Adobe PDF Properties. If everything is configurd correctly, you should get a Windows Printer est Page created where you specifed the destination to be. If it fails at this stage, then the problem is with the printer configuration/installation and not FM.

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