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Subject:Summary: Distiller Y2K problem From:Carol Lee <carol -dot- lee -at- peerlogic -dot- com> To:TECHWR-L -at- LISTS -dot- RAYCOMM -dot- COM Date:Wed, 12 Jan 2000 10:40:49 -0600
The problem with garbled Created and Modified dates in the document info
for a PDF file is a known bug with v3.0.x of Adobe's Acrobat Distiller. In
the Y2K Compliance statement on Adobe's Web site
(http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/year2000/prodlist.html ), there's an itty
bitty asterisk next to the product and, if you scroll down to the
corresponding footnote the asterisk is suppose to represent, there's an
exception statement about this date problem. A reference provided by one
helpful Techwr-l that provides more details is an article by Shlomo Perets
at http://www.planetpdf.com/mainpage.asp?webpageid=515.
At least for the Win platform (Adobe does have a v3 patch for
UNIX---perhaps since v4 of the Distiller is not available for UNIX...), the
"fix" is to "upgrade to v4.0.5." However, be aware that there are issues
regarding the new 4.05 update. Another article by Shlomo Perets, "Adobe,
PostScript Printer Drivers ...FrameMaker & Acrobat 4.05"
(http://www.planetpdf.com/mainpage.asp?webpageid=516), provides more
details about the joy that combination provides. Another helpful Techwr-l
said that Adobe has acknowledged the problem with the 5.1.1 driver and are
now testing a new driver version that will work with both Acrobat 4.0x and
FrameMaker---AdobePS v5.2 is "supposed to be released sometime around the
end of this month" according to unofficial sources. (Adobe, can you say
"interoperability testing"...preferably prior to product release?!?)
In the first article quoted above, it says that the DOCINFO pdfmark command
should provide a workaround. I still haven't gotten mine to work
correctly, but that approach might provide an alternative for those who
don't want to spend US99 or more for a software upgrade to fix Adobe's Y2K
problem. Another "workaround," which I did to get my first Y2K book out,
is to manually edit the date in the PDF file (i.e., open the pdf with a
text editor and change the garbled date to the correct date)---then it
appears correctly in the info dialog.
Many thanks to everyone who responded: David C, Tom F, Lydia W, Pamela W,
JW, Sandra C., Kerstin M, Alyssa F, Kate B, Kathy W, Jim P, Eric S, Jon B,
and any others that arrive before I get this summary distributed!
Carol
carol -dot- lee -at- peerlogic -dot- com
Austin, TX
