Upgrading FM from 7.1 to 9

[Lynn Durell]

Hi,

My company is considering upgrading our FrameMaker from 7.1p114 to 9 
(yippee, we've never upgraded before!).

We're all running Win XP.


Please forgive my lack of knowledge, but do we open our v7.1 FM files in 
v9 and then save them as v9? Or is it more complicated than that?

Once our FM files are saved as v9, can any users still using v7.1 still 
read them (there's a chance our counterpart US office won't get the 
upgrade to v9)? Or would we need to save back as v7 for those rare 
occasions? Are there any known issues with doing this?

We currently using WebWorks (WebWorks > AutoMap 2003 Client within FM 
menu) to produce CHM files. Will this be affected if we upgrade to v9?

When you buy a v9 licence, do you automatically get all the patches that 
are released?

Any other tips for upgrading?

Can anyone confirm that v7.1 is no longer supported by Adobe?

Thanks very much in advance for your help,
Lynn