Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended and Framemaker 9 vs. Framemaker 9 and Adobe PDFMaker Plugin

[Fred Ridder]

Where to start...

 

First of all, PDFMaker is not involved in producing PDFs from Adobe applications. Some Adobe apps (e.g. InDesign and Illustrator) have PDF generation built into the app itself and don't need *any* additional softeare components. Other Adobe apps (e.g. FrameMaker) come bundled with the Distiller component to support PDF generation. But it is important to note that this bundled version of Distiller is *not* PDFMaker. 

 

PDFMaker is an set of enhanced Distiller interfaces for *non-Adobe* apps like Lotus Notes and the various apps in the MS Office suite. The obvious thing that PDFMaker does is to install an "Adobe PDF" menu in the user interface of the non-Adobe tool to make it more straightforward to produce a PDF (i.e. via a single button click).  [This capability is unnecessary in FrameMaker because Frame has both a Save As PDF command and the ability to print to the Adobe PDF virtual printer built into it.]  What is less obvious is that for tools like MS Word, PDFMaker also provides a tighter coupling between the source document and the Distiller component so that cross-references and hyperlinks in the source document are handled in the PDF as working hyperlinks. [This capability is also unnecessary in FrameMaker because Frame is PDF-aware and has the "Include Acrobat Data" option in its own Print dialog.]

 

What is apparently causing you some confusion is that the Distiller *component* (the executable that does the distillation of PostScript into PDF) is separate from the Distiller *application* and its user interface. You get the same Distiller component whether you have the version bundled with FrameMaker (which has no independent user interface), the Standard version of Acrobat (which has a UI that supports standard features like job options, font embedding, etc. but does *not* support watched folders), or the Pro or Extended versions of Acrobat (which have a UI that *does* support watched folders). 

 

Having said all that, the embedded/bundled version of Distiller does support the use of job options files, but does so through the Windows printer driver interface. You select the Adobe PDF virtual printer, then click Preferences in the Windows Print dialog. I don't have a system handy that does not have a full version of Acrobat installed, so I am not sure whether you can edit the preferences with the bundled Distiller, but you certainly can select from among the job options files that are on the system. But the bundled version of Distiller does *not* support watched folders because that is a feature that is specific to the Professional and Extended (not Standard) versions of the Acrobat toolset and their freestanding versions of the Distiller app.

-Fred Ridder


 
> From: info at spectrumwritingllc.com
> To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Subject: Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended and Framemaker 9 vs. Framemaker 9 and Adobe PDFMaker Plugin
> Date: Tue, 4 May 2010 19:50:49 -0600
> 
> All,
> 
> 
> 
> Two systems - both Win 7, 64-bit. 
> 
> 
> 
> System 1 - Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended and Framemaker 9 (both patched and
> current)
> 
> System 2 - Framemaker 9 and Adobe PDFMaker Plugin (FM9 fully patched and
> current)
> 
> 
> 
> For System 1, because I have installed Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended and
> Framemaker 9 as separate and standalone components, I obviously have access
> to Distiller 9 as a standalone component. I can open Distiller, set watched
> folders, set job options, etc.
> 
> 
> 
> For System 2, the user does not have Acrobat 9, so at the prompt to install
> the Adobe PDFMaker Plugin (which provides the ability to create PDFS from FM
> files, and other programs such as PPT), the user of course said yes;
> however, since Acrobat Distiller is installed as part of a plugin, it does
> not show in the Start menu, the program files directory, etc., so how on
> earth can you set up watched folders, set up job options, etc? The Save as
> PDF function works just fine, but I still located the Distiller .exe here:
> C:\Program File(x86)\Adobe\Acrobat 9 , and if you double-click on the entry
> for Distiller.exe, Distiller doesn't open independently, if you right-click
> on the Distiller.exe entry and save Send to Desktop as Shortcut, nothing
> happens. I am assuming that it is for some reason because Distiller is
> installed as part of a plugin and isn't truly a standalone app. under these
> circumstances. Basically, I can't figure out how to get Distiller open on
> its own so that I can set up watched folders, set job options, etc? Is this
> not at all possible when using the PDFMaker Plugin with FM9 versus
> installing it with Acrobat 9 or what am I missing?
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks so much!
> 
> 
> 
> TVB
> 
> 
> 
> Tammy Van Boening
> 
> Owner/Principal
> 
> Spectrum Writing, LLC
> 
> www.spectrumwritingllc.com
> 
> info at spectrumwritingllc.com
> 
> 
> 
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