[Framers] Configuring FrameMaker default page size (with or without vm ware)

[techcommtools.com]

Hi Steve, 

By happy coincidence you can thank Bernt Lie for the following Modifying the base FrameMaker template addition to my Fm 2017 reference book. 
http://amzn.to/2pTxTbk 

While reviewing the book for me, he requested the exact thing you’re asking about. I’ve also included a short Editing maker.ini section

Of course, the material is much more easily professionally laid out within the book! 

Editing maker.ini
To edit maker.ini, do the following:
Close FrameMaker. 
There are two maker.ini files. You will find maker.ini in these locations:
The installation directory. Your application’s copy of maker.ini file might be in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe FrameMaker 2017
The user directory. On Windows 8.1, your personal maker.ini file might be in
C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\FrameMaker\14
Edit only one of the maker.ini files. 

If a setting is displayed in both maker.ini files, the settings in maker.ini in the Documents and Settings folder take precedence over the settings in the FrameMaker folder. 

Create a backup of maker.ini.
Open the original maker.ini file in a text editor such as Notepad or PSPad.
Scroll down until you find the setting you want to change. The sections that follow describe some recommended changes.
Edit the text, then save maker.ini. Your changes are saved and applied the next time you open FrameMaker.

Modifying the base FrameMaker template
At or about line 249 in the maker.ini file is a setting for the default file used when creating a new FrameMaker document. By default file the file is specified as custom, and has no .fm extension on the file name. To alter the physical attributes of a new FrameMaker document, you can open the file directly from the fminit directory, change as needed (for instance, you could change the page size to A4, or set the display of rulers, text symbols, borders as desired) and then save changes to the document. To ensure the file acts appropriately, do one of the following:
Save changes to the custom file (creating a file called custom.fm) and then modify the file name to remove the .fm extension
Modify the maker.ini file to look for the modified file name (custom.fm)

Save changes to custom as something like customA4 or customA4.fm, and modify the maker.ini file to match the specified name

I recommend this last option, as it retains the original custom file, in case you ever want to revert to the standard FrameMaker behavior.


-Matt

Matt R. Sullivan 
Tech Comm Tools

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> On May 2, 2017, at 2:35 AM, Steve Rickaby <srickaby at wordmongers.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> 
>  I need to do a trivial config to set the default page size to A4 rather than US Letter. I looked at the Adobe documentation, but the files it seemed to suggest I could modify (C:...FmInstallDir/fminit/maker) turned out to be a directory containing a couple of files that appear to be binary: tmpltbrw and tmpltbrw_s.
> 
> Can someone point me in the direction of an idiot's guide to changing the default printer page size, and/or the actual ASCII file for configuring FrameMaker's startup defaults? Or does this originate with Windows itself? I'm on Windows 7 Pro in Parallels Desktop 9.
> 
> I wouldn't mind so much if the page size was stored with the document, but it isn't.