[Closed] FrameMaker 7.x/8 Feature Requests

Bill,

How do I author in Frame with a 2-up view?
The pdf thing works, but then you have to go back, fix it, then re-pdf it.

Sean,

You got me. I wasn't thinking in terms of generating more work for myself.

My bad.

:OP

Bill, it's different in two ways.

First, print preview would require more clicks.

Second, you cannot make changes in print preview, so you'd have to keep bouncing around between editing and print previewing.

Cheers,

Sean

Horace,

1. 
   
2. How is that different than authoring in FM using a 2-up view, or using a PDF with a 2-up view? (Arnis made an excellent suggestion above, which will give you what you are looking for - IN FRAMEMAKER - providing you are using the correct printer for your needs as your default printer.)
   
   
3. Yes, a pain.

>And don't get me started on changing Zoom sizes. Not real user friendly

There's no magnifying glass, but I don't see how Print Preview would present a friendlier solution; print preview would involve more clicks.

>WITHOUT WASTING PAPER

Nobody has suggested you waste paper.

>2.

Yeah, that can be a pain. At a minimum, you have to cycle through the FM twice before moving on to the next chapter. Quite an annoyance.

Cheers,

Sean

Two parts to this.

1. I would use Print Preview strictly to see that my facing pages line up the way I want, and also to avoid bad page breaks, WITHOUT WASTING PAPER. I don't try to read the text. And don't get me started on changing Zoom sizes. Not real user friendly, IMHO.

2. Could the Find and Find/Replace features be refined such that they tell you when you've reached the end of what you selected to search, instead of recycling until you finally notice that's what they are doing?

Print Preview is not going to tell you anything unless:

1. You are using the same driver and PPD as your default printer that your final deliverable will be printed with.

2. You have a NASA-strength monitor with infinite resolution capability so you can really see a 600 dpi image (or 1200 dpi, or...) on-screen, and see your fonts in print-quality on-screen. *lol*

The most common font error people run into when using FM is not using the target printer as their default when authoring in FM. For example, you use a print vendor for publishing, and they use a Docutech for production, but you are authoring with your office's HP DeskJet as your default printer. If you're trying to do prepress layout on your local machine, you should be using the target printer (even if set up as a virtual printer for the sake of layout and proofing) as your default.

Printing to PS and distilling to PDF will give you EXACTLY what your target production printer will (except in electronic form). You can proof it on-screen. Image quality will not be exact because you ARE proofing on-screen, and printing it out on your DeskJet won't give you an exact rendering of your production quality either, as the output from a DeskJet is very different from that of a production-quality printer.

Basically, if you need a hard proof, you should request one from your print vendor. If you need an electronic one, the best you can get is a PDF (set up as needed and created using your print vendor's driver and PPD).

That said, a Print Preview option would be useless to anyone doing production-quality work. Even if it was capable of showing you the layout just as well as a PDF, you are the only audience for the print preview. If you wanted to share the proof with anyone else, you'd have to go with PDF anyway, as you can't distribute a Print Preview.

Oh, I just change the zoom in FrameMaker to see the alignment of printed pages. My fonts don't really change that much between screen and print--I mean, clearly, screen is lower res, so there are going to be some differences, but because print preview is to screen, also, it doesn't overcome the screen shortcomings. Of course, printing (to PDF) is one way to view your output, especially for EPS files, and rasters will print differently than they display--again, a resolution thing. But, I know what my rasters look like on-screen and print like, given a particular res.

So, there are no advantages to print preview for me. YMMV.

Cheers,

Sean

Sean,

Print Preview (in Word) saves paper! It's also great for checking that documents prepared for double-sided printing align correctly.

It would have the same advantages in FM.

Frame displays fonts much differently than they appear in print (PDF or hardcopy). Images also appear extremely blurry and grainy in Frame, but can suprisingly print very clean, or even worse than they appear in Frame. When I see this odd behavior, I usually have to print PDF or a hardcopy sample to ensure content displays correctly.