FM 8 and Acrobat Pro 8

[Yves Barbion]

Hi Helen

(I'll make sure to use the spell-checker this time.;-))

I have FrameMaker 6, 7.2, 8 and 9 living in peaceful coexistence with
Acrobat 3D 8.1.3 on my computer (Windows XP, SP3). I can do a "Save as PDF"
from any FrameMaker version without any problems. DITA to PDF works fine
too.

There have been some posts about the FrameMaker and Acrobat issue before on
this list and you can take Dov Isaac's advice on this. You can find his
comments below. To summarize them:

   - Uninstall any other previous versions of Acrobat or Reader on your
   system, make sure to reboot, and then install Acrobat 8 Pro.
   - If you have ANY version of Acrobat 7 or 8 already installed on your
   system, you absolutely DON'T want the castrated version of
   Distiller that comes with FrameMaker 8.
   - If you are prompted to reboot your system after any uninstalls or after
   installing Acrobat 8, be sure to do so. The installation
   process depends on your doing that reboot immediately.

I don't think the installation order (FrameMaker or Acrobat first) matters
anymore.

These are Dov's comments:

_____________________________________________________________________________

It is NOT FrameMaker 8 which is the problem or that has to be
installed, it is that separate headless version of Distiller 8
that you let the FrameMaker 8 installer put on your system.
Uninstall that and/or any other previous versions of Acrobat or
Reader on your system, make sure to reboot, and then install
Acrobat 8 Pro.

If you have ANY version of Acrobat 7 or 8 already installed on
your system, you absolutely DON'T want the castrated version of
Distiller that comes with FrameMaker 8!

If you let FrameMaker's install perform the installation of
the stand-alone Distiller, make absolutely sure you UNINSTALL
that version of Distiller and reboot before attempting to
install any version of Acrobat!

In reality, it should not make any difference what order you
install Acrobat and FrameMaker with one caveat. If you are
installing the full Acrobat product (which you are), you must
NOT install the copy of Distiller bundled with FrameMaker.
If you have already installed that bundled Distiller, you
must totally uninstall it (and any other versions of Acrobat
and/or Reader on your system) prior to installing Acrobat 8.
If you are prompted to reboot your system after any uninstalls
or after installing Acrobat 8, be sure to do so. The installation
process depends on your doing that reboot immediately.

Although this has not been a problem in recent versions of
Acrobat, per the suggestion of another poster, you should make
sure that the FILE: port is not missing from your system.

To further complicate things, Acrobat 8 changed the location where
.joboptions files are stored. Acrobat 7 stored the .joboptions files
at "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Adobe PDF\Settings".
That is where FrameMaker looks for them. Acrobat 8 (actually
Distiller 8) stores the bundled .joboptions files in
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe
PDF\Settings"
and each user's personalized .joboption files in
"C:\Documents and Settings\xxxxxxxxxxxx\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe
PDF\Settings"
where "xxxxxxxxxxxx" is your Windows user id.
For FrameMaker 7.2 to work directly with Distiller 8 with the
"save as" feature, you must make sure that FrameMaker 7.2 "sees"
all your joboptions in
"C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Adobe PDF\Settings".


_____________________________________________________________________________

Good luck.


-- 
Yves Barbion • Managing Director • Adobe-Certified FrameMaker Instructor
www.scripto.nu  • skype: yves.barbion  • T: +32 494 12 01 89