RE: Distiller Y2K problem?

[Angela Hill <ahill -at- wwg -dot- com>]

Hi Carol,

I just noticed the very same problem yesterday.  It looks to me like Acrobat
thinks the year is 19100 (nineteen-one hundred)--one more than 1999, of
course :-).  I'm sure Lydia is right that upgrading to Acrobat 4.0 will take
care of the problem.  I just wanted to let you know that you're not the only
one this is happening to!

Good luck and have fun,

Angela
ahill -at- wwg -dot- com


	Subject: Distiller Y2K problem?
	From: Carol Lee <carol -dot- lee -at- peerlogic -dot- com>
	Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 16:28:50 -0600
	X-Message-Number: 16


	Have any of you generated a PDF file since the new year?  I'm
getting
	garbled dates for the Creation and Modified dates in the General
	Information dialog (viewed from Exchange or Reader).  My source file
is
	Framemaker, but I get the same results distilling a Word file.  I'd
	appreciate any additional info or verification of the problem, or
tips on a
	solution or workaround.  Here's info about my environment and the
	troubleshooting done so far if this issue interests you:

	OS: NT4SP3, 
	Framemaker v5.5.6p145 
	Distiller v3.0.2 (updated from v3.0.1 during troubleshooting)
	Exchange v3.0.1
	PS Drivers:  have tried HP LaserJet 4MP, Xerox DocuTech135 PS2, and
Adobe PS

	I've been to Adobe's Web site, read their Y2K statement (says they
just use
	the OS date and all products should work jes fine) and
browsed/searched the
	various support documents.  I've also checked the techwr-l archives
and
	various other Internet resources.  Some useful info and tips found,
but
	none specific to this issue.

	I'm getting pretty convinced that there is a Y2K problem with the
	Distiller.  It does seem to be getting the date from the OS....when
I
	change the date format in the Regional Settings, I get different
garbled
	dates shown in the PDF doc info dialog!!!

	System Date Format		Create/Mod Dates in PDF
	dd-MMM-yy			D:191000111125719
	MM/dd/yyyy			00/11/1910
	M/d/yy			0/11/00

	If I set the system date to anything prior to 2000, such as December
31,
	1999, the Creation and Modified dates in the General Information
dialog for
	the PDF document info are correct.

	I then generated the PostScript file using different PS drivers, and
looked
	at the PS code and the generated PDF code----the date appears
correctly in
	all the .ps files but garbled as above in the generated PDF files,
which to
	me indicates a problem with the Distiller rather than the PS driver.

	I thought one workaround might be to specfy the doc info using
pdfmark
	operators in the Frame source file to override the Distiller
information.
	I've been unsuccessful with that and am not sure what the problem is
at
	this point.  I upgraded to Distiller v3.0.2 because the Adobe Web
site
	indicated that v3.0.1 had problems performing PDFmark operations in
files
	larger than 128K (which mine is), but that didn't make any
difference.
	Tried a couple of experiments (distilling with and without epilog
and
	prolog, various pdfmark syntax changes based on different pdfmark
reference
	manuals and examples, ...) and it either distills but doesn't pick
up any
	of the info or generates an error.  I am new to PDFmark, so if
anyone can
	verify whether this would provide a workaround, has a working
example
	(Frame file with pdfmark info that correctly distills), or can
recommend a
	good reference book, I'd appreciate it.  

	In fact, I'd appreciate knowing whether any of you are experiencing
the
	same problem or can generate PDFs that show the correct 2000
Creation and
	Modification dates.  A writer in our Phoenix office tried on both
WinNT and
	UNIX platforms and got the same garbled dates as me, so I don't
think it's
	a user-error or specific to my environment, but there are many ways
to get
	to PDF!  I tried email to Adobe and it doesn't appear they will
provide any
	help other than through their toll-based phone support.

	Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

	Carol Lee (formerly Kime)
	carol -dot- lee -at- peerlogic -dot- com
	Austin, TX