Suggestions for FrameMaker 13

[ksoltys]

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

[Eric_Bleak]

May I also add putting a switch into the PASTE function so that you can set the default Paste as "Paste as Plain Text".

95% of all PASTE operations I do require this,and going through the inane choice box is a constant irritant.

Yes, a Frame user for 14 years, I really like using Frame, but wow, let's catch up with the times, shall we...

Thanks for listening.

Eric

[Arnis_Gubins]

The paste hierarchy is controlled by the setting in the maker.ini file for:

ClipboardFormatsPriorities=FILE, MIFW, MIF, RTF, OLE 2, META, EMF,  DIB, BMP, UNICODE TEXT, TEXT

just move the "TEXT" component to the start of the list, i.e.

ClipboardFormatsPriorities=TEXT, UNICODE TEXT, FILE, MIFW, MIF, RTF, OLE 2, META, EMF,  DIB, BMP

and you';ll get what you want. FM's always worked like that.

[Eric_Bleak]

Thanks for the help, but it still doesn't work...Still inserts as formatted text.

And... Frame Interchange Format remains at the top of the list:

Ready to keep going after it if you have any more ideas.

Eric

[Mike Wickham]

Don't forget to close FrameMaker before making changes to maker.ini.

[Eric_Bleak]

Oh you bet.

In the same way that it's not advisable to leave power on when you're removing circuit cards... (hopefully the reference from a past life is not too obscure...)

[Arnis_Gubins]

What you're displaying is the Edit > Paste Special (ctrl + shift + v) option . The maker.ini setting affects the standard Paste (ctrl + v) operation only, which is what you were asking about in your query.

Also, the list items in the Paste Special window are selectable by character matches, so "ctrl_shift + v", then "t" and Enter will paste in pure text.

[Eric_Bleak]

Yes, and making that change (exactly as specified) in the maker.ini file did not change the default ctrl+v operation....It still pastes as formatted text, no matter what the source.

However..

."ctrl_shift + v", then "t"

THIS is very, very, VERY helpful. Thank you!

Too bad there isn't an updated, printable version of the old Quick Reference Card available online. (The last one I have was Publication # 9003 7318.)

[Arnis_Gubins]

Hmm..., works for me (except for internal FM content, which always is in MIF format on FM's own internal clipboard). I can copy and paste from Word and all formatting is stripped when pasting using ctrl+v.

Check the user-specific maker.ini in the C:\Users\<login name>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\FrameMaker\12 folder to see if there is a different specification there (as this maker.ini is read last and overrides the master one in the FM install location).

[Eric_Bleak]

except for internal FM content, which always is in MIF format on FM's own internal clipboard

Yes! This is the function I need to change to a text-only-without-formatting paste.

Imagine comparing for objects, A, B, C, and D. I will write the comparison as A does not have the features of C, however, D and B do... If you imagine inserting a fourteen-character part number in the place of each of these capital letters, you can see how the lack of a text-only-without-formatting paste function can get really tedious - especially when inserting into tables that use a different formatting. .

Thank you all for the shortcut, it helps tremendously!

Eric

[Arnis_Gubins]

Eric,

Submit this request along with your use case(s) through the official channel: https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm

Who knows, you might get lucky in the next version of FM.

[Eric_Bleak]

DONE!

Thank you all very much for your help.

Eric

[Robert_^_W]

What I would like is the ability to use book level attributes to set running H/F values in TOC, LOT, LOF, IX etc.

It's annoying to have to manually change the generated files when the rest can be set from attributes at the book level.