Framemaker's future

Hi there.
I'm a Doc Lead for a large IT company. I've been tasked w/ finding another tool/software to use for creating and maintaining a large (800 page) document (right now, they use Word, and it can't handle this file, which is basically a user's manual). I was going to go w/ Framemaker, but I just heard today that it might be on the way out. Is this true - Framemaker may not be supported by Adobe in the future? Is InDesign a better option?
I'm a newbie on here, so any insight is greatly appreciated. I think the big wigs want an answer soon, too (of COURSE they just gave it to me...)
Thanks!!!

Like Mike, I've been hearing these "end of FrameMaker" rumours for more than 10 years now, so no need to worry. Indeed, I've seen RJ Jacquez, the Adobe evangelist, present FrameMaker 10 at the tekom tcworld2010 conference.
If you really want to "play it safe", you could convert your Word file to DITA XML topics. You can still edit and publish these with FrameMaker and, if you don't like FrameMaker for some reason (which I'd doubt), you could use a different editor without having to convert your files to some other binary format again. Moreover, since you work for a large IT company, other stakeholders may even like the fact that the content is in an XML format.
If you'd like to know more about DITA or if you'd like to see how your content would look like in DITA, feel free to send me your Word file and I'll create a small prototype for you.
Kind regards
Yves Barbion
Managing Director
Adobe-Certified FrameMaker & DITA Instructor
www.scripto.nu

Similar Messages

InDesign CS3 vs. Framemaker/Ventura

Has anyone used InDesign CS3 for producing long, text-intensive, books? How does it compare to Framemaker or Ventura? Will InDesign handle multi-page tables, for example? Is it possible to rotate multi-page tables 90 degrees (landscape table on a portrait page) without breaking them? What about footnotes, endnotes, etc.? Comments from users with experience in all three would be most welcome.

bbsydney --
Given your description of your project -- a long, structured book composed of many text files and many images -- I'd think that Ventura would probably work best for you, simply because I just think it's by far the best software package out there for that type of job.
But as a long-time Ventura user -- and big-time Ventura fan -- I'd advise you to use InDesign instead, for the very concerns you've given. I'm not plugged in to the Corel community nearly as much as others, but I haven't heard any glimmer of hope from anyone that Corel plans to do anything with Ventura in the future. A big problem is that Ventura was written using a lot of Draw 10 code, but now that Draw is at version 14, I suspect Corel won't want to expend a lot of resources to completely overhaul Ventura to create a new version for it.
My biggest concern over Ventura's future is exactly what you've mentioned: that it won't be usable at all seven to 10 years down the road when Bill Gates rolls out a new OS. I know several Ventura users who say it runs just fine on Vista, but there's a great deal of doubt as to whether it will run at all on the next OS generations.
I guess it's possible that Adobe will stop producing publishing software in the future, but this seems unlikely given that ID has become such a dominant player. On the other hand, Corel effectively stopped producing publishing software over five years ago.
This is actually why I'm here at all on Adobe's site. I've reached the point where I feel I need to explore other options since I'm uncertain whether Ventura will be a future option for me at all. I have several projects I may not ever move to ID, but I at least want to know what it will take to do so in case I ever need to.
You also asked about FrameMaker, which I also looked at briefly for my projects. I found that even the latest version of it couldn't handle several important tasks I would need it to do for the types of products I publish which, like yours, are research-based and include numerous text files/articles, tables, figures, and images. My understanding is that FrameMaker is primarily used by book publishers who need to be able to pour mainly text into a long, highly structured documents. But my experience with it was that it just couldn't do what I would need it to do in terms of producing complex tables and efficiently laying out magazine spreads, which are the tasks that take up the most of our production time.
I don't think FrameMaker's future is as bleak as Ventura's, but on the other hand Adobe recently released a long-awaited new version of it and apparently it didn't exactly blow its users away with a slew of new capabilities and features. Like Corel, Adobe seems to not be sure what to do with FrameMaker. Unlike Corel, however, Adobe does actually know FrameMaker exists...
Hope this helps.

FrameMaker Compatible with Mac in Future?

