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Misha Ko
Misha Ko
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SetPrint plugin from Sundorne Communications (www.sundorne.com)

Jan 5, 2011 9:22 AM

I recently downloaded this plug-in and now, whenever I open FM 9 ( ^ p255), the little console opens up to announce that the plugin

has actually been installed, meaning the Adobe PDF printer driver **should be** my default for FrameMaker.

 

Only it doesn't seem to work. The File > Print Setup dialogue window shows that my only ADOBE PDF option is:

 

Adobe PDF Converter

 

I have TC 2 with Windows 7. When I went to the Windows 7 Control Panel, I noticed that FrameMaker, Acrobat (9 Pro Extended), and Distiller

don't even show up in the Programs (Install/Uninstall a Program) list. The only thing there is *Technical Communication Suite.*

 

Could that have messed up the (free) Sundorne plug-in?

 

Distiller is actually functional, through the FM "print to file" option, but I can't find the Distiller driver to make it the default PS printer. The

IT guy here doesn't have a lot of experience with Postscript printer drivers, and not much time to help.

 

The last time I generated a PDF using Distiller, I went to check the properties of the output file in Win Explorer, and the extension

for the file name was *.prn, not *.ps. Right-clicking the file to find out the "open with" association in Windows only presented me

with ONE option --------> Autodesk DWF Application, which opens Autodesk Design Review 2011.

 

I recently installed a 30-day trial version of Autodesk Inventor Publisher, which might be responsible for that conflict. FM is

crashing once in a while (the Paragraph Designer pallete freezes up), and yesterday Acrobat informed me that the OCR

plug-in was no longer available, and I'd need to re-install Acrobat.

 

At the moment, I'm not sure I'd know how to find and install the right printer driver, even if I uninstalled every Autodesk application

on this box, first.

 

I'm only running the "free trial demo" version of the Autodesk software, so I'm not looking for a lot of support from that corner.

 

 

.......Help?  Please?

885 Views   10 Replies   Latest reply: Misha Ko, Jan 5, 2011 2:32 PM
 
Replies
  • Jeff_Coatsworth
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    1. Jeff_Coatsworth,
    Jan 5, 2011 9:51 AM   in reply to Misha Ko
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    Is the Adobe PDF printer name listed in your printer list in Windows? If not, that could be your issue. I seem to remember that I had to tweak the ini file to make sure it read Adobe PDF. BTW - you can turn off the console notification if it's bugging you.

     
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  • Misha Ko
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    2. Misha Ko,
    Jan 5, 2011 10:30 AM   in reply to Jeff_Coatsworth
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    The pull-down list in FM shows an Adobe PDF driver, but I'm pretty sure it's the dumbed down, numbskull, Windows-only "PDF Converter" iteration.

     

    That's what it says it is in the FM "Print" window, and the postscript file shows up with that *PRN extension.

     

    The output file did produce a perfectly find PDF, but I'm pretty sure not having the default printer set up the right way is messing up TC2.

     

    But I'll take a look at the maker.ini file to see what it says.

     

    Thanks,

     

    Mike

     
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  • Jeff_Coatsworth
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    3. Jeff_Coatsworth,
    Jan 5, 2011 10:55 AM   in reply to Misha Ko
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    I'm not sure what you're talking about - I've got the SetPrint plug-in installed and my FM > Print Setup screen looks like this:

     

    pan.png

     

    and my FM > Print Document screen looks like this:

     

    prnt doc.png

     

    It works fine when invoking Acrobat Pro

     
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  • Misha Ko
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    4. Misha Ko,
    Jan 5, 2011 11:24 AM   in reply to Jeff_Coatsworth
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    Maybe Adobe's changed the names around, or it doesn't make any difference any more.

     

    Mine says "Adobe PDF Converter" under Print Setup > Type, too.

     

    Back in the days of Acrobat 5 and FM 5.5, that was what the *E-Z PDF Maker* 4 MS WORD used to be called,

    and it wasn't a Postscript driver.

     

    I have Win 7, so my windows look different, and the conflicts must be different, too.

     
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  • Jeff_Coatsworth
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    5. Jeff_Coatsworth,
    Jan 5, 2011 11:41 AM   in reply to Misha Ko
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    Yes, I do believe Acrobat called the PDF printer something different back then. But now it's just "Adobe PDF". Re-reading your original post, what's the problem you're having? The issue with the Paragraph Designer is known and there are a few threads that describe a workaround for it on the forum.

    You can tell if the SetPrint plug in is working if your Windows default printer is set to some physical printer and when you check inside FM, it's set to Adobe PDF.

