Framemaker 7 can't "save as PDF" after Acrobat 6 Pro installed

Rick Simpson

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Jan 19, 2004, 3:28:17 PM1/19/04

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OS: WinXP SP1

When I had only FrameMaker 7.0 installed, I could save files as PDF with no difficulty. FrameMaker evidently installed the Distiller portion of Acrobat 5 and printed to the "Distiller printer" to generate PDF output.

Now I've installed the trial version of Acrobat 6.0 Professional, the full-blown PDF generation package. The install process prompted me to un-install Acrobat 5 (offered to do that for me). So I let it un-install Acrobat 5, installed Acrobat 6 Pro, and now I get this error message from FrameMaker 7 when trying to save a document as PDF:

"FrameMaker could not find Acrobat Distiller printer instance, which must be installed to execute Save as PDF command."

But there *is* an Acrobat Distiller printer instance, which shows up on the Printers and Faxes listing as "Auto Acrobat Distiller on ZCY". Looking at the Properties screen for this printer, I can't see anything that tells me whether this is in fact part of Acrobat 6 or something that didn't quite get un-installed from Acrobat 5. In any case, FrameMaker doesn't seem to see it.

The help for Acrobat 6 says that a Distiller printer instance is installed for backward compatibility, but doesn't say how I could install one myself.

How do I connect FrameMaker 7.0 to the new Acrobat 6.0 Professional for saving documents as PDF files?

Thanks,

Rick Simpson / IBM Research

Rick Simpson

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Jan 19, 2004, 3:46:52 PM1/19/04

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OK, I'll do it. What should I use as a starting point, though? Do I need to un-install Acrobat 6 and re-install FrameMaker 7.0 from the CD, so that the old Acrobat 5 will be there when the updates are applied? Or can I just apply the updates to FrameMaker 7.0 as it now sits on my system?

Rick Simpson

Dov Isaacs

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Jan 19, 2004, 3:39:52 PM1/19/04

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You must download and install all the FrameMaker 7.0 updates available from Adobe's web site. The last of those updates (which requires all the previous ones be fully installed) adds the ability to properly deal with Acrobat 6 (as well as Acrobat 5) to FrameMaker 7.0's "save as PDF" facility. Remember that FrameMaker 7 was release long before Acrobat 6 and the changes it brought (The "Acrobat Distiller" PostScript printer driver instance was replaced by "Adobe PDF".)

- Dov

Rick Simpson

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Jan 19, 2004, 4:31:08 PM1/19/04

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No, I uninstalled Acrobat 5 before installing Acrobat 6, as strongly suggested by the install program.

I've now applied the updates, and Save as PDF works as it should. No additional manual tweaking of printers, etc., was needed.

Thanks for the quick help.

Dov Isaacs

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Jan 19, 2004, 4:21:55 PM1/19/04

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Don't uninstall anything. Just apply the updates.

Note that if you installed Acrobat 6 without having first uninstalled Acrobat 5 (or Distiller 5), you should, post haste, uninstall Acrobat 6, uninstall Acrobat 5 (or Distiller 5), and then reinstall Acrobat 6. A few re-boots may be necessary in this process!

- Dov

Dov Isaacs

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Jan 19, 2004, 4:35:06 PM1/19/04

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Glad to be of assistance!

- Dov

Mark_...@adobeforums.com

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Jan 28, 2004, 10:29:55 PM1/28/04

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Okay...I'm running Framemaker 6.0 and I had the same problem you did, Rick, after I installed Acrobat 6.0 Professional. Lost my ability to Save As PDF...but I didn't get the error message that Frame 7 gave you. It just started saving, then silently quit.

Yes, I uninstalled Acrobat 5 before installing Acrobat 6 per recommendations.

Any chance there's updates for Frame 6 to cure this?

Dov Isaacs

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Jan 29, 2004, 12:31:10 AM1/29/04

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Yes, it is called FrameMaker 7 with all the updates.

- Dov