Is anyone aware if future versions of FrameMaker will ever be compatible with a Mac? I used to work on a Windows computer, and I really enjoyed using FrameMaker to create Install/User Manuals. I work on a Mac now, and I am just wondering if it will ever be available with a Mac.
Thanks!

Bonnie Scheckner wrote:
Thank you for your response peter at knowhowpro. I know it is possible to run FrameMaker from Windows on a Mac, but specifically I was wondering if there are any plans to make future versions of FrameMaker compatible with a Mac. Your response is still quite helpful. I may have to switch to InDesign. Thank you!
You're welcome, Bonnie.
You're pointing out that I didn't REALLY answer your question, because I didn't say something like, "If there are plans, anybody who knows can't tell, as they'd be committed to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and violating the agreement would cause the person to lose all participation in any Adobe NDA thereafter."
I answered obliquely by suggesting a Google search for past discussions on the issue, as there are many reasons for why Adobe probably wouldn't even consider the task, as well as suggestions of how easy, theoretically, it would be for Adobe to tweak a few things, and magically have FrameMaker for Mac.
Except for the cost of Windows (if using the free Apple BootCamp) or the additional cost of Parallels or Fusion, and perhaps adding RAM, FrameMaker in Windows on Mac is almost a perfect reproduction of FrameMaker in Windows on a PC.
I'm writing a book on InDesign for FrameMaker users. Try the Google search I suggested for views, experiences, and opinions from those who've thought about this move, as well as those who/ve taken the step across the line. If you do make the move, post your questions and discoveries on the InDesign user forum.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices

Framemaker link to open a PDF doc (internet link) on spcific page?

Hey guys,
I have a Framemaker book (that will eventually be a PDF book) and I want a document file in the FM book to have a hyperlink to an EXTERNAL PDF, an internet address (http,) but I need the external PDF to open on a specific page, pg 24.
I can get the hyperlink to open the external PDF, but I cannot get the pdf to open on pg 24.
Any ideas?
Thanks!

What version of Acrobat do you have? This feature worked in Acrobat 6 and it works in 8.1.2. (It wasn't fixed in 8.0, don't remember about the other 8.x point releases.) It does NOT work in Acrobat 7.x. You do not need the quotation marks. There is an Acrobat thread about using named destinations (better to use than page numbers, if in the future the page number for the content might change), but this thread also touches on the use of the page reference in the link. See http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc5423d/32 - it might help. Another thing I don't know about is whether Frame does anything to that link during the Frame-to-PDF conversion. (It shouldn't, but I can't check this right now.)
So, if you are using Acrobat 7.x, you will need to upgrade. HTH, GMc

DHTML hotspots don't work when linked from Framemaker

I'm using Adobes Technical Communication Suite 4 on a 30-day trial to determine how well it will work for single-source publishing. I'm familiar with Robohelp (having used it for over a year) but have had almost no experience with Framemaker (and none with version 11, which is part of the suite).
Until now, we've been writing in Word and importing files into Robohelp. We use the Dynamic HTML features of Robohelp to create drop-down and expanding text (usually to provide the definition of a term). Word doesn't provide a way to create them, so it has to be done in Robohelp after import. However, with Framemaker, I should be able to create these features in FM have them appear in a linked RH file. There is a Framemaker menu to support their creation.
But when I attempt to do this, it doesn't work. The " text caption" (that the user clicks on to see the expanded or drop-down text) imports correctly into RH, but the expansion does not work. When clicking on the caption text in the HTML preview, the only thing that happens is that a single space appears where the drop-down text should be. The drop-down text itself remains invisible. (But I know it's there because I can find it in the HTML source code view.)
I am probably doing something wrong when I set this up in FM. Here is my procedure.
First, I type the text that will be clickable by the user to elicit the drop-down (this is what I presume Adode means by "text caption"). Then, in a new paragraph, I type the text that is intended to be displayed in the drop-down.
The instructions (for drop-down text) in the help say:
"Select the text or paragraph on which you want to place the drop-down text caption. "
So I select the "text caption" text.
"Select Adobe RoboHelp > Dynamic HTML Effects > Drop Down Caption"
I select that menu choice.
"Select the text that should appear as drop-down text in your online help page."
I select the next paragraph, which contains the drop-down text.
"Select Adobe RoboHelp > Dynamic HTML Effects > Drop Down Body"
I select that menu choice.
I save the file and then switch to Robohelp and update the linked file.
The "text caption" then appears in the RH file, but the drop-down text does not appear (except in the HTML source code).
What am I doing wrong?

