FM 12.0.3 patch released

[Arnis_Gubins]

A new patch (12.0.3) has been released for FM12. It is available for direct download at: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5847

It is not yet available through Help > Updates in FM.

[Arnis_Gubins]

For the 17 enhancements and 28 fixes see the readme file at: Adobe FrameMaker 12.0.3 ReadMe.pdf

[Arnis_Gubins]

There's a blog post about the patch at: FrameMaker 12 Update released (FM 12.0.3) « TechComm Central by Adobe

There also has been a RoboHelp 11 patch issued. See: RoboHelp 11 update released (RH 11.0.3) « TechComm Central by Adobe

[David__D]

The fact that graphics from Reference Pages can now make it through the Publish command into CHM output is welcome..... although having just tried it there, I found the Publish engine's rasterization of them was so nasty that I got better results just sticking with my old workarounds!

E.g. I have boilerplate icons for "Warning", "Caution", "Note" etc - for my print/PDF manuals, I have vectorized PDF graphics of these on the documents' reference pages, so I can pull them in to the document text using paragraph/table formats... whereas on my online help, previously I just had to just manually position a PNG of the correct resolution where I wanted an icon.

When I tried making a CHM just then, the Publish engine invokes Distiller to make a nasty, overly compressed, low DPI JPEG of the vector PDF graphic on the reference page. It's not even the same *size* as it was in its anchored frame on the body page.

There doesn't seem to be any way in the Frame GUI to change which Distiller settings are used by the Publish command?

Another tiny point: any graphic on a body page is given a tooltip in CHM output (by default, its filename... you can specify one in via the anchored frame's properties) - however, when a graphic is taken from a reference page, it doesn't get a tooltip?

[David__D]

I installed it this morning. The Adobe Update Manager crashed at 97% completion.

Then I clicked OK and it said it had been successful.

Quality software

[David__D]

Good grief, they've finally enabled moving through table cells with the arrow keys! Astounding.

And you can resize the tiny cross-reference dialog. Hurrah!

Re: some of the bug fixes: I think the one about crashes when you had a 'corrupted colour definition' may have been mine, so nice to see that fixed.

I wonder if this one is anything to do with all the grief I've had with colours in Frame not looking the same in CHM output? We'll soon see, I guess...

"  In the output, a character style defined in a FrameMaker document is defined in theCSS inline style attribute as well as the CSS class attribute. The inline style attribute then overrides the class attribute."

[David__D]

Hmmm, well I just regenerated a CHM, and some of the mysterious instances of cross-references not retaining their formatting appeared to have gone away. I'd cautiously accept this as a fix!

[David__D]

(now all I need to do is repair/revert all the ad hoc workaround kludges I tried to put in to stop the problem )

[fifelaura]

I cannot get this update to install.

I have tried all the suggestions on Error "Adobe Application Manager is needed" | CS5, CS5.5 but could not get the final one to work.

I type Setup.exe--mode=silent  in the folder containing the application update but just get the error "Setup.exe is not recognised as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file"

I then asked our sys admin who made sure I was using DOS as admin and got me to enter AdobePatchInstall.exe in the folder containing the update. I did this, and got taken to the screen:

..which is the problem I was trying to solve....

Any ideas?

[Arnis_Gubins]

Laura,

Did you try manually downloading the patch from the updates page (see first post for link) and just running the AdobePatchInstaller.exe after unzipping the download?

[fifelaura]

Arnis, that worked for me now. Thanks very much.

And I have no subsequent PDF blank pages either. 🙂

Thanks

[craigede2]

This upgrade, applied to my colleagues installation of FM12, has resulted in the disappearance of all body page elements appearing on even numbered pages in books she PDFs. Reinstalling FM12 and updating brings back working PDFs with 12.0.0 and the two updates (12.0.1 and 12.0.2). Installing the 12.0.3 update breaks the PDF rendering. The elements are there (you can click on the "blank" TOC and it jumps to the linked page, for instance. However, that page will be blank (except for master page elements) if it happens to use a right master page.

BEWARE!!!

Craig

[craigede2]

Sorry, I meant odd numbered pages missing the visible representation on those pages. The even pages appear normally.

