byrdye wrote: Sigh. You don't get to picture me a pretty shade of tickled pink after all. I downloaded and installed the hotfix, but no love. Any other suggestions? Well, "Save as PDF" on FM8 is not as buggy as Art's response suggests. FM9 has some more troubles there. So in my opinion you could stick to "Save as PDF". The hotfix should work anyway (it does on all systems I know), so my next proposal would be: Go to the Windows/System32 folder and delete the "fntcache.dat" file. Then restart your computer. Does it work now? And, if you restart again, does it still work? Maybe it helps to get rid of the old file from pre-fix times. Bernd ... View more

Jo, the first thing you should do is installing the MS hotfix for exactly this problem: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=952909 Chance is 99.8% (rough guess) that your problem is solved then. The origin of your problem is (most likely) a large number of fonts installed (probably some CJK fonts among them), and a system file (fntcache.dat) which can't handle the size/number without the patch. Bernd Edit: This fix really should make it into the FAQ. On top position... ... View more

squidds.de wrote: Note: FrameMaker  9 and TOOLBOX save MIF 9 or MIF 7. There is no way to save MIF 8. … which may be a problem when using MIF files for e.g. Trados, but is definitely not a problem for FM8, which reads FM9 MIF like its own. Bernd ... View more

Pieter van de Sande wrote: I used Bernd's way to select the image, which took me a few tries but worked after all. Then, strangely enough I could not right click it so needed to bring it to the front using the toolbar. Pieter, if right-clicking after selection doesn't work for whatever reasons, you can always use the corresponding commands in the Graphics menu. All the commands (of the context menu) are also there: bring to front/back, object properties and others. Bernd ... View more

Pieter van de Sande wrote: How do I select an unanchored image that's been sent to the back? Pretty simple question, but I cannot manage to move and select the image. The simple solution is: place the mouse outside of the text frame, click, and drag the mouse (with the button still pressed) to select the image by a frame. If you just cross the text frame, it won't be selected. But the image (if completely within the frame) will. Then use the object properties to change its coordinates, or simply cut the image to the clipboard. Bernd ... View more

fogharty wrote: So that was my "fix." Exchange a font that would be encoded correctly for one that wasn't, in this case, Helvetica for Arial. One thing that comes to mind: you're only using fonts which are usually found in font replacement tables of PS printers (Arial > Helvetica), and at least the Helvetica is often set to "don't embed" in Distiller prefs. I've often seen problems with PDFs which don't have their fonts embedded, especially when they are used on more than one platform. My FM Mac days are long ago, but I can remember one important thing regarding PDF creation: which PS printer/PPD do you use? As far as I remember, the only rock solid solution was to install a virtual printer using the Adobe PS driver (I believe 8.1.x was the last version), using the Adobe PDF printer PPD. While running FM7 in Classic, I think it was working with Distiller PPDs up to version 7 (ADPDF7.PPD). Never tried a newer version, though. The Distiller PPD is the only neutral PPD, which doesn't use any printer-specific functions (apart from the Generic PS Printer, which lacks options). You also should follow Sheila's tip, get your FM updated to the latest version. Bernd ... View more

Jeff_Coatsworth wrote: I just got the new p255 patch installed through the Updater & wondered if it anybody's noticed much of anything different. I didn't see it listed on the Download page, but using the same logic that Arnis posted for the 9.0.3 patch, I figured that http://download.adobe.com/pub/adobe/framemaker/win/9.x/ReadmeForPatch904.pdf would work (it does!) Well, I can't imagine that the content of this PDF is really worth a patch, if this is all.  Sounds a little bit incomplete, and since it's not officially linked, it might be a premature document. I haven't updated yet (due to the lack of information, yes), I'm working on too many documents in almost final state. Not the best moment for experiments, without an official list of fixes and changes. Edit: Now it's officially published: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4746 The list of fixes remains unchanged. I can't believe it. 9 months of time since the last update, tons of confirmed bugs, and now there is a list of 4(!) fixes I don't even understand. Bernd ... View more

Arnis Gubins wrote: When using the new CMYK option, a different, internal header file (actually, the unix header pdf ps file) is prepended to the postscript output, but otherwise the "mechanism" to create PDFs is still exactly the same. Thanks Arnis, still wondering, how all those CMYK-related Bugs (OTF fonts becoming TimesNewRoman, custom spot colors or tints fail,  etc.) can happen then, if just the PS header is exchanged. From your description it sounds like a well-established piece of code is added (unix header), but the real outcome feels different. Bernd ... View more