Problem solved, through experimentation.
For the benefit of those who may experience this problem in the future: the secret is that there must be exactly one return (i.e. one press of the Enter key) between the "text caption" and the "drop-down text".
If the text caption and drop-down text are on the same line, it doesn't work (the coding for the text caption is disrupted) and if there is anything besides a return between them, it doesn't work (the drop-down text is not displayed).

Creating an epub file from a Framemaker 10 document

Are there special tools I have to have to turn a Framemaker document into an epub file format?
Thank you.

I did some experimenting with this a few months ago.
The basis of the epub format is XHTML. There are free tools (such as Calibre) that do a good job converting from (X)HTML to epub (and other e-book formats).
If you have one book to do it is probably quickest just to grab the text and reformat with an HTML editor, then process with Calibre or similar.
Using other tools, such as Robohelp, MIF2Go, or FrameMaker’s built-in Save as HTML, would take some time to set up properly, and would therefore be worthwhile if you had a number of books to do that were similarly constructed.
If planning for the future it might be worth considering using XHTML as the base format (i.e. finalising the text in this form) and repurposing either to epub or to print via FrameMaker, or both, as required.
That was my conclusion, at any rate. You need to look at it in your own context, of course.

How can I get XML cross-references to translate to Structured FrameMaker?

I've been using Structured FrameMaker from the beginning, and have designed many EDDs, and about 10 years ago I did some translation of SGML into Structured FrameMaker (7.2) which worked well.
Now, (with FrameMaker 10), I've had to design an EDD to translate XML documents into Structured FrameMaker.
In my EDD I've a CrossReference element called XRef; this has an attribute of ID, which in turn has a value of IDReference and has Special AttributeConrols of ReadOnly.
My target elements in the EDD all have an ID attribute with a value of UniqueID.
My XML document's target xref element has an attribute of linkend, and in XML this works as I'd expect.
When I pass the XML file through the EDD/Template, everything works except that I get an ID = no value, which, of course, results in no display of the cross-reference data in the document.
Oddly, in structured FrameMaker, my element of link, with an attribute of linkend, works as it should, and displays the data. It may not be important, but the value for linkend is IDReference not UniqueID, and this displays correctly (I changed this attribute's value to Unique ID in my EDD and it made no difference to the XRef value in my document).
After making all these EDD changes, I've been careful to save the changes, import them to all files in my book and finally update the book.   Everything hangs together - except, of course, that the cross-reference doesn't work.
I'd sincerely appreciate any help or advice other users might have because I'm quite frankly stumped.

Russ,
Sorry about the delay in replying; got sidetracked trying to fix some FrameMaker 10 problems; on occasion, it laughs and crashes if we copy an element in a document and paste it to somewhere illegal. This doesn't happen all the time, but it might be something someone might do, so it was interesting to know.
Anyway, back to cross-references.
In our r/w rules we have:
"linkend" is fm attribute "ID";
Can we also have a similar line under the cross-reference element as:
element "xref"
     is fm cross-reference element "XRef";
     attribute "linkend" is fm property cross-reference id;
     attribute "role" is fm property cross-reference format;
At the moment the second line is:
.....attribute ID is fm property cross-reference id;
I tried adding the attribute "linkend" is fm property cross-reference id; (so that I had both linkend and ID) bit but this made no difference.
In general use cross-references work, in that it picks up data in one place in the document, e.g. WorldWideWeb, and repeats it elsewhere.   So in our xml file we have a link element with an attribute linkend which, when it's processed (ignoring the handshake code used to link the two - which could be something vague like 12345vvdog), repeats whatever is the target.
Conversely, for a cross-reference, in xml they use an xref element which also has a linkend attribute (similar mysterious secret handshake behind the scenes) which is deemed to point to a list of references.   This looks like it might be the stumbling block in that it links to an area in the xml document which is used as an internally generated list of references. Apparently this is only built when the xml book equivelent is finalised, so is not, like the link and linkend coupling described above.
I've passed this back to the xml people, and they are investigating a different way of preparing their cross-reference to a list of references (I'm now thoroughly confused with all these references - good thing the weekend's just around the corner).
I appreciate all you help and advice, I'll admit that this is a lot more difficult to understand than straight-forward EDD element creation along with their respective attributes.   Life used to be so much more simple back then!
In sum, what I thought I was doing was allowing an ID attribute with a value of IDReference in my elements, this was deemed to allow for FrameMaker cross-referencing.   In Structured FrameMaker, on its own, this works just fine; it all fell flat on its face when trying to import xml.   I tried to see whether the xref element's ID attribute could also be a UniqueID, but as just about everyone has said, this is a silly idea.   I was just trying stuff to see whether it might make a difference - you'll not be surprised to see that it didn't!
For the moment, I have attributes called ID with a value of IDReference, and I understand you're all suggesting to leave it at that.
If I understand correctly, I could eventually use an IDRef attribute if I wanted a UniqueID value to be used, though I'm not sure what a UniqueID is used or useful for, so will file that for future use.
Again, thanks for the advice and help.
Chris

