Arnis Gubins wrote: Actually, the Help file and User Guide specifically deal with importing Excel files. Sure it does, my statement was misleading. What I actually wanted to say: my qote of the help file doesn't deal specifically with importing XLS Bernd ... View more

Art_Campbell wrote: You may be on to something, and perhaps the OP's problem. I don't have that option, to open Excel files, in my FM installation... and I'm remembering that it's possible for some file import filters to either not be installed or enabled. So that may be it, assuming the Help file is right. Art, the help file doesn't deal with specific import formats. If I understand correctly, the whole Import > File Option is gone (not specific to Excel or other formats). About your FM installation or filters: since v8 I'm using the TCS, where you don't have any installation options regarding filters. But as I said before: Excel is mentioned nowhere in any dialogs or drop-down lists. If you don't try it, you will never know you can import XLS files. Give it a try, simply select an XLS file for opening it or importing it to an existing document Bernd ... View more

Art_Campbell wrote: No version of FM offers a directy import of Excel. Art, not true… but surely a somewhat hidden feature. You can import XLS files, and you can simply open them (as with FM files). Works here with FM9, 8 and 7.2. It's not necessary for importing Excel files, that the file extension (.xls) shows up in the format list (which it doesn't). So, just select the file and use either open or import, both work well. Bernd ... View more

Niels Grundtvig Nielsen wrote: As expected, there's the old :logo style calling the Domaigne font ... but also, a whole slew of styles CM{number}, and then a good scattering of font-tags referring to 'LNLOPA+Arial' or 'LNLOPO+Arial, Bold'. What's all this, then? certainly nothing I've defined or used. Niels, these tags sound like combined fonts, used for Asian text. I don't know what "LNLOPA" stands for, but the name must not contain the fonts that are actually used. With combined fonts, you can specify that e.g. Chinese text is written in SimSun, but English text within the same paragraph is automatically written in TimesRoman, without applying a character format. Such definitions often come in, when documents return from a translation service, who probably applied a template on export. Bernd ... View more

Arnis Gubins wrote: I simply don't understand the requirement for being able to export DXF/DWG from a FM document in the first place. Well, obviously the client doesn't trust in PDF as an archiving format, and wants DXF/DWG instead. May be a bad or unnecessary decision (and probably is), but he's the client... Bernd ... View more

Adam, OK, now I understand. But my previous answer is still valid: FM simply can't do this. There is no DXF/DWG export feature, just import. And even the import feature is quite lossy and not what I'd call reliable or controllable. I've done a quick test with a single page PDF from FrameMaker, converted using two different ways: - Converting the PDF directly to DWG in a CAD application (here: ProgeCAD, an "AutoCad clone") - Opening the PDF in Illustrator and exporting to DWG/DXF I hope the results I'm going to attach show up without being quarantined... The first image shows the ProgeCAD conversion, which looks quite usable. Text remains text, but is broken into pieces, no longer complete words or paragraphs. The second image shows the DWG exported from Illustrator. Graphical elements are OK, but text spacing has been lost and needs to be redone in your CAD application. So considering the export formats FrameMaker offers, I don't see any way but converting PDFs page by page (do multipage DXF files exist?). Bernd ... View more

danmorrisonline wrote: All the content appears on a single line in a jumbled mess. Dan, beyond all the things Art wrote: maybe you've defined your TOC paragraph formats as a "Run-in" paragraph? This would explain the single line. Bernd ... View more

Adam, FrameMaker is the last tool I'd choose for handling DXF/DWG. The (basic) ability to import such files (as other graphic file formats too) doesn't mean anything but: you can import, but not edit or export them. You're loading an image file, and that's it. For the tasks you have to do, you should get and use Illustrator (or a 2D CAD tool), which is able to open, edit and export DWG and DXF. But don't expect wonders, misunderstandings (to a certain degree) between Illustrator and CAD apps is… well, expected behaviour 😉 Even plain 2D CAD apps have their difficulties exchanging data via DXF/DWG, and this has - last, but not least - to do with the continuing efforts of Autodesk in making the file format as incompatible as possible. So, don't even try to use FM for such a thing, it's the wrong tool. Bernd ... View more

