XMetaL Author Enterprise can’t find Adobe Acrobat Distiller

[Derek Read]

Problem:
You are using the deliverable type “XMetaL Enhanced PDF via RenderX XEP and Acrobat Distiller” and you have Adobe Acrobat Distiller installed but output fails and your output log file contains something similar to the following:

Adobe Acrobat Distiller could not be found. Please install this application. If Acrobat Distiller is already installed, ensure XMetaL is configured to identify where the application is installed.

Solution:
Specify the location to your copy of Adobe Acrobat Distiller using the following parameter* in Tools > Configure Output > [your deliverable's name] > Edit (button) > Advanced (tab) > Other output parameters:

[code]ANT_PARAM_args.distiller.exe = [/code]

You can pass command line parameters to acrodist.exe using the following parameter:

[code]DISTILLER_PARAM = [/code]

Example:

[code]ANT_PARAM_args.distiller.exe  =  “C:progra~1adobeacroba~1acrobatacrodist.exe”
DISTILLER_PARAM  =  -n -j “C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataAdobeAdobe PDFSettingsPress Quality.joboptions”[/code]

If any of the paths you use contain spaces you should place quotation marks around them.

*Note: If the ANT_PARAM_args.distiller.exe parameter doesn't accept a quoted path for paths that contain spaces (you'll see a truncated path in your output log file after the first space) please use an 8.3 formatted path as shown in the example above. We hope to correct this in the future.

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[patrickq]

In the example, is there an _ missing after DISTILLER_PARAM?

I also had to use the 8.3 path format for the distiller parameter–quotes caused it to toss up errors.

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[Derek Read]

In the example, is there an _ missing after DISTILLER_PARAM?

That should not be needed, and it would probably actually cause an error to be thrown.

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[Derek Read]

I have just found out that there is an additional setting mistakenly included in some versions. This causes the product to override the ANT_PARAM_args.distiller.exe parameter and continue to look in the wrong place for Distiller.

There are two ways to correct this:

#1. Add one extra parameter (to negate the one we mistakenly included in a configuration file) so you now have three parameters set on the Advanced tab:[code]
DISTILLER_DIR  =  “C:progra~1adobeacroba~1.0distillr”
ANT_PARAM_args.distiller.exe  =  “C:progra~1adobeacroba~1.0distillracrodist.exe”
DISTILLER_PARAM  =  -n -j  “C:progra~1adobeacroba~1.0distillrsettingsstandard.joboptions”[/code]

Or #2. Modify print_dita142.xml or print_dita12.xml (or another *.xml file — see folder path below) to remove this line:
[code]SET DISTILLER_EXE=%DISTILLER_DIR%acrodist.exe[/code]

Modifying these files can really mess things up if you do something wrong. So, please be very careful. Back up originals (in a separate folder or with a file extension that is not XML) so you can restore them. Note that all XML files in this folder are read in, regardless of name.

These print_dita*.xml files will typically be installed here:
AuthorDITAXACssharedrenditions

They control which deliverable types are defined in your version of XMetaL Author Enterprise and how each one functions. The section that contains the line that needs to be removed should be identified with a “config title” containing text similar to “XMetaL Enhanced PDF via RenderX XEP and Acrobat Distiller”. These XML files can be opened in XMetaL Author Enterprise as a simple customization for editing them is included.

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