Arnis Gubins wrote: FYI, printing to the AdobePDF printer instance and running Distiller on the intermediate postscript file is *exactly* what SaveAsPDF does (albeit this goes on behind the scenes and does some of the housekeeping for you). Arnis, AFAIK this is only true when "Convert CMYK colors to RGB" is enabled. Creating CMYK PDFs with FM9 is not the same as running PS through Distiller in the "old" way. However, my test file also worked with RGB conversion enabled, so there seem to be some unknown variables... Bernd ... View more

JanP64 wrote: Have been trying to find more info on the subject for several days now. My customer almost demands that I move to MS Word now. (where all of this probably just works). But Word is "not one of my favorites" (to say it nicely) Hi Jan, in order to avoid this "horror scenario", we should solve your problem I just did a quick test, and it does work. I've uploaded the test PDF including some "how-to" instructions here: http://www.meissner-dokuteam.de/Files/Frame/Transparency2_p250.pdf Regards, Bernd ... View more

tv95 wrote: It takes approximately 1 hour to generate a PDF from a 200 page Frame 9 doc (PDF file size Standard). It might help to know your system configuration. I have experienced such long times for PDF creation, when using FM9 in Parallels/Win XP Pro and saving to a shared volume on the same Mac. Now we are saving all documents (including PDFs) to a server, and we're back to PDFs in minutes Bernd ... View more

NL_Derek wrote: Is it possible to set up my Running H/F to include both paragraph tags? Derek, yes, it is. Just define the variable like this: <$ParaText[Heading 1,Heading 1 Top]> Separate the paragraph formats in the definition with a comma (no space after the comma). Bernd ... View more

Pizza09 wrote: Doesn't answer the question of what happened to corrupt the file but at least I have a solution. Nancy, did you check the index sort order on the Reference page of the corrupt file? Is it sorted as it should be? Bernd ... View more

Tminus5 wrote: I guess I really don't know how create a table format with assigned paragraph formats for the cell bodies.  When I click in the cell body of my "Part table" format, the paragraph format shows "text", but when click in other table formats I've created the paragraph format shows as "CellBody".  I don't see in the "Table Designer" where to set the paragraph format for the table cell bodies or headers. Bill, yes, this is correct, the Table Designer doesn't offer the option to specify a Paragraph Format to be used. Well, actually there is a way, but rather hidden to the user and not editable in the post: When you design a new table format, including lines, fills etc., you can assign paragraph formats to the existing table cells (mark them, and apply the paragraph format you whish). Once formatting is done, select the whole table and open the table designer. If you save the currently selected table design now (with a new name), FrameMaker remembers the paragraph formats and uses them, whenever you insert a new table into your document. This won't help with existing documents. What your current options are, depends on the use of paragraph formats in your document. The main question is: is there a paragraph format which is exclusively used within the Part_Tables? You mention a paragraph format named "text". Is this paragraph format only used in the Part_Tables, or is it used somewhere else as well? If it's only used in your Part_Tables, you already have what you're searching for: an unique paragraph format for the part entries. If this paragraph format doesn't show up when creating a "List of Paragraphs", then all you need to do is adding this paragraph format (which is currently shown with an asterisk*, since undefined) to your paragraph catalog. Put your text marker into one of these table cells, open the paragraph designer, and click "Apply" (not: Update all). Now the paragraph format "text" will be added to your catalog, and will be available for the List of Paragraphs. Bernd ... View more

Tminus5 wrote: Is it possible to strip the text from a formatted table and put it into a list?  I'm not sure if I understand the task correctly: do you want to keep the tables whereever they appear, and have a collected list of the respective table entries somewhere else? Or do you simply want to create a list out of a table, i.e. converting the table to text? For getting a separate list of table entries, you need to define and use a dedicated paragraph format within the tables (exclusively) for these entries. You could define a paragraph format like e.g. "Part_entry", which will then be used/read once you create a "List of Paragraphs".  So this may have been the problem, when you write "...but the table formats are not listed". Of course the TABLE format isn't listed, but the PARAGRAPH formats you use within the tables are. Bernd ... View more

gustantino wrote: Is there any font management program that will allow me to have more fonts on my system and only allow FrameMaker to use (display) a limited amount of fonts?  If so what program(s) are available and how do I use it in FrameMaker? Gustantino, not exactly in the way you ask (it isn't possible to restrict a number of fonts to FrameMaker only), but of course there are tools. And considering the number of fonts you're using, you definitely need one 😉 I'm using this one: http://www.insidersoftware.com/FA_win.php Using tools like FontAgent Pro, you can enable/disable fonts whenever needed, without having to delete/install them each time. So in your case you could boot the system with the minimum number of required system fonts (which is also good for memory and performance), and enable the fonts when required. This way your system and the FrameMaker menu stay as clean as possible. Bernd ... View more