As recommended, MIF2GO is the best solution. But there's something you could probably do to prevent FM from crashing: In most cases, FM crashes on RTF export because of images contained in a file. So if you want to do a plain RTF export (without images), simply make a copy of your document and do a search for anchored frames and replace them by, e.g., the text <image>. Once all images are deleted, retry exporting an RTF. Should work quite smoothly now. And while you're at it, you can do the search/replace thing also for all kinds of markers that don't translate well to word, like index markers, XRef markers and so on, and replace them by nothing (i.e. delete them). As already mentioned, make sure you do all these things to a COPY of your document Bernd ... View more

Paolo Tramannoni wrote: Thank you everybody for the great help. To summarize: - I must convert all CMYK Process colors of the original files to CMYK Spot colors. Uh... no. That's a misunderstanding, sorry if I haven't been clear enough. It only depends on what kind of colors you need: In FM9, without enabling "Convert CMYK color to RGB", the following rules apply for colored FrameMaker objects (not: imported images): - CMYK colors (= process colors) are written as CMYK colors, all is well - Pantone and other Spot colors are written as CMYK colors, if they don't have a name in the "name of color" field. If the name is missing, this can currently only be fixed via manual editing of the MIF file, there's no other entry method - Pantone and other Spot colors are correctly written as Spot color, if they do have a name (see my screen shot in one of the previous postings) The second part about the "Save as PDF" route is correct. Bernd ... View more

Rosemary, under the hood, these aren't the same issues. You can do a simple test to find out which "remedy" you need: 1. In the Windows explorer, go to WINDOWS/System32 and locate the file named "FNTCACHE.DAT". What file size is it? 2. Delete this file (don't worry, it will be recreated automatically) 3. Reboot 4. Try to write your PDF again. If your PDF is correct this time, you definitely need the hotfix recommended. Don't worry about the "untested" status, meanwhile a lot of users (including me) have tested it. It works as expected and cures the "missing text in PDF" bug. Bernd ... View more

Paolo Tramannoni wrote: Probably this means that color definitions are also saved somewhere else than the Color definition, and can interfere with other colors. As a result, opening the cleaned-up MIF file resulted in the color still not being correctly printed to PDF, even when created as new in FM9. Paolo, if the color you're talking about is the Pantone 5285: it's correctly saved to PDF as a spot color. See attached PDF. Is this the color in question? Edit: by the way... color definitions can come in via imported graphics. Regards, Bernd ... View more

Paolo Tramannoni wrote: What I've found, as of now, is that CMYK Spot colors translate well to PDF, if the document has been originally created with FM9. They do not translate well if the document was originally created with FM6, and then edited with FM9. … The tech at Support ended up with my same results, and found that the problem is only there when converting files from FM6. He is not sure Adobe will fix it. Paolo, the oldest FM version I currently have on my computers is 7.2, so I can't test it with FM 6 documents. Well, sure some things have changed since then, but I doubt that anything having to do with colors has changed between 6 and 8. I also doubt there's any meaning in the statement "He is not sure Adobe will fix it". They will have to fix it, because the current incarnation of this CMYK construction site is simply a mess. It doesn't work as expected, and it doesn't work as promised. The list of currently known bugs gets longer and longer, among them: - the Spot color problems discussed here - problems with several OTF/TTF fonts - different font spacing/kerning in RGB and CMYK - wrong output of rotated pages - ... So there's a lot left to do until this feature is what it should have been. And once it is, I could imagine that even FM6 documents work again. Given the fact that I'm working with FM since version 3.1, there are several documents that have a looooong history, being created in FM 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and having been updated to 9, where they don't show different behaviour to files created in 9. Cleaning your documents via MIF is a good idea anyway. As my tests have shown, custom spot colors (not taken from the Adobe library)  currently only work with the respective name entries in the MIF file. Bernd ... View more

Just in case anybody is interested: I've updated the test PDF with four additional HelveticaNeue W1G fonts (65 medium/italic + 77 bold condensed/ italic). Two work, two don't… what a game… http://www.meissner-dokuteam.de/Files/Frame/Unicode_Fonts_Test_fm903_091118_cmyk_rgb.pdf Regards, Bernd ... View more