FrameMaker 8.0p277 Crashes When Creating Postscript Files

We have an automated process that was internally created in FrameMaker 8.0p277 that takes a FrameMaker Book file that contains a large number of individual mutual fund files and breaks out each mutual fund into an individual file using the fund’s unique product code, removes sector tabs, and removes page numbers, then creates a postscript file. The user selects the functionality from a menu choice within an internally created “Marketing” menu on the FrameMaker menu bar. It is not functioning properly.
Instead it is generating error messages.
Adobe FrameMaker (Structured): FrameMaker.exe - Application Error:
The instruction at "0x00cc1940" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The memory could not be "read". Click on OK to terminate the program.
and
Error:
Internal Error 8004, 6343116, 8 483344, 0. FrameMaker has detected a serious problem and must quit.
A file named "C:\Program Files\Adobe\FrameMaker8\FrameLog_11.10.17_07.52.51.txt" has been generated which contains information that may help Frame development improve the product for future release.
We have looked at the FrameLog_11.10.17_07.52.51.txt but it is not helping us diagnose the issue.
Can you help us determine what the problem is and how to resolve it?
Thanks for your help.

blgeorge,
you say: »It is not functioning properly.« Did it work before? What changed since then? What operating system are you using? If it is XP, have you ever installed the Microsoft printer driver hotfix?
<http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2008/07/hotfix_for_framemaker_1.html>
- Michael

FrameMaker 8 Table subheads

I am working with Structured FrameMaker 8. I need to redesign a table so that the rows in the table that display subheads are formatted differently from the table header. The table header has white text on a 100% blue background. The subheads need to be white text on a 30% blue background. The number of rows that appear under each subhead vary, and these rows need to have black text on a white background. How do I create the table subheads? The tables are created automatically when an xml file is imported into FrameMaker.
I am thinking that I can create the subhead 30% blue bar by creating a graphic on the reference page, and then applying it to a paragragh tag. The problem with this is that I can’t figure out how to offset the text so that it is centered vertically in the subhead bar.
Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Art,
let's try to keep things separated:
- I'm not sure *when* the fntcache.dat gets deleted, if you're using a corresponding batch file on STARTUP. To my best knowledge this might be too late, the previous fntcache.dat is already loaded.
- There is no mechanism that can be used to prevent a rebuild of this file, so the question based on "...not rebuilt..." is misleading. The fntcache.dat will be rebuilt in any case.
- The working solution is deleting the file on shutdown. On startup the system either reads no file (hear the system saying "ok, there's nothing I could read now, but I should repair this for future use) or an empty file (system says: "I can't believe this file is empty, I'll have to repair this, but I'm going to accept it for now"). The system does definitely *not* use all the information which (during the next steps of starting up) it will put into the fntcache.dat file in order to rebuild it.
In short words (without having any programmer's knowledge or insight into Windows mysteria), for me the startup process looks like this:
- Switch computer on
- boot and do whatever a PC does on startup
- read fntcache.dat
- rebuild fntcache.dat, if missing, but DON'T read it in again at this time
- continue doing, whatever a PC does...
You see, the trick is only working, because the rewritten fntcache.dat is NOT being read after rebuild. Keep your fingers crossed they don't "fix" this before the ugly FM/PDF bug is fixed.
Regards,
Bernd

What kind of computer specs are required to smoothly run CS5 and future versions?

