licensing FrameMaker 13

[JETrudeau]

I have a license for FM 2017 (v14) license. I need to use FM 2015 (v13). How?

[Bob_Niland]

Why do you need to use v13?

If it's because your customer is on v13, v14 presumably can save-as v13 directly, and of course to MIF for any prior version.

[JETrudeau]

For consistency and smooth interoperation with the rest of the company’s tech pubs team, which is using v13.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Do you have a volume license for FM2015? Do you have FM2015 installation media? Have you contacted Adobe Support about using your serial number with FM2015?

[JETrudeau]

Hi Jeff. I have no license specific to 2015. What I have is a “one-off” single seat purchase to enable me to assist our tech pubs team (I’m an engineer with a serious tech writing background). Hence my desire to remain on the same version as our pubs team. I do have the 2015 installer, as well as 2017. Both are currently installed, the 2017 works.

I have contacted Adobe support – if I get a generally useful response, I’ll post it here as well.

Thanks!

[JETrudeau · Accepted solution]

Common Use Case: a corporation settles on a version of a production tool older than the current version.

The FrameMaker licensing implementation does not support this use case.

I did promise an update if I learned something definitive. Which is:

1) A FrameMaker license key works for one version and one version only.

2) There is no online or automatic way to get a license for an older version.

3) Ergo, one MUST contact support at tcssup@adobe.com and request.

Because you cannot purchase a license for an older version, only the current version, there is no way to use an older version without jumping through the support hoops. I personally think this is suboptimal, to be polite.

My expectation: If I have a valid license for a newer version, I should be able to use an older version transparently. This is not rocket science. This is pretty simple to implement in a good licensing system.

So far support has been helpful, but I still don't have a license for FM2015.

[Bob_Niland]

re: Because you cannot purchase a license for an older version

Yes, you can, although not perhaps directly from Adobe.

CDW dot com has them, going back several releases.

[JETrudeau]

Ah sweet. That would be good to know for some folks. Me, I'm tied to corporate purchasing systems, so someone else orders it from wherever we normally get stuff. I appreciate you filling in that detail. That's MUCH better than two days with support.

In the meantime, a 2015 license has arrived.

All's well that ends that way.