Arnis Gubins wrote: Note: FM only looks at the pixel counts wheh importing the graphics and then applies the user specified import scaling (dpi) to make the pixels fit the page layout. FM ignores any dpi (but does present this is the default option) or physical size settings in image files. One option not yet mentioned: Although it's quite unusual, you could save your screenshots with a 300ppi setting as EPS. In this case FM completely ignores any pixel settings, but places the graphic at the specified size. I do this with CMYK graphics, which didn't work as TIFF in earlier FM versions. OTOH, the dpi/ppi settings in the FM import dialog should work, anyway... Bernd ... View more

Paolo Tramannoni wrote: - Color Management Policies: Convert All Colors to CMYK. This should trigger the new FM9 internal CMYK manager, about whom I found a few sparse information in third-party reviews. Paolo, no, this triggers nothing in FM. FrameMaker uses the "FM9 CMYK manager", as you call it, if you don't enable "Convert all colors to RGB" in the PDF output dialog. What you get with the Distiller option as seen above is: Spot colors converted to CMYK. Bernd ... View more

Paolo Tramannoni wrote: However, It seems to me that in both tests, the Pantone swatch on the left is different than the swatches shown in the corresponding PitStop screenshots. Checking with the Mac's Color window's magnifying glass, it seems that my impression is confirmed (shown values in both RGB and CMYK measurements are different). […] However, I might have understood your test incorrectly, so I apologize for misunderstanding. As for the Name of color bug, I can see that my document created on the Mac has a name assigned to the Pantone color I'm trying to convert correctly, so I wonder if there is some different cause for it. Paolo, you can't compare the colors of the two different items. The one on the left side is a FrameMaker object, written as a Pantone color to the PDF file. If any, then THIS object color/display is correct. The colors as seen in the PitStop screen are just what they are: an RGB screenshot of a dialog window, with absolutely NO color reliability. It means nothing. The only interesting thing in the PitStop screens is the declaration of the color as CMYK or Spot. Regarding the name of a color: Are we talking about the same thing? I've attached a screenshot of the name entry I'm talking about. Edit/correction: In the first PDF I've linked, the swatch you show in YOUR screenshot has been converted to CMYK. It's not a Pantone color. In the second PDF I've linked, it is a Pantone color, which was achieved by giving the color a name (in the MIF file). Bernd ... View more

Paolo Tramannoni wrote: Obviously, before spending a considerable price for additional software, I would like to see if I can solve the problem with what I have. Paolo, I've done some in-depth color testing with FM9, and the results can be downloaded here: http://www.meissner-dokuteam.de/Files/Frame/colortest_fm9_p250_FM_elements_EN.pdf In short words, for the "Save as PDF" CMYK version: - Spot colors from imported definitions are converted to CMYK - Spot colors from FM Pantone library are correctly output as Pantone colors * - Spot colors in imported EPS files are always correctly output * I was able to nail down the spot color bug: The critical element is the "Name of color" entry in the color definition dialog (below the dropdown/entry field "Name"). If there is a name, then the color will be correctly output as a pantone color. You can see this, if you define a color taken from the FM library, they all contain a "Name of color" entry. Self-defined colors or colors which came in by graphics import don't contain a name there, and are output as CMYK colors. You can fix this behaviour, if you save your FM files as MIF, and add the required lines at the color definitions yourself. I for example used self defined spot colors, and added the lines <ColorLibraryFamilyName `WambaSamba self-defined'> <ColorLibraryInkName `WambaSamba Blue'> Now even self-defined spot colors work. You can see this in this pdf: http://www.meissner-dokuteam.de/Files/Frame/colortest_fm9_p250_FM_elements_EN_MIFedit2.pdf and download the editet MIF file (for analyzing) here: http://www.meissner-dokuteam.de/Files/Frame/colortest_fm9_p250_FM_elements_EN_MIFedit.mif.zip One more bug, but this time in Acrobat: Spot color tints are always displayed at 100%, when you open the PDF, unless you enable Output/Overprint preview. Regards, Bernd ... View more

