TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
[The responses, from Linda Rodriguez, are included below each item.]
> ________________________Forward Header________________________
> Author: Showalter <tshowalt -at- SCTCORP -dot- COM>
> Subject: Acrobat and FrameMaker5
> 07-14-95 10:28 AM
> Anil Jain asked about possible problems with using Acrobat and Frame for
> E-docs.
> I'm interested in the same topic. My company is about to convert our files
> from Word 5.1 (Mac) to FM5 and will be shipping our doc on CD-ROM using .pdf
> files. We've tested some of these features, but haven't yet worked with them
> in a full-blown setting yet.
> This is what our testing has yielded:
> re:
> 1. When you create a .PDF file using Acrobat, are the hypertext links
> embedded in the original Frame file preserved? In other words, do you have
> to insert the links all over again in the Acrobat file?
> FM5 has built-in support for Acrobat files; you select Acrobat support options
> when you print to the PostScript file. You can specify if you want existing FM
> hypertext links to appear in the .pdf file, whether or not you want them to
> appear as bookmarks, and how you'd like those bookmarks to appear.
If your FrameMaker document has cross-references or hypertext commands,
FrameMaker converts these to the corresponding Acrobat links when printing
to the PostScript file. FrameMaker converts hypertext alert messages to
Acrobat notes.
You specify what paragraph tags should become Acrobat bookmarks at print time.
Each tagged text flow that appears on a FrameMaker Body page becomes a thread
in the Acrobat PDF file. The name of the thread in the PDF file is the same
as the flow tag in FrameMaker. Threads always follow the FrameMaker
document's page order, even if the FrameMaker document's text flows from
back to front.
> re:
> 2. How easy (or difficult) is it to create Acrobat files when your Frame
> files are in a book. Does Acrobat allow cross-file hpertext links and search
> capabilities ?
> When you print a file from the book window, your usual printer driver dialog
> box opens. Since this is where you enter the Acrobat setup options, you can
> still generate hypertext links from a book. I haven't worked too much with it,
> but it looks like you set up the Acrobat options one time for all the files in
> the book that you're printing.
If you are creating a PostScript file for a book, you can improve the
performance of the resulting PDF file by creating a separate PostScript
file (and therefore a separate PDF file) for each file in the book, rather
than a single PostScript file for the entire book. To do so in Windows,
type an asterisk for the filename in the Print Only to File text box.
In addition, if a single PostScript file is created from a book, you
can't link from an external document into the book file. Print each
document/chapter to an individual PostScript file using the asterisk (*).
This will permit links from external documents to documents within a book.
> re:
> 3. Are there any cross-platform viewing/printing problems that you've
> encountered for the .PDF files?
> None so far. A problem we have encountered is getting a screen capture bitmap,
> be it tiff, pcx, pict, etc., to appear identical in FM5/Mac and FM5/Windows.
> So far, the same image that appears fine in HiJaak/Win, FM5/Mac, Acrobat/Mac,
> Acrobat/Windows, looks *horrible* in FM5/Windows (and FM4/Windows too). We
> have not figured this one out yet. And if the yucky looking FM5/Windows
> capture is printed to .pdf from Windows Distiller, it looks awful everywhere.
> If it's printed to .pdf from Mac Distiller, it looks fine everywhere.
> But this seems more like a Frame filter problem than a cross-platform or
> Acrobat problem.
For optimal display of bitmap graphics, import them into the FrameMaker
document at a dpi value that divides evenly into the resolution of the
intended display device. To improve the display performance of PDF files,
avoid using complex master pages that contain multiple complex graphics.
I have no additional information on why the Mac Distiller would improve
the appearance of the bad looking bitmaps, while Windows Distiller maintains
the original graphic appearance.
> Hope this helps.
> Tracey Showalter
> tshowalt -at- sctcorp -dot- com
I've also attached a technical note that discusses the 4K named
reference limit in Acrobat, and how to work around that limit.
The information I've provided comes from the Using FrameMaker manual,
pp.27-37 through 27-41. If you have additional questions, please
contact us at "comments -at- frame -dot- com" or 408-975-6466.
Thank you for your inquiry. Please contact me directly
with any questions on this issue. Please continue to contact
comments -at- frame -dot- com with future FrameMaker questions.
Best Regards,
Linda Rodriguez
Frame Technical Support
-----------------------------------------------FRAME TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
Tech Support Hotline: 408.975.6466 | 333 West San Carlos
Tech Support Fax line: 408.975.6611 | San Jose, CA 95110
FrameFacts FAX system: 408.975.6731 | Tel: 408.975.6000
Frame FTP Server: ftp.frame.com | FAX: 408.975.6799
or 192.111.118.8 |
login: anonymous |
password: your email address | EMAIL:
Frame On-line BBS: 408.975.6729 or 6730 | comments -at- frame -dot- com
Frame BigMac BBS: 408.975.6738 | (Canada, U.S., Pac Rim, &
Internet email: comments -at- frame -dot- com | S. America)
Applelink: FRAME.TECH |
Compuserve: Section 12 of | intltechsup -at- frame -dot- com
DTP Vendors Forum, | (other international queries)
type GO DTPVEND |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Web Site: http://www.frame.com
#KEYWORDS Acrobat pdf postscript book hyperlinks distiller Adobe hypertext
#DATE Wed Jun 21 15:16:14 PDT 1995
#VERSION 5 ALL
#TOPIC What does "invalid action object" mean?
I've got a very large bookfile. When I print to PostScript and generate
a PDF file, all the hyperlinks are there. However, when you click on
them, you get the error message "invalid action object". Why is this
happening?
ANSWER:
You have just run up against the "4K named reference limit" in Adobe
Acrobat. This is an internal limitation of Acrobat Exchange and Acrobat
Reader 2.0.
In order for FrameMaker to create hyperlinks in a book consisting of
several documents, it generates "named references" to places that you
might hyperlink to. A hyperlink can then point to a named reference
rather than a specific page number and geometric position within that
page. Unfortunately, there is a limit of about 4000 of these in
Acrobat's own database even though the PostScript files created by
FrameMaker and the PDF files created by the Acrobat distiller are OK.
The best workaround for now is to print the book as separate files.
Select the book and print as normal, but when you get the save file
dialog for saving the PostScript file, navigate to a destination
directory and use a * as the file name. This will create a separate
file for each document in your book, but it will limit the named
references in each generated PS file to those that are needed to
hyperlink within the book. This is different from printing each
document in the book individually where potentially many more
references may be generated because FrameMaker isn't sure what other
documents may link into the one you are printing.
One final note, the files need to stay as separate, interlinked pdf
files. Cross-file hyperlinks do work, so the result is pretty much the
same except you get multiple windows in Exchange/Reader.