Cannot generate PDF of FrameMaker documents or books

Troubleshoot the PDF generation issues for FrameMaker documents. This is applicable for FrameMaker 10, FrameMaker 12, FrameMaker Release 2015, and FrameMaker Release 2017 (Windows 7 and 10 OS).

Issue 1: Cannot generate PDF for all the FrameMaker documents or books

Solution

Do the following if you cannot generate PDF of all the FrameMaker documents or books:

  • Verify that the Acrobat Distiller installed on your system is compatible with FrameMaker. You can check the compatible version from the following table.

FrameMaker Release

Compatible Acrobat Distiller Release

2017

2015

Acrobat Pro (2015 release)/Acrobat XI

Acrobat Distiller/Acrobat Distiller XI

12

10

Acrobat XI/Acrobat X

Acrobat Distiller XI/Acrobat Distiller X

 

  • Recreate FrameMaker preferences by performing the following steps:
  1. Close FrameMaker.
  2. Navigate to C:\Users\<UserAccount>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Framemaker and rename the FrameMaker version folder. For example, rename 14 to 14_old
  3. Clean the temp folder located at C:\Users\user profile\AppData\Local\
  4. Open FrameMaker and generate PDF again.

Issue 2: Cannot generate PDF of specific FrameMaker document or book

Solution

Do the following to resolve the issue:

  • Check if the FrameMaker file or book stored on a network/shared location is accessible. Copy to file to a local folder and generate PDF.
  • If the issue is with a specific book, do the following:
    • Open all the .fm files from the book, save the book, and then generate PDF.
    • Try to generate PDF of individual .fm file from the book. If you successfully generate the PDF of the file, the book might be corrupt and causing the issue. 
    • Create new FrameMaker book, add all the file references from the previous book, and then generate PDF.  
  • If the issue if with a specific .fm file, do the following:
    • Save the file in Maker Interchange Format (MIF) and then try to generate a PDF.
    • If the FM file contains conditional text, set all the conditional tags to "Show", save the document, and then generate PDF.

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