Mike, the problems with all fonts only show up, when you save to PDF, and you have not enabled "Convert all CMYK colors to RGB", in other words: when you're saving a CMYK PDF. Printing to Adobe PDF works, as saving to RGB-PDF works. So if you don't need CMYK PDFs, you won't have any problems with the Meta font. Bernd ... View more

I've run a couple of tests with every single FM version since 9.0. I tested several up-to-date unicode fonts which I'm using here (better: would be using, if only...), all  OTF / TTF. You can download the test results (PDF) here: http://www.meissner-dokuteam.de/Files/Frame/Unicode_Fonts_Test_fm903_091104_cmyk_rgb.pdf The PDF contains the CMYK result on the first and the RGB result on the second page. Besides several fonts not working, you will notice the differences in font tracking/kerning. Regards, Bernd ... View more

byrdye wrote: Well, I tried setting the Expand to 0, but it expanded anyway. Hmmm… strange. It works here as expected. But if your problem is solved in an other way, good Bernd ... View more

Arnis Gubins wrote: Jo, You really don't have much control over how FM expands the bookmarks when creating PDFs. Arnis, this isn't quite true. I hope to make it clear, although (using the German version) I don't know the exact names of dialogs and screen objects in English. On the second tab "Bookmarks" of the PDF export dialog, you've got the entry box "Expand bookmarks through level" (or similar). By default, there's always an astronomical number of thousandwhatever. Change this to "0", and only the top level headings are visible, as the original poster asked for. Change it to "1", and the first two levels of headings will be visible in the PDF. Edit: Meanwhile the entry box doesn't contain a number by default, but "Standard/All/None". Didn't notice that, because all of my books are set to "1". Bernd ... View more

They did not fix one of the main issues, as reported here: http://forums.adobe.com/message/1927435#1927435 Several Unicode OTF/TTF fonts are still written as Times Roman to CMYK PDFs. I created a new test PDF using FM9.0.3, which you can download here: http://www.meissner-dokuteam.de/Files/Frame/Unicode_Font_Test_fm903_cmyk_rgb.pdf Here I'm only using roman text. I encounter the same problems with several chinese and japanese fonts, which either completely don't work, or only certain fonts out of a family don't work. Interesting: In most cases the "W5" or "Medium" versions of Asian fonts fail. Bernd ... View more

Grete68 wrote: After updating FramMaker form 7.0 to 9.0 I had to change a polish manual, but the message "Can't find the font Arial CE" (in principal) occurs. In all other programs I can find and use Arial CE. Can pls. somebody tell me how to solve this problem? Yes, FM 9 uses unicode, as Michael wrote. But this alone does not explain why FrameMaker 9 completely ignores any registry-based font mappings. I'm not sure if I can call this a "bug", but it's definitely a flaw. The only way to get around this problem: Open these documents in FrameMaker 8, change your paragraph formats globally from "Arial CE" (which most likely is a virtual font, mapped to Arial) to "Arial", save, and re-open in FM9. FrameMaker 8 also uses unicode, but still understands the "old" registry mappings to virtual fonts, and is able to re-encode text accordingly. FM9 hast lost this ability. I don't know of any way solving this without FM8. Bernd ... View more

Art Campbell wrote: I have no idea what that means, or what is actually in the download (rolled up patches, some kind of SP3 fix Art, afaik this solves the problem that the original CD installer of FM8 doesn't work with Windows XP SP3. So the description seems a little bit wrong. It's the FM installer, which ist fixed for working with Win XP SP3, and does not cure anything if you have troubles updating your Windows installation. Bernd ... View more

Hi, if you got an FM book which contains separate TOCs for each chapter, it was most likely created using either - the Systec TOOLBOX (http://www.systec-gmbh.com/en/sites/toolbox.php) or - FrameScript (http://www.framescript.com/) with an itl script named "DocToc" (http://www.i-frame.itl.info/i-frame-base.html, website currently only available in German) Without these solutions, you won't be able to comfortably handle a book like yours. Regards, Bernd ... View more