Van Kurtz wrote: For what it is worth... I must be leading a very charmed life, because I have never had to delete the fntcache.dat file. I am using FrameMaker 9.0.3, running on Windows XP 2002, SP 3. Well, it's not difficult to get this "charmed life". You just have to keep the number of installed fonts as low as possible, and should not use large (in terms of megabytes) CJK and Unicode fonts. As long as the size of the fntcache.dat doesn't exceed a certain size (usually about 1.5 MB, but lower limits have been reported), the bug won't strike. Bernd ... View more

Arnis Gubins wrote: Are you by any chance using any of the OTF Pro/W1G/COM type of fonts? Are you also using CMYK PDF generation? If so, then this is a known bug. Well, the known bug with many of these fonts is: text is displayed with the TimesNewRoman font. I didn't have missing text blocks using them, and I'm not aware of anybody else who has. The MS patch should definitely work. It does work here on all machines (all running Windows XP Pro SP2(!)). I know of some other font related problems with XP SP3. If it still doesn't work: deleting the fntcache.dat is not necessary for each PDF, it's necessary once a day. The daily procedure in this case is: - Start your PC - Delete the fntcache.dat - Reboot Now PDF creation works as expected, until you reboot again. If you have to do this for whatever reason, delete the fntcache.dat again before rebooting. Bernd ... View more

Pieter van de Sande wrote: Ok that's what I thought when posing the question. Index and TOC are incompatible. To me they are simply generated files and if I configure the page numbers to be on the right in the Arial font in the TOC I expect these to be the same after importing formats into another generated file. I guess I need to change my train of thought. Yes, the're independent from each other. If you look on the TOC reference page, you'll find entries like: <$paratext>(tab character) <$pagenum> This entry is formatted using the assigned "TOC" paragraph style, e.g. if you're reading a paragraph style named "Heading1", this entry is formatted using the "Heading1TOC" paragraph style. If this style is set to Arial, the whole line (paragraph text and page number) will be formatted using the Arial font, as long as you don't use separate character styles for the placeholders (<$paratext> or <$pagenum>). Looking on the SIX reference page, there are other entries. You'll see e.g. Level1SIX (tab character) … … (tab character)<$pagenum> In this case the text entry is formatted using the "Level1SIX" paragraph format, and the page number is formatted using the "IndexSIX" format. These may specify different fonts. You see, there are completely different formats and "building blocks" which are used to create a TOC and an Index entry. Bernd ... View more

Pieter van de Sande wrote: I'll give that a shot.  Is that the only (and proper) way to do? The strange thing is that, even though having the same paragraph tag, the title/ is displayed in arial while the pagenum is in times new roman. This is the case in the template as well, yet as said, updating seems of no effect. I've been changing my paragraph tag for over an hour now and updating it, without any effect. It seems as if FM is malfunctioning. Not the only way, but the easiest way. You could - instead of overwriting the original (unformatted) TOC - import the formats/reference page/page layout as you did, but in any case you have to regenerate the TOC afterwards, for the formatting to be applied correctly. This ist the way it works. Bernd ... View more

Pieter, you can add e.g. a TOC to a book at any moment, even when the chapters don't contain anything but empty pages. Sure, for getting a TOC, you'll have to generate it at first, but it doesn't need to contain anything. Try it this way: - Add/generate the required TOC to your book. Don't care about any formatting, save it, close it. - Open a fully formatted TOC of any other book, which you want to use as a format template. - Save this TOC to the folder of your new book, using "Save as...", and give it exactly the name the TOC of your new book has. The TOC you originally generated will be overwritten by the formatted version, which currently (of course) contains the wrong entries. - In the new book, generate/update your TOC. It will appear with the correct content and fully formatted. Bernd ... View more

