Why does FM XML Author 12 open instead of the full FM 12 in ATCS 5?

[david1Motio]

I've tried installing and re-installing and umpteen Live Chat sessions. I've tried calling Adobe Tech. Support. "Current wait time is between 57 minutes and 1 hour."

I've followed all of their instructions but still, bizarrely, when I click the "FrameMaker 12" option under the installed ATCS 5 folder (Start > All Applications), what opens is "FrameMaker XML Author 12," which cannot open .fm files and prompts me to "download the full program."

The last Live Chat person told me to uninstall ATCS 4, and then, when I logged in to the Adobe site again, I could click "License this Software."

No such link appeared. And now, we are stuck without a mission-cirtical software package, days before a release.

Unbelievable.

[MichaelKazlow]

I don't know if this will work. Go to Preferences->Global->General

On the Product Interface DropDown Menu Choose FrameMaker. Click OK. Then restart FrameMaker.

[Arnis_Gubins]

David,

As Mike mentions, all you need to do is to change your interface preferences - not re-install the application.

[david1Motio]

Michael and Arnis, thank you both very much! That did solve the problem

I'd consider it a pretty serious UX bug though to have it default to FM XML Author and, when a  user tries to open a .fm file, to display an error message that says, in effect, "Cannot open this file type. Download the full version of Framemaker, here (with link)."

At the very least, the program ought to be aware that the full program is already installed, and simply display a more accurate, helpful error message, like, "Traditional Framemaker files cannot open in the XML Author interface. Please update your product interface preferences. Under Edit > Preferences > Global > General, select FrameMaker from the Product Interface drop-down menu, click OK, and exit and restart FrameMaker."

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Log a bug report to get Adobe’s official attention – posting in the forums doesn’t qualify as that ;>)

[anarora]

The first time Framemaker is launched, a preference dialog is shown where the user selects the mode he wants too work on (see the screenshot below). You must have accidentally changed the mode to XML Author there, hence FM launched with XML Author mode. You can go and change this anytime through Edit->Preferences dialog.

Regards,

Anchal Arora

TCS Engineering