Adobe Community : All Content - FrameMaker Feature Requests

FrameMaker Compatible with Mac in Future?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 04 May 2011 12:36:11 GMT

Is anyone aware if future versions of FrameMaker will ever be compatible with a Mac? I used to work on a Windows computer, and I really enjoyed using FrameMaker to create Install/User Manuals. I work on a Mac now, and I am just wondering if it will ever be available with a Mac.

Thanks!

The variable <$filename> and the the *.fm extension

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 14:52:38 GMT

When you need the title of the document importing into a document, you can use the variable <$filename>.

This is useful as you can have a template that changes its name with the name of the file.

However, the variable always writes the document name with the file extension (for example help.fm) making the variable useless.

Suggestions for FrameMaker 13

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 17:12:23 GMT

I missed the deadline for participating in the feature survey that Adobe sent me recently, so I put up a post on my blog about things I'd like to see in FrameMaker 13. Some of them are extensions of what I wanted to see in FrameMaker 12 (only a few of which were taken care of).

The post is on the long side so I'm just going to link to it here:

http://www.soltys.ca/blog/2014/03/suggestions-for-framemaker-13.html

I will summarize my three major requests:

Seamless import and export of Microsoft Word files and content. Word is dominant in offices today and has been for years, but using content provided in Word format is a nightmare.
Better marker handling. Marker handling in FrameMaker is primitive. We need exapndable/collapsibe markers, editable in place, and a proper marker editing dialog.
A snapshot feature akin to that in Thirty Six Software's SmartDocs Word addin. Set variable values, conditional text settings, input and output directories and output formats and save them as a single object so we can switch between multiple views of a book with a single click.

As much as I love FrameMaker, and I've been using it for 20 years, it's getting harder to justify it, especially because of my first point.

Regards

Keith

Frame above/below graphics from reference page to HTML5

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 16:28:43 GMT

My situation:

Several of my paragraph styles frequently reference graphics in anchored frames on the reference page.

When I publish a document using these styles to HTML5, the referenced graphics do not translate.

I understand why this happens. However, it forces me to manually import the graphic every time I use the style.

These graphics are mandated by a safety standard, so I can't just get rid of them for the sake of streamlining my multi-channel template.

I really don't want to use separate templates for publishing to PDF or HTML5. If I need to do so, is it really multi-channel publishing?

My goal:

I want to use the same template and paragraph styles for all of my publishing channels.

The feature I'd like to see:

When FM publishes content to HTML5, it either:

checks for paragraph styles that reference graphics in the reference pages and migrates those graphics into the HTML source folder, or;
migrates all reference page graphics into the HTML source folder.

better Find/Change

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 06:31:05 GMT

… including

regular expressions
history lists for both find and change terms
copy selection as find term
place cursor in find field when opening dialog – the time I've lost when I've not paid attention and FM has interpreted what should have been a find string as a command
find/change text+style

Request: Hide generated color definitions

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 17:05:31 GMT

I'm updating FrameMaker templates to reflect changes to my company's color palette as part of a rebranding initiative. My documents are full of overlapping conditions which means that each document's color definitions window is cluttered with dozens of "fm_gen_nnn" color definitions. It's not possible to permanently eliminate these junk color definitions because if you save as MIF, strip them out, and then reopen the file, there they are again because of the conditional text.

Request: please *hide* all these "fm_gen_nnn" color definitions in the color definitions window. They are of no use to anyone, and they make it hard to use the window.

We are unable to edit the user defined color definition. The palette allows us modify the color however, the "change" button is inactive.

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 08:08:28 GMT

We have definited about 12 color for conditional texts in the framemaker files. One of the colors defined needs to be modified. On using View>color>definition, we are able to use the color palate and do the necessary modification, however, the "Change" option becomes inactive. Request a solution for the same.

Seeking inputs on desired features in FrameMaker

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:51:18 GMT

Hello Framers,

Hope you are well. In case you don't know me, I am the product manager for FrameMaker and am reaching out to seek your inputs into FrameMaker product.