Pieter, you will have to re-generate/update those documents after importing formats. Then all the formatting used on the reference page will be applied to the generated entries. Which leads to the conclusion, that you'd better first import the formats, and then generate the documents in future Bernd ... View more

shealy1 wrote: Our design company doesn't have Framemaker and so would like to design our styles, templates, layouts etc in InDesign.  That's great, but I need them in Framemaker for our long manuals. What's the best way of taking the bits they design in InDesign and converting them with "ease" to pull into Framemaker? Sian, honestly: get an other design company or buy them FrameMaker, including some in-depth training. You simply can't define FrameMaker templates in InDesign. You could try to do so at a very basic level, if the designer knows InDesign as well as FrameMaker, and thus would only define parameters which both applications share via RTF, but this still wouldn't be a valid "template". Sorry, but "don't do this" is my best answer… Bernd ... View more

kdeuler wrote: Has anyone besides me noticed that FM 9 allows you delete a paragraph tag in a document even though the paragraph tag is in use? I've found that the result of deleting the tag is that text with that tag is unaffected and even still has the deleted tag applied to it. However, the tag is no longer selectable from the paragraph tag list. FM8 would prompt would warn you that its in use before you attempt to delete it. Kurt, I'm not sure why you think that FM8 has been different… it isn't. Every version of FM has always allowed to delete paragraph styles, no matter if they are used or not. Paragraphs using the (deleted) format are now shown with an asterisk, like an overidden format, while keeping all attributes. This is why 3rd party vendors like ITL sell FrameScript scripts, which only delete unused styles and objects from documents. Bernd ... View more

ChenYJ wrote: My question is whether we must change the font when we do double-byte character stuf in FrameMaker? And in source file the font is not only Arial but also Garamond. Hi Chen, changing the font is only necessary, when the MIF files opened in FrameMaker should instantly display Chinese text. This can be done in Trados, as far as I know. In order to avoid this additional step, the original ENU templates could be set up using the "combined fonts" feature (which can be used with FM8 and FM9). Using such a setup would automatically show Chinese text using e.g. SimHei and Latin text using e.g. Arial, and the paragraph styles wouldn't need to be changed during translation process. Anyway, the paragraph styles could be defined or imported after translation as well. FrameMaker just displays question marks instead of Chinese characters, as long as the paragraph styles aren't defined correctly, using either Chinese or combined fonts. Bernd ... View more

douglas131313 wrote: However, it was showing the correct chapter number. What I want is that number followed by the numbering schema I have set up in the book (ex. 2.1, 2.1.1., 2.1.1.1). Douglas, you made the correct changes for the paragraph style "ChapterTitleTOC", but you missed to do so for the subsequent paragraph formats "Heading1TOC" and "Heading2TOC". These two also shouldn't have an own numbering style, but use the <$paranum> variable on the reference page. Once you've corrected this, the numbering schema will be displayed completely correct. As defined now (in your TOC), these two use the <$chapnum> variable as set for the TOC itself (which is "1"), instead of the numbers of the respective chapters. Bernd ... View more

douglas131313 wrote: I have applied the <$chapnum> and <n+> building blocks to the paragraph styles used in my TOC, but instead of displaying the correct chapter numbers, every chapter section starts with "1". Could someone please tell me what I need to do in order to match the TOC numbering with the book numbering? Douglas, I assume that the chapter numbering works correct through all the chapters, and only the TOC numbering is wrong. Correct? In this case you shouldn't have an own (independent) numbering definition in your TOC paragraph styles, but READ the original numbering from the respective paragraphs/chapters. You do this by adding the <$paranum> variable to the TOC reference page, so the entry/entries there should read equal or similar to: <$paranum> (Tab) <$paratext> (Tab) <$pagenum> Define the tabulators for the TOC paragraph styles as if there was a numbering definition, and the number read from the chapters will appear correctly formatted in the TOC. Bernd ... View more

fonki wrote: To my understanding now is that authoring in Arabic in FrameMaker environment is not possible in any of its versions but it is possible in Adbobe InDesing. To be precise: it is currently possible in InDesign ME or in a regular InDesign CS4 with ScribeDoor or  in a regular InDesign CS4 with the WorldTools plugin I'm sure there will be more tools with more or less features, since the technology is there in InDesign CS4, and can be accessed via plugin or even via scripting. But the full-featured tool is InDesignME. Bernd ... View more