Craig

[Arnis_Gubins]

Craig,

It works just fine here.

What joboptions were used creating the PDF? Was SaveAsPDF (RGB or CMYK), print to PDF or print to postscript & distill used to create the PDF?

Were any error/warning messages displayed during the update?

[craigede2]

SaveAs PDF, CMYK, High Quality Job Options.

[Arnis_Gubins]

Craig,

If this isn't being prepared for press-work, try using the RGB option. Try it anyway if it is and let me know if blank PDF pages are still being rendered through this approach (there are different header passed o the Distiller with these options that affect a whole bunch of things, so it might help narrow things down).

[craigede2]

Our IT guys have reinstalled FM12 for Allison (my colleague) and applied updates to 12.0.2 so further experimentation is not possible at this time. They did this after the initial problem appeared, but the problem recurred again once the 12.0.3 patch was applied--but not before--so they reinstalled a second time. We want the files to be used for press work, so RGB is not an option. I can't recall if it worked under RGB, or even if we tried that--I think we did and that it produced a RGB pdf without blank pages, but there was a lot of hub-bub yesterday and I didn't keep a log. However, we really need the CMYK setting. Adobe is looking into the issue with sample files supplied from me.

[Arnis_Gubins]

Craig,

Thanks for reporting it to Adobe so that the engineers can look at it. There are still some issues with the CMYK route that are being looked at.

[craigede2]

Adobe has found that the presence of an .ai referenced graphic (a small logo) on the right master page was what caused the problem. Not sure if changing it to .pdf will solve the problem or not since we no longer have the upgrade installed. Does someone want to experiment with this and let us know? (The suggestion that we move the master page graphic to the body pages is really not a workable solution.)

[Arnis_Gubins]

Craig,

.ai native files are not really handled by FM's import filters. The current .ai file format is similar to PDF, but has a lot of additional info in there that FM my be trying to interpret on output. Save the graphic as either a PDF or even better (for FM only) as an EPS from Illustrator.

[craigede2]

Tech Comm Suite 4 had Illustrator packaged together with FM and list FM lists .ai as one of the importable formats. The advantage for referenced graphics being in .ai is that you can click on them to open immediately in Illustrator for editing. That advantage is really minimal for a master page graphic (how often will a logo be edited), so changing it to PDF or EPS (ugly) is easily done if it solves the problem with the 12.0.3 update and applying new master pages to affected documents is easy in FM, but costs a bit of time.

The rationale for using .ai graphics is to avoid multiple formats (.ai save to EPS or PDF) and being able to click to open and edit (not really necessary for master page elements).

Craig

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Yes, but that OLE workflow is fairly old-fashioned these days and isn’t much supported as robustly as it once was due to security tightening up.

[craigede2]

Are you saying being able to click on a imported graphic (of any sort) is OLE? I think OLE is a rather more specific (Microsoft centric and perhaps problematic) application than what is happening here. Any graphic you click on will open in the application assigned by Windows Properties. For instance, clicking on a PDF will open it in Acrobat (pretty useless from an editing standpoint). But not really an old fashioned way to expect applications to behave, I'd argue.

[David__D]

Surely Adobe has a bunch of standard test files, .fm documents containing all the supported imported graphics formats (which DOES include .ai), and runs regression tests on them for any patch update, including elementary things such as "can you still generate a PDF?) (And all this can be scripted of course!)

[Arnis_Gubins]

FYI, .ai import was only truly supported with much earlier versions of AI that used an EPS format for native files. With the new PDF-like format, the ability to include native .ai files is only accidental and does not work in all situations (there are a significant number of differences between .ai and PDF internals according to Dov Isaacs). The .ai import relies on the PDF import filter which actually converts to EPS internally. So if you truly believe all the marketing hype around products, then yes FM can import .ai files. Does FM fully support native. ai file import - probably as much as assuming that you will always win at a casino slot machine.

@craig,

FYI, you can always make the file association at the system level to EPS or PDF files to open Illustrator, so that double-clicking on the graphic in FM will open it for editing. Illustrator also allows you to save as an editable PDF, so the rationale for having only .ai formats is moot.