FrameMaker 2019: Where is my PDF?

Are you using FrameMaker 2019 and its nice new PDF engine? As you know, the Publish pod is now the preferred way of producing PDF output. But where is your PDF file created? You specify the output path at the bottom of the Publish pod.

But the Output Folder is not related to the location of the active book or document that you are publishing. Once you set the path, the value is “sticky” until you change it. Even if you change it to the folder containing your book or document, an additional “PDF” folder is created during the publish process. This can make it a hassle to find your PDF after it is published.

In honor of my 60th birthday–today, October 24–I have written a script called Rescue PDF to solve the problem. And, yes, it is free! After you install it, you choose File > Utilities > Rescue PDF.

A small dialog box will appear. Click Copy PDF to book or document folder. You can also click View PDF after copying so that the PDF is displayed after it is copied.

And that’s all there is to it! Now when you create a PDF using the Publish pod it will be copied to the folder that contains your book or document. When Rescue PDF is active, a checkmark will appear next to the command on the Utilities menu. To disable it, simply choose the command again and uncheck the Copy PDF checkbox.

A couple of caveats

If the PDF you are creating is still open in the book or document folder when you publish again, you will not get a warning; the new PDF will simply not get copied to the folder. So make sure you close the PDF after viewing it.

When you use the Publish command, a dialog box will display telling you that the job is finished. It will show you the original Output Folder path.

Of course, when using Rescue PDF, you don’t need to see this dialog box, but I haven’t figured out a way to suppress it. So just click Done to get rid of it.

Go to my web store to download Rescue PDF. Comments and suggestions for scripts are always welcome!

Setting Acrobat Bookmarks for a Book

When you save a FrameMaker book to PDF, you are presented with the PDF Setup dialog box, where you can set which paragraphs (or elements) you want to appear as bookmarks in the PDF. Often, you will set the Include formats and levels just how you want them, but when you make the PDF, one or more paragraphs will be included that you didn’t specify. In fact, these paragraphs won’t show up in the Include/Don’t Include lists in the PDF Setup dialog box. Scott Prentice, in a recent framemaker-dita@yahoogroups.com post, gives the reason behind this:

In my testing, I believe that the key factors are that the first file in the book needs to have definitions for all of the para styles in the book, and you have to set the include/exclude values on that file. If it’s a binary file, these settings would be made there … if it’s structured, you’d need to make those settings in the template that’s applied to that component. Continue reading “Setting Acrobat Bookmarks for a Book”

Move Markers to the Beginning of Words

Maxwell Hoffman recently posted “Top 10 mistakes FM Uses make in content before translation” on his blog (www.tinyurl.com/gpi-fm1). One of the mistakes is having markers within words instead of at the beginning of words. I decided that this could be solved quickly and easily with a FrameScript script. You can download the free script at
http://frameautomation.com/MoveMarkers.zip. It will process all of the markers in the active document or book, allowing you to solve the problem in seconds. Instructions are in the included ReadMe.text file. If you need to purchase FrameScript licenses, please contact me for discount prices. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

–Rick