We do monitor the user forums to seek feedback and make improvements to the product. As part of the product planning process, I would like to request your wishlist for FrameMaker. Please do let us know by submitting (not more than 10 :-)) new features and enhancement requests, that you would like to see in the product. Also, please indicate a short description of the feature request, the need for it and your priority for each request (H-M-L would be sufficient). Lastly, please include your email address so that we can reach out to you if we have any questions on your requests.

We would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance for your valuable inputs.

P.S. I do realize that some of you may have submitted similar feature requests in the past. Although, we would have taken a note of your previous requests, we want to ensure that the feature request is still relevant and important to you and your organization in the current world. So, I would request you to please resubmit your prioritized wishlist. apologies for the extra time, it may result for you.

Regards,

Kapil Verma

Sr. Product Manager - FrameMaker and FrameMaker Server

The 'Monitor Size' setting could do with an update

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 09:01:33 GMT

This isn't the most important issue in the world, but I did notice that the 'Monitor Size' setting in Frame 11 (Edit > Preferences > Global > General > Monitor Size) hasn't changed for years.

It's used so that when you have your screen set to 100% zoom, it matches the real paper world in size.

But - it just has a drop-down for 'diagonal width" monitor size which assumes a 4:3 aspect ratio (as per old CRT monitors) and only goes up to 22". I'm currently typing on a 23" 'widescreen' (16:9) monitor so I don't think that diagonal width drop-down is going to do much useful for me

SharePoint integration

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:25:36 GMT

My company uses SharePoint for our intranet. I would like to see Frame work seamlessly in SharePoint. Frame needs some sort of dialog box or option to "save to SharePoint" or something like that. I suggest the new Word 2007 format for a dialog that works with SharePoint, Documentum, or whatever and makes it easy to save to a network without drilling down to multiple levels on a dialog box.

Hebrew and more

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 18:00:18 GMT

The arabic world still seems to be excluded from using FramMaker due to the fact that it isn´t possible to type from right to left. When will Adobe recognise this problem? Over the years everything has got more and more globalised but not in the eyes of Adobe. As a Frame user a manual in Arabic or Hebrew just has to be made with "Word" with all the restrictions that includes.

Tables - Running Header (SubHeaders) Feature

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 20:29:06 GMT

Would it be possible to add support of SubHeaders in tables? I have several documents that requir a standard header followed by subheader that change based on the content of the table. Need a feature like Running Headers except for tables. Example table on first page:

Header 1
Topic 1
SubTopic 1.1
SubSub Topic 1.1.1
Content
Content
SubSub Topic 1.1.2
Content

Example table that continues on next page:

Header 1
Topic 1 (Continued) (SubHeader)

Framemaker 5.5 and LINUX

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 20:36:09 GMT

Hello,

I'm working on Framemaker 5.5 migration on a professional project.

The OS used is LINUX RED HAT v5 and v6, but there is none Framemaker for this OS.

Can you give me solution to migrate complex document (several *.fm files composing one document generated in PDF) on an editor on LINUX OS?

migration to WORD or OPEN OFFICE are not efficient, so I hope you can help me to find a solution for a such migration.

Regards

How to handle large urls from FM hypertext command?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 06:04:29 GMT

The Internet allows URLs up to 2000 characters.FrameMaker 11 limits the length of a hypertext marker command to 255 characters,How to handle large urls from FM hypertext command?

UnstructMasterPageMaps read table contents

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 15:24:18 GMT

Allow UnstructMasterPageMaps reference pages to recognize paragraph formats within table cells.

Eg. A table spans multiple pages. I use a conditional master page based on styles used on that page. When the table spans multiple pages, the 2nd, 3rd page does not get master page applied as UnstructMasterPageMaps does not read cell contents. The anchor paragraph is on the first page only.

The lack of this feature makes UnstructMasterPageMaps useless to me

Better drawing tools needed

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 17:22:53 GMT

FrameMaker drawing tools haven't changed since I started using FM 5 for UNIX (might have been FM 3--hard to remember that far back). The tools are clumsy to manipulate, they don't "remember" your last settings, and they don't tell you what the current settings are for items already in the book (for example, color or line width), and you can't save presets. These failings make it difficult to make your drawings consistent throughout a book without writing down your settings elsewhere, and you always have to take extra time to change the settings to what you need each time you open a new file. It is inefficient, cumbersome, limiting, and leaves too much room for error.

It's time for more sophisticated tools for drawing and editing those drawings in anchored frames. Perhaps Adobe could borrow some features from Illustrator or InDesign and add them to the Graphics Toolbar.

Here are some items I wish I had been able to use while writing my last book in FM9. I really just wanted Illustrator/InDesign tools, but the below items would have sufficed:

Recall last settings automatically (or at least have option to)
Add presets for arrows, lines, boxes; ability to add custom presets
More control over drawing and editing straight lines when using Shift key
View current settings for drawings (line width, color, arrow style, dash pattern)
Add more patterns

Thanks,

Karen

Set Paragraph Tag and have it use a specific Page Layout Master Page

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 23:23:02 GMT

When using FM 11. We should be able to set the Paragraph Tag 'Chapter' and have it always use the Page Layout, Master Page, Format 'Chapter'?

Callouts

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 10:39:44 GMT

The thing I would like to see more than anything is a 'callout' palette on the graphics toolbar. I think this would be a great feature for Framemaker to shout about in a future release.

The main problem with labelling graphics is that if you do them at source, they cannot be scaled without ruining the look of the callouts.

I would like the ability to create live callouts with the following features:

Customisable callouts with elbows and end types

Separate search function within callouts - change to one label changes whole document/book

Automatic numbering; adding/removing a callout number automatically adds/removes the next number in the sequence

Callouts/numbers can be cross-referenced thus removing the need to ever change callout references in the main body of text

Colour complimentary; the ability to create a line that if over-layed on another colour, reverses the colour of the line. What I mean by this is if you create a black line and overlay it on to a black square, so you can still see the line over the black square as FM currently colours it white until the mouse button is released. It would be good if the line over-laying the black square stayed white

A halo around a callout.

I'm sure I'll think of other things to add later, but I was wondering if anyone else had any suggestions, or if it was a problem?

Would like Table Continuation Variable added to a paragraph style, such as to a table title

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:19:59 GMT

My groups uses both Frame 7.2 and Frame 9 and we would like to include the Table Continuation variable to our table title paragraph tag definition so that we don't have to manually add the variable. Is this possible now? If so, how?

Thanks

Sherri McCue

Synopsys, Inc.

Documentum CMS Enhancements

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 18:39:58 GMT

The Documentum integration in Framemaker 10/11 is really nice, but I have a few suggestions that I feel are very important to making this functionality more usable:

When someone checks out old versions of a book, Framemaker should return only the documents that were active at the time that version of the book were checked in (see here). It currently seems to always checkout the most current version of each file. In our industry (and probably most others), it's extremely important to be able to pull up a book as it was at some point in the past.
Allow more than one file to be selected in the Repository Manager. I should be able to select five checked out files and do a "Cancel Checkout". Ideally I should be able to select all the files in a folder and be presented with all the options that make sense for the selection. In other words, if half the files in a folder are checked out, and I select the entire folder and do Cancel Checkout, Framemaker should do a cancel for any files where it's valid (ignoring any that aren't).
Framemaker should notify the user that they have made changes and ask whether they would like to save prior to checkin. It will be very common for a user to forget this step and inadvertantly checkin without ever saving. If they do checkin, then save, close the document, and then recheck out the same document, they will lose all their changes.
When viewing a document via the CMS, the document should be locked somehow to prevent modifications.It's not obvious when a document has been checked out or is just being viewed.
After checking in a document to the CMS, the document should be closed automatically to prevent further modification.

Thanks for all the work. It's really nice to see Framemaker getting some love again.

Brian Popp

Xpath search in a mapped network drive

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 13:40:26 GMT

I may be missing something here, but nevertheless...

FM11 on Windows Vista.

Using the XML view, I am searching for an xPath query such as //section. I select the Folder option and hit Run. The Browse for Folder dialog opens. In this dialog I see my local drives and folders but no mapped network drives. Is this by design?

If I go to Windows Explorer and navigate the the desired network folder, then copy the address to the clipboard, I can paste that address in the Browser for Folder dialog and it works OK. But that is not the way to do it.

Roger Shuttleworth

London, Canada

Cross-Reference update

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:16:06 GMT

It would be great to have a better interface for Cross-References.

1. Don't reset the source everytime Insert is pressed.

This is seriously annoying if you want to insert a bunch of references over and over. You have to reselect the Document and scroll down the list of paragraphs.

2. Improve the Go to Source view.

If the Cross-Reference is similar to other sources it is dificult to know which one you are selecting. Imagine a table with numbers in it and several cells have the same value. You can't easily figure out what you are referencing. Maybe a preview window would be better?

Allow application window docking in Windows 7

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 16:55:45 GMT

The FrameMaker application window does not dock to the side of the screen in Windows 7. This might seem like a petty request, but I use this feature all the time, and it would be so helpful when I'm editing a book from a marked-up PDF file from my client. I always look at the PDF on one side of the screen and edit the book in the other. All the other programs I use dock to the screen (including the other Adobe products)--why not Frame?

Apply character formats in the Marker window

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 16:05:14 GMT

We need the ability to apply character formats (including superscript and subscript) in the Marker window. I use this feature to generate LOM files, which are greatly helpful, but after generation, I must edit the file directly to apply character tags to individual items to correspond with the style of the text from which the markers have been generated.

For example, I have a list of warnings at the beginning of my book. I place a marker in each warning in the chapters to generate the list of markers. Some of the warnings in the chapters contain the product name which includes an Italic character and a superscript registration character. (The client's style is to use the registration character at every instance.) When I place the text in the Marker window, I have no way to include the character formats for Italics and superscript. Therefore, when the list of warnings is generated, the product name is not styled correctly, and I must edit every instance in that file--every time I generate for a revision.

If the Marker window would accept character format codes like the Variable window does, the problem would be solved.

More than 10 hints...

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:00:29 GMT

12 Add an Afrikaans Dictionary and you will secure a slice of the South

African Market.

13. Why does the screen go blank after editing?

14. Better editing capabilities for the indexes.

Find/Change and Cross-reference

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 07 May 2012 09:36:29 GMT

Thanks you for asking for feature requests.

Here are the features that I would like:

• In the Find/Change dialog box: I would like a drop-down list with that last 5-10 things that I searched for. Many text editors have this, and it's a great time saver.

• In the Find/Change dialog box: I would like the search text to be highlighted when I press CTRL+F, so that instead of having to click in the text box, erase the previous text and type new text, I could simply press CTRL+F, type the text and press ENTER. The Find/Change dialog box is very frequently used when authoring and editing documents and this would greatly increase the speed at which one could edit Frame docs. (The fact the focus within the Find/Change dialog box is not predictable is very frustrating. Even if the search text would not be highlighted as I suggested, it would be nice if the focus would be in the search text box.)

• In the Cross-reference dialog box: When I select a paragraph tag, I would like the list of paragraphs to be in some order. It seems that they are supposed to be in the order that they appear in the document, but it's not consistent. If it's too hard to automatically keep them them in order, I would like a button that I could click to reorder them, even if I would have to wait for the reordering process to take place. It would be even better if I could choose to order the list by the order of their appearance in the doc or in alphabetical order.

Document info information in illustrator

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:45:35 GMT

Hi All

In Adobe illustrator can we have the documment info panel to be pop up when the files are saved as eps or ai formats

Regards,

Vinoth

Will FrameMaker ever support right to left languages?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 19:10:30 GMT

More and more I have the need to translate manuals from English to Arabic. Has FrameMaker ever supported RTL languages or does it ever intend to. I'd rather not move to another authoring tool.