Hello,
I'm in search of a new laptop for running CS5. I checked the Adobe site for system specs (http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/design/tech-specs.html) and they look ridiculous -- I stopped reading at 1 GB RAM...
So my question is what should the system be like in order to smoothly run CS5 and the future versions CS6 and maybe even 7? I read that there have been problems with i7 processors. Is it true?
This far I have found:
- nVidia Quadro graphics card (are there different versions of this? how much memory the card should have?)
- 64bit Windows 7
- memory? how much is sufficient? 6 GB? Memory type/speed specs?
- processor? i5 or i7 or some else? (I'm in search of a laptop)
- SSD HD drive or 7200 rpm HD?
Our company laptop brand is Dell and I tried to look for a suitable model. However, very few had the nVidia Quadro graphics card
Usage:
The laptops are mostly used for website and DTP publishing, photo editing, drawing (=Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) but also for technical documentation (Framemaker). To some extent also video editing is done, but not yet very often. However, there are plans for this too. We also run MS SQL Express in some computers to run company-specific software. And of course the normal Office 2010 package. Virus scanner used is McAfee.

Hello,
I too agree with the points Mylenium stated. We have discussed about multiple computers (desktop & laptop), but people don't like the mess it would cause in terms of file syncronization etc. And it would also mean double effort for the IT to maintain all the software updates etc. in that many computers. We do work quite a lot in meetings etc. and work and collaborate directly with using these programs. So it would mean double work to first make notes in a meeting and then do work in another computer according to the notes. So the decision of using a good laptop is not random but thought.
Our current laptops were selected in the CS2 era and they have survived well updates up to CS4. I haven't yet tested what CS5.5 would do in terms of performance and usability. The idea of changing and configuring a computer every year according to the latest models and software requirements does not sound good. That's why I stated the point that the computer to be selected should survive at least a few CS updates.
SSDs. I don't see them pricely at all. We've changed SSDs to the current laptops and they increased their lifetime by at least two years. Incredible increase in speed! I really do recommend SSDs and would not even consider using mechanical drives anymore. In general I don't see the price of the laptop as problem -- it costs a lot more to configure and install the computer than the price of the computer. And if the computer is slow and/or needs to be changed often to a new model, it costs even more in lost employee performance.
So conclusion up to now:
- Win 7 64 bit
- 8 GB memory
- SSD drive
- min i5 processor
- Graphics card? Mobile Quadro NVS 3100M?
So the current computer model could be:
Dell E6410
- Intel Core™ i7-640M
- NVIDIA® NVS 3100M 512MB gDDR3
- 14.1” WXGA+ LED Display (1440x900)
- 8 GB dual channel DDR3 memory, 1 333 MHZ
- 128 GB SSD

FrameMaker - CMS - RoboHelp

Hello, hoping someone can answer this one for me. I am using TCS v3.
We create documents using Structured FM, which are currently imported into RoboHelp, but we would like to move toward linking the files in the near future. Currently, we are looking into using a CMS like Alfresco with FrameMaker. I have been unable to find a way to link the files that are checked out via the CMS into FrameMaker with RoboHelp. What I would like to do is as follows: Create Structured Frame file and upload into CMS for editing / reviewing by multiple authors, link this file into RoboHelp, have any changes made to the file after check out / check in using CMS be reflected in the linked RoboHelp file.
Is anyone aware of a way to do this outside of having to pull the files off the CMS to link them in RoboHelp, then copy them out of the CMS each time they are changed? I am looking into using Alfresco, but am definitely open to other CMS if they can accomplish what I need to do.

By CMS, do you mean what software should you use to produce your electronic output from Fm?
In Fm12, you can do the lion's share of formats directly from the app, including Responsive HTML5. The process is analogous to what you're currently doing with Rh, so if you already have that set up, you will have a few admin advantages to maintaining that workflow.
Other options exist like:
mif2go (as Arnis mentioned)
webworks
import each time into Flare
and each have their own issues with setup, maintenance, and workflow. Having already invested in s/w and setup, I doubt you'd be happier by reinventing the wheel.

