[Closed] FrameMaker 7.x/8 Feature Requests

1. Remove the restriction that forces every file in a book to start on a new page. Let the first paragraph style dictate the pagination.

2. Lacking that, support searches and spell checks in files included by reference.

3. Ability to delete catalog entries (char, para, cond text) and variables for all files in a book, not just one file at a time.

> Adding a text frame to an anchored frame just doesn't cut it ...<br /><br />fwiw ... never wasted my time trying <vbg> style :figure defines placing for an anchored frame, which then holds a graphic; style :figcap, including autonumbering à souhait and 'keep with previous', is for the caption. Using a style for the caption also makes lists of figures a doddle.

Here's a partial wish list, of what I can think of right now:

* Character formats in markers, using a menu. Typing them by hand is such a pain (and this is a longstanding problem).

* Better recovery handling - opening a recovery file should (a) tell you whether it's any different from the autosave file or the main file (b) if it is, allow you to save it as the main file and delete the recover/autosave file, and (c) if not, automatically delete the recover/autosave file. And do this for all files in a book, not one-at-a-time. (This has already been mentioned, so I'm seconding the request!)

* More flexibility in placement of tables and graphics.

* Better tools for handling figures! There should be at least a standard way of creating a figure with a caption (as there is with tables) that is treated as a single entity and can then be positioned wherever you want it. Adding a text frame to an anchored frame just doesn't cut it - it gets converted with the graphic when you convert to HTML; putting it outside the text frame places too many limitations on figure placement.

* