[Closed] FrameMaker 7.x/8 Feature Requests

Proper (i.e. vector) SVG support!

It is a major pain that SVGs are rasterised when you generate a PDF.

The whole point of SVG graphics is that they can contain resolution independent vectors, like PDF.

So you should be able to embed SVG into a framemaker document, and generate a PDF including a vector version of the image. (giving you a small file size, together with resolution independence)

The current SVG support is somewhat pointless since, if it is going to be rasterised, you might as well embed a TIFF.

Matt Cockerill

MacOSX...pretty please. Even that miserable program known as Quark has an OSX version now. Everything has an OSX version...except FM.

I'll bet 30 quatloos on the new OSX version...

MACOS X NATIVE !!!!!!!!!! (please)

I would love to see a simple way to change the tracking and leading in text. Simple shortcut keys that increase and decrease the tracking/leading by one point per time you type the shortcut key. That would be WONDERFUL!

Hehe. "I'd be surprised if Adobe did not have at least an interim OS X release."<br /><br />Am putting money on it--and no, I don't know for sure any more than most of you. <g>

An interim release is very likely before version 8. An Adobe rep recently told me that there was a major backlash when Frame 7 shipped without multiple undo and they plan on adding in a point release. Whether they add OS X is unknown, but I'm very skeptical.

I'd be surprised if Adobe did not have at least an interim OS X release. I guess we'll see.

Designer windows made into one window showing all attributes rather than the small window with a pull down to change to different sets of attributes. One larger window showing all attributes would save loads of time.
Thumbnails for Body, Master and Reference pages would make navigation through long docs easier.
Being able to change the background or 'paper' color to something other than white.
Tables in Landscape pages should be clickable to edit the cells.
Fix the screen redraw issue. I'm wearing out the l key.

Oh yeah, one more small thing.

MAC OSX NATIVE!!!!!!!!
MAC OSX NATIVE!!!!!!!!
MAC OSX NATIVE!!!!!!!!

Darrel

I too agree that the interface leaves much to be desired. Frame was originally developed on UNIX (ported to all flavors: AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, etc.) and it still supported on just about every UNIX platform along with Windows and Mac. Adobe noticed that Frame held a unique corner of the market that they knew no other DTP product offered: long doc support and the ability to handle global updates with absolute ease.

I've asked a person from Adobe's technical marketing dept directly why the interface hadn't been touched since Adobe acquired it 5 years ago, and he said 1) "current customers are comfortable with the UI" 2) "it would be a big undertaking". In short, the code is ancient and to go through a rewrite all that code would apparently take an extreme amount of time and resources. While this may be true, I think this quote from Tom Arah at Designer-info.com sums up the problem nicely:

"FrameMaker's underlying principles and layout engine remain as powerful as theyve always been and for institutional users looking for long technical document handling and multichannel output it remains the most flexible choice. The fact is though, that with the paradigm shift to XML-based publishing and repurposing, FrameMaker should be stronger than ever and winning new markets rather than trading on its past. Unless Adobe stops bundling and gets coding that's simply not going to happen and FrameMaker will remain a niche option - mainframe rather than mainstream."

You can read his full review of Frame 7 here:

http://www.designer-info.com/DTP/framemaker.htm

Does Adobe want Frame to remain a niche tool? Who knows, but with a 2-year development cycle that yields very little with each release, it's hard to know what their true intentions may be. With the surge of technical communicators over the last few years who rely very heavily on Frame (I believe Frame is as important to tech writers as Photoshop to graphic artists) Frame should be even more powerful than ever. As a technical writer, Frame still remains the only tool I truly rely on for producing manuals and other technical documentation. I couldn't imagine working in a Word shop, especially with the thousands of pages of doc I have to manage now.

Adobe recently moved Frame development to Adobe India, which I believe could mean one of two things: 1) move Frame out of our US offices so we can focus on the products that "really matter" (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, etc..), or 2) get Frame to a development environment that will take a fresh approach to Frame's development, while also allowing them to reduce the costs (being in a third-party country) it will take to overhaul the product. I can only hope for the second assumption.

We can expect the next release of Frame in another year, so only time will tell what Adobe's got in mind for the world's best DTP tool.

Arnis, Thanks, that's an interesting hack. How do you propose turning them "off" when you don't want to see them: to hide them? I hope not by changing the colors each time.

More important though, I really don't want it to be that hard to use. FM is a very powerful tool which allows you to produce all kinds of effects like you describe. However, why does it have to be so hard to use? (Just think about all the amazing kludges we produce with tables to get around formatting inadequacies.) Further, I don't want to have to use a third party product. I don't want to have to define special colors, etc. I just want the feature in the product as shipped.

But thanks again for the suggestion; I'll play with it and see if it suits my needs!

Mike