More control over Track Text Edit hidden conditionals

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 15:19:31 GMT

I'm finding the Track Text Edits feature in FrameMaker useful, but there are still some enhancements to it that would be useful.

First, I'd like more control over how inserted and deleted text is displayed. Specifically, I'd like to be able to do things like use highlighting for inserted text instead of underlining. Second, I'd like explicit control over the conditions used for tracking text edits. I'd like to be able to hide deleted text, as I can do in Word.

That might also give me the ability to create a list of all pages with text edits using the standard reporting features.

Regards

Keith

Adequate Documentation Support for CMS

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:08:27 GMT

I am appalled at the lack of documentation that Adobe has provided in FrameMaker 10 for CMS support. In general I'm disgusted that the documentation for FrameMaker in general has significantly declined. The version 7, 8, and 9 documentation was good. Now, it looks like the outsourced their documentation effort to Microsoft.

It's filled with fluff, has missing information, lack of detail, and is on the level of:

1. To drive a car.

2. Insert key in ignition.

3. Drive car.

Technically correct, but totally useless.

The CMS section has so little information on how to configure Sharepoint to integrate it with FrameMaker's CMS feature as to make it ludicruous. It provides no troubleshooting information, no setup beyond the intial connection dialogs.

I expect more for software that costs this much.

I expect competence.

Maybe outsourcing isn't so good.

How to save formatted text for reuse?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:03:28 GMT

Dear Adobe,

For years MS Word has had the Autotext feature whereby you can format text that need to use repeatedly (including headings, lists, and tables), save the text in a Word template, and then insert it as needed from the Autotext menu. They made this harder to do with Word 2007, but it's still there.

Can you implement this in Framemaker? I'm stuck on Frame 7.2 at my current job, so I don't know if it part of later releases.

That would be a real productivity improvement.

Thanks,

Michael F

Mac OS X Version

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 02:46:52 GMT

Seems like it's a broad enough request that it could stand a thread of its own.

I think this weekend I *might* break down and put Leopard on my PowerBook, which means no Classic, and I'd have to use Frame for Windows in one of the virtualization products. Uck.

Single source features

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:57:01 GMT

Framemaker is mature but should look at flare's features for single source work. Specifically FM should expand the book features to have book sets with ability to use choose different master pages for different outputs, control which files are included and which conditional tags and variables are used for different outputs. Being able to choose cascading style sets for different outputs would also be useful.

Slash Breaking

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:44:58 GMT

This came up in a thread in the main FrameMaker forum: I'd like to be able to allow line breaks at slashes in some instances and suppress them in other instances within the same document. This could be by including a nonbreaking slash special character, similar to nonbreaking hyphens and spaces, or perhaps a simpler and more comprehensive solutiion would be a tool to suppress line breaks within a selected string, regardless of what characters it includes.

Displaying File Info Metadata in document

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 18:27:49 GMT

What I'd like to see is the ability to

link/display the file info metadata (for example, Title or Copyright) inside the document.

Ideally I'd like to be able to define my own metadata tags/files and populate them like MS Word's Custom Document Properties.

Anyone else miss the right-click > Save All Files command?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 23:27:20 GMT

Does anyone else miss the Save All Files in Book and Close All Files in Book commands that exist in FM7's right-click document menu (right-click in a document window) but are not present in FM9 or FM10?

Is there any way to increase the dpi of gif files when saving out to xml either in Frame 8 or 10?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 20:56:34 GMT

I need to know if I can cahnge the dpi of gif gile created when I save my frame files out as xml. I am using Frame 8 and it only saves out the gifs at 72dpi. I need a higer resolution. Does Frame 10 offer this capability?

Suppressing line wrapping at hyphens in option names ("-some_option")

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 12:42:42 GMT

I am a writer for a software product. Like many software products, we deal with lots of options in our documentation. A command might look like:

do_something -my_way -hurry_up

Options have leading hyphens in their names. The problem is that FrameMaker will take every opportunity to use these hyphens to wrap lines. Some documentation text might originally exist as:

If you want to do something your way, use the -my_way option to get your way.

but will get wrapped as:

If you want to do something your way, use the -

my_way option to get your way.