FrameMaker to InDesign conversion?

I have FrameMaker 7.2 and InDesign CS3. I have a few book projects in FrameMaker that I would like to convert over to CS3. However, one of them has extensive (hundreds) of cross-references (footnotes, basically), and the other has been indexed. I don't mind losing formatting, since I figure I'll be creating a new format in InDesign anyway, but I do mind losing the cross-references and the indexing.
Is there a way to import my FrameMaker files into InDesign that will retain cross-references and indexing?
What I've tried:
I tried saving a test FrameMaker file as RTF, text, and MIF, but InDesign didn't recognize any of these formats. (Though text and RTF would lose my indexing and cross-references, I was trying to see if InDesign would recognize ANY format.)
I found a service online that charges rather steeply for converting from FrameMaker to InDesign, but that isn't an option.
Thanks in advance for any help that is offered.
regards,
Marina

semiwool wrote:
But that tool didn't work with our test files. At the request of the DTP Tools folks, I ftp'd two of our archives. They acknowledged receiving them, but I haven't heard anything since. I'm guessing that these files are too complex for their filter. I should explain that these files began life as design-y Quark files, which were later converted to FrameMaker. So there are a lot of design elements you might not often find in FrameMaker documents.
InDesign table styles and table cell styles are very smart and offer more formatting options than FrameMaker, but InDesign doesn't sort tables, and doesn't have the FrameMaker column-width settings like "make current column same width as column x," or "make selected column(s) as wide as its longest text line."
Here's where I get really confused: ID tables.
In FrameMaker, the Table Tag contains the information about rules. But when I build rule information into an ID Table Style, nothing happens. I get no rules at all unless I ALSO specify rules in the Cell Style. What am I missing here?
Also, this business of associating cell styles and paragraph styles seems like an unnecessary pain to me. What am I missing here?
Also, ID doesn't make a distinction between the title block and heading rows, which is a problem for us because each of these elements is formatted differently in our tables.
Also, ID doesn't have the "table continuation" variable.
Whew! 8-)
There's an InDesign table-sorting script (search Google) somewhere around, but I don't think anyone's yet created scripts for these other features.
As always, submit format feature requests at https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform. The more requests they receive, the better chance it will happen sometime in a future release.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
The DTP Tools' MIF Filter for InDesign commercial plug-in converts conditional text and cross-references.
It's not surprising that non-standard FrameMaker methods and techniques don't convert well with a tool designed for standard FrameMaker, so the workarounds to wrangle Quark originals into FrameMaker may be helpful to the DTP Tools folks to work with going forward. It's always OK to drop a note to follow-up on their progress with your files.
Yes, InDesign turns certain table properties over to cells. Not necessarily better or worse than FrameMaker, just different. One example is that FrameMaker's paragraph format Table Cell margin property is a Table Cell offset property in InDesign. That's consistent with InDesign's text frame offset property; FrameMaker has no text offset property within a text frame that corresponds to this InDesign property.
FrameMaker table formats save the paragraph formats in the first row of table cells. When you create a new FM table with a given format, the last-created table's number of header and body rows, and table columns, are the initial suggestions; the first row of cells has the saved paragraph formats, and so do the additional rows.
True, InDesign tables have no title element. Using the paragraph in which you create the table for the title text probably will do the same thing as your FrameMaker table titles. Search Google for "indesign table continuation variable" without quotes for tips on emulating them.
You'll get used to the fact that these two products are different. One major difference you'll probably see going forward, is that the familar basic FrameMaker tool set that you've grown used to, isn't going to change markedly, even as its user interface, interactive-media options, outputs and frameworks like XML, DITA, etc, do change; compare this to InDesign's steady growth in technical-publishing features, release-by-release. The more you make use of the feature request form, the more likely you'll see some of your requests come to a future release.
HTH
Regards,
Peter
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices

