Adobe FrameMaker 11: Get Miffed

I received another great question from one of myFrameMaker students: 

Hi Barb… A real quick question. I have FrameMaker version 9.  I downloaded the trial for 11 to take your class. My 30 day trial ends today. I attempted to open my FrameMaker 11 files using FrameMaker 9 but can't. Suggestions?

You just need to save the FrameMaker 11 files into a format that FrameMaker 9 will understand. FrameMaker uses a format called MIF for this situation. According to Adobe, "MIF (Maker Interchange Format) is a group of ASCII statements that create an easily parsed, readable text file of all the text, graphics, formatting, and layout constructs that Adobe FrameMaker understands. Because MIF is an alternative representation of a FrameMaker document, it allows FrameMaker and other applications to exchange information while preserving graphics, document content, and format."

The very flexible MIF format can be used in a variety of advanced situations, including as a way to interface with database publishing applications. For you, it's going to be the way you save a file in a format that can be opened by an earlier version of the software.

Here's how you create a MIF:

1. Open the file in FrameMaker 11.
2. Choose File > Save as > Save as Type > MIF 7.0
3. Be sure to change the extension of the file to .MIF
4. Close the file in FrameMaker 11
5. Open the .MIF file in FrameMaker 9
6. Choose File > Save as > Save as Type > Document 9.0
7. Be sure to change the extension back to .FM

That should do it! Let me know how it goes.

 It went perfectly. Thank you! 

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