We explored using FrameMaker's nonbreaking hyphens (ESC, -, h). This does work, but has the following drawbacks:

Nonbreaking hyphens do not match normal hyphens in FrameMaker's search function. If I wanted to search and replace all instances of "-my_way" with "-do_it_my_way" because the option name has changed, the search will not match. I'd need to remember to always use the nonbreaking hyphen metacharacter in the FrameMaker search dialog.
We have an in-house FrameMaker-to-HTML flow which creates an HTML version of our documentation. This conversion flow converts these nonbreaking hyphens to some other HTML character besides a normal hyphen. If a user searches for "-my_way" in a browser, it will not match.

I would really love a FrameMaker option which allows me to suppress hyphenation at hyphens which exist at the beginning of a word, with no prefix letters before the hyphen. I don't mind if FrameMaker hyphenates at other manually-written hyphens inside words, but I want it to leave my leading hyphens alone.

Have others run into this challenge while writing for a software product? Thanks!

- Chris

Hide the "fm_gen_NNN" colors in the color definitionss window

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:50:13 GMT

Using FM 9.0p255

My documents are full of overlapping conditions, which means that my color definitions window is terribly cluttered with "fm_gen_nnn" color definitions. According to the MIF user guide, the overlapping conditions spawn these color defs.

It's not possible to permanently eliminate these junk color definitions. If you save as MIF, strip them out, and then reopen the file, there they are again.

Request: please *hide* all these "fm_gen_nnn" color definitions in the color defs window.

They are of no use to anyone, and they make it hard to use the window.

And I *need* to use that window, because I am creating CMYK files that are printed and have to fiddle with color defs all the time.

Thanks very much,

Becky Edmondson

[signature deleted by host]

From FrameMaker Product Management

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 12:33:42 GMT

We do look at the forum posts from time to time. More so during product planning phases. The inputs received on the forums is a valuable source of information for us.

We also try to have direct communication with experienced FrameMaker users. We are currently in the planning phase for the future versions of FrameMaker. We would really appreciate if FrameMaker users can take out some time to share their ideas and wishlist with us.

We would prefer to receive a prioritised list of 5 to 10 features (not more than 10). And also a short description for each feature. Based on your requests we might want to schedule a call and discuss your ideas. Some information about yourself and your organisation would help us see your requests in the correct perspective. You can post your list of prioritised features on this forum, or send it to me directly (aseem@adobe.com). I understand that many of you have posted multiple requests in the past. It would be helpful if you resend your prioritised wishlist.

Thank you for your continued support.

Aseem Dokania

Product Manager - FrameMaker

"Save All" option when closing Framemaker

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 18:08:21 GMT

I work often in books with up to 20 or 30 smaller files. Sometimes I would like to exit the book (and associated files that are open) without saving any of the files (or saving all of the files), but I have to manually click to specify for each and every file. It's extremely tedious. An option to automatically apply the specified change (save or do not save) to each open file would be very welcome.

Converting with Framemaker9

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 10:30:36 GMT

My work purchased Framemaker 9 to convert PDF Files to Word is

this possible?

File/Import and Page Layout not working anymore

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 21:26:57 GMT

I have a question about old software: FrameMaker 6.0 on a Mac. (While Adobe encouraged me to purchase this in 2001 for the chemistry textbook I am writing, I had invested to much to abandon it when Adobe abandoned the Mac version a few years later.)

I have imported dozens of images files into the 750 page book and FrameMaker has accepted both tif and jpg formats. The way I did it was to create an anchored frame in the textbook, click on it, and then File>Import and select the image file and then choose whether I wanted it to be referenced or actually in the text. All of this worked fine... until a couple of days ago.

Problems

1. I no longer get Import as an option under File and

2. FrameMaker no longer recognizes tif and jpg files under "All Readable Documents" when I do File>Open. I have to click on Show All Files to see them.