    If you just tell your .fm doc to print (not print to file), does Acrobat Pro kick in and create a PDF for you? If that doesn't happen, maybe you need to fix your Windows file associations so that .ps files are opened by Acrobat Pro.

     
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  • Misha Ko
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    6. Misha Ko,
    Jan 5, 2011 12:12 PM   in reply to Jeff_Coatsworth
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    When I close FM with Print Setup @ Adobe PDF and then open up a brand new FM file from a template, the default printer comes in as

    the physical "main office printer" that's the WIN 7 default.

     

    Part of the solution to the CTRL + M freeze thing is supposed to be having the default FM printer set correctly.

     

    The other problem I see is that when I look at the postscript files that Distiller turns in to PDF's, in Win Explorer, the "file type" -- in between "Date

    Modified" and "File Size" -- sez "DWG True View Postscript Handler," which is the PS application in the Autodesk engineering software

    I've got on this box.

     

    The original question also related to my Control Panel Install/Uninstall Programs list showing just that one, big Adobe umbrella:

     

    Technical Communications Suite 2

     

    with all of the individual programs -- like Acrobat, FrameMaker, and Distiller -- hidden behind that one big listing.

     

    I'm obviously not an IT guy, so I'm not sure if that's a problem or not, but when I try to right-click that "DWG True View Postscript

    Handler" file, I get a Windows Security Alert popup (with the classy Red/Green/Blue/Yellow Heraldic Shield in the top corner), that

    lets me know that "Windows Firewall has blocked" some features of

     

    Program: Acrobat Distiller

     

    Publisher: Adobe Systems, Incorporated.

     

    Path: yaddayaddayadda...

     

    I’m not crashing through the Firewall, but haven't talked to the IT guy here about it, yet, who set it up? Or maybe the Autodesk

    app. installed that, I don't know.

     
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  • Jeff_Coatsworth
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    7. Jeff_Coatsworth,
    Jan 5, 2011 12:57 PM   in reply to Misha Ko
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    Ok, if that's happening then you haven't got the plug in installed correctly. My machine is perfectly happy to have a physical printer here in the office as its default while at the same time in FM, it's set to default to Adobe PDF. Try installing it again.

     

    I thought the freezing thing had something to do with docking the pods in your workspace environment or running the Windows Task Manager at the same time - not happening to me in any case.

     

    You've confirmed that you need to fix the association of .ps files to Acrobat instead of DWG True View PS Handler. Fix that in Explorer (Tools > Folder Options > File Types in XP).

     

    Some O/S's show TCS installed as a block, others as individual components - don't worry about that.

     
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  • Misha Ko
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    8. Misha Ko,
    Jan 5, 2011 1:41 PM   in reply to Jeff_Coatsworth
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    Yup, that's it. I'll have to look online someplace for a "Install Postscript PDF Printer" procedure. But will end up using

    different words in the final, lucky search.

     

    After the IT guy tells me how he wants that "Windows Firewall" thing taken care of, the the .ps association.

     
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  • Jeff_Coatsworth
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    9. Jeff_Coatsworth,
    Jan 5, 2011 1:51 PM   in reply to Misha Ko
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    But you've got Acrobat Pro Extended already installed, right? That should have installed your Adobe PDF printer all the things necessary to create PDFs all over the place.

    Did you already have earlier versions of Acrobat installed when you loaded TCS2? If so, you'll need to uninstall them all & reinstall the Acrobat Pro version that came in the suite. According to many Acrobat experts, you can't have multiple copies of Acrobat running on the same box very happily - they just don't play nice together.

     
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  • Misha Ko
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    10. Misha Ko,
    Jan 5, 2011 2:32 PM   in reply to Jeff_Coatsworth
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    Acrobat was uninstalled before TCS was loaded, that conflict goes waaay back to the Olden Days, too.

     

    I can make PDF's just fine, but there are some little things. The OCR plug-in stopped working yesterday,

    so I had to reboot the box, and when I tried a File > Export > Postscript > Encapsulated Postscript save,

    out of Acrobat, to generate a vector graphic, the file that was produced was nothing but one more 

    jumbled mess of pixels, in a rectangular box frame.

     

    ....I think. I don't have Illustrator, yet, but my freeware Inkscape program didn't recognize any points

    or nodes. (In fact Inkscape really seems like one lame set of tools, but maybe that's because of some

    of the other conflicts? I had to try uninstalling and re-installing Inkscape, earlier today, and haven't

    gotten back to it.)

     
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