Remapping TrueType Fonts in Framemaker 9.0 maker.ini

Greetings, forum community.
When attempting to embed non-base 14 fonts in PDFs using Pitstop v7.52, I receive a notice that no TrueType version could be located.
I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong) that the solution is to remap the unavailable font (in this case Arial, Bold) to an available font (Helvetica, Bold) in the Framemaker maker.ini file.
My entry in the maker.ini file is as follows:
Arial, Bold, *, *=Helvetica, Bold, *, *, *
Alternately, I could use Arial MT.
Neither, however, seems to work as I've mapped it. Upon generating a PDF, I still receive an error from Pitstop saying it was unable to embed the font.
Can anyone easily see where I may be messing up and offer a solution?
Thanks, as always, and best regards.
JMW

Unfortunately, I'm only vaguely familiar with Pitstop. I used it for a short
time years ago, but remember little about it. But I do recall that it is an
Acrobat plugin and therefore uses Acrobat to produce the PDF. So check your
"PDF presets" (.joboptions settings) in Acrobat Distiller because there is a
dialogue that lets you specify fonts that will never embed. Some of the
default Adobe PDF presets, including (if I remember right) even the Standard
options, have some fonts set in there to never embed (it assumes that
everyone has them on their computer already) and that may include the fonts
you are having problems with. If this is the case, just move the fonts from
the "never embed" column into the "always embed" column to fix your problem.
Then save as a custom PDF preset to use in the future. You can also save the
changes to the current preset, but I seem to recall that Acrobat updates
have recently started resetting some user settings without permission. So
you may find that changes you made have disappeared in the future if you
don't save as a custom preset!

Trouble with FrameMaker 9 fonts

I have a user that is trying to
open a file but he keeps getting an error msg stating "Document named "whateverthefilenameis".fm uses unavailable fonts. To reformat the document the using avaiable fonts, click ok." It was also give a message of "FrameMaker did not update the generated files in '133 Baseline.book' because of errors during the update process."
I can't find any information on this. any help would be greatly appreciated.

When you open a file that uses fonts that are NOT on the user's system, you get the message about unavailable fonts. This is usually the desired response, especially if the file is worked on by different users, each with a different set of fonts. It allows the user who does not have the fonts to edit the file without changing the fonts.
That being said, sometimes users feel they have all the correct fonts, but still get the message. This typically occurs when one is changing all the fonts from one version of a font (say Times) to another version (say Times New Roman). This means that somewhere in the file, there is at least one reference to the unavailable font, typically somewhere on one of the reference pages or master pages. So, if one wants to get all the unavailable fonts converted to available fonts, then one has to search through the entire file to find them. If it is a simple conversion, say from Times to Times New Roman, then you can open the preferences and unselect the warning about unavailable fonts, open the file and let Frame do the conversion, then save the file with the new fonts, and change the preferences back for safety with future files.
If a book file has one or more files that use unavailable fonts and you update the book, then you get the message about Frame's being unable to update the book due to errors. The errors are the unavailable fonts. If you do NOT want to change the fonts to available ones, open all the files in the book first, then update the book. You will get the unavailable fonts message for each file as you open it up, but not while updating the book, because the files are already open.
Hope this helps,
Van

Floating Objects a la Framemaker (CS4ME Win7bit64)

Hello,
I'm working on a book with hundreds of anchored objects that are pictures of varying sizes.
In Framemaker and LaTex there is a feature called "floating objects." This will take your anchored objects and place them in the nearest vacant top-of-page slot available. Meanwhile, the regular main text continues flowing where the anchored object was, eliminating ugly white gaps.
Since this feature does not exist in InDesign, what do people do in such cases?
The manual workaround is to turn the graphics into regular objects (not anchored objects), and paste them where necessary. This is going to be very tedious, and extremely inflexible if there are any late edits.
Are there any clever workarounds in InDesign? Or scripts or plugins that help in such a situation?
Thanks for any tips,
Ariel

Any tips and suggestions would be welcome! We're talking a book full of pictures (1 or 2 a page). The pictures should ideally sit at the top of the pages, as near as possible to their first reference in the main text. I'm trying to keep things as flexible as possible, so that the inevitable future edits will not entail manually repositioning each graphic.
Thoughts, tips, suggestions, scripts & plugins all welcome!
Thanks,
Ariel
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