As a result I am unable to import any tif or jpg files into the FrameMaker textbook.

What's curious is that I have 6.0 installed on both a G4 and a PowerBook and this problem has occurred on both at the same time.

3. And I just discovered that when I do Format/Page Layout the half a dozen or so custom formats that I had are no longer listed.

So what has caused this loss of memory for Framemaker that it can no longer do what it has done for me for years. (I am somewhat sympathetic to it's memory loss myself as a 78 year old user.)

The G4 has been unplugged recently but in the past it has been unplugged for a week or so and there were no problems.

Fred Tabbutt

Framemaker on Linux

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:23:09 GMT

Are there any plans to offer Framemaker on a Linux platform? Alternatively, are there any solutions someone might offer for migrating from Frame 7.2 on UNIX to a documentation product on a Linux platform?

Mike

Price FrameMaker to compete with Word

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:10:16 GMT

I use both Frame and Word and have for years. Almost everyone I know is frustrated with Word and we would prefer to author everything in Frame - proposals, etc. As it is, we only author manuals in Frame.

I suggest to Adobe that it drop the price of Frame to be equivalent to Word and then do a big advertising push to put it on desktops. Frame has such better output that doing this could seriously cut into Word's market share. Frame has existed for decades but seems to be stuck in a niche, it could break out of this niche by leveraging all the past investment and becoming price-competitive with Word.

"Save As PDF" does not work correctly

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:17:13 GMT

We are creating documents in FrameMaker which should be printed.

The versions which are used for corrections do have the normal DIN A5 or DIN A5 size.

The final PDFs which are used for printing do have a trimming of about 3 mm on each side.

Problem is: If I use the "Save as PDF" function on a book instead of just a single document, then FrameMaker is not automatically adjusting all the documents to the size which is entered.

Instead it uses the size which is used when the PDF of a single file was generated via "print".

And not just that...

The pages which have an incorrect size are also re-adjusted. Meaning: The page does have the 3mm trimming on the left side and also on the top.

But on the right side and the button 3mm of the page are missing.

This needs to be fixed!

Context sensitive help

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 19:46:43 GMT

May I suggest that Adobe engineers/developers visit wikipedia.com and type "Context sensitive help" and educate themselves as to what a REAL help system is supposed to do as opposed to the "joke of a help system" that they've included with FM9? See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context-sensitive_help

graphic numbering with numbered lists

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:30:47 GMT

As an instructional designer for software, one task i complete frequently is creating numbered step tasks that coincide with an image that is also numbered.What normally happens is that I write the steps, and then i arrow off the screenshot and then add text frames with number in them next to the arrows.

This presents a couple problems that are time consuming:

1. If i miss a step in the text, and then write the new one, it sets the numbering off in the image and I have to renumber.

2. There are a wealth of alignment issues and "eyeballing" that goes on when I number the image.

It would be great if there were a tool that you could choose to write numbered steps with. Then, when you have written the steps could go to the appropriate image and click the areas that corresponded to the steps and it would generate a numbered arrow or other such signifying item. Then, when/if you update your numbered steps, the arrows would renumber accordingly. While there may be some pitfalls to this method, i think it would be a great time saver.

Fix SaveAs PDF or rip it out....

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:51:46 GMT

To amplify another post (http://forums.adobe.com/thread/560103?tstart=0), the SaveAs PDF code is FrameMaker is so unreliable and unpredictable that it shouldn't be inflicted on users...It's even worse that this menu item hasn't worked well for several releases.

It should be embarassing to Adobe that the company can't support this.

Either disable the code so that people print to the Acrobat printer instance, or come up with reliable code...

Rowsep = 2, please

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 07 May 2010 14:58:22 GMT

For those of us who generate xml tables to open in FrameMaker, it would be lovely to have more control over ruling lines than "on" and "off." The cals standard supports varying thicknesses, and FM certainly does. So how about rowsep = 2 and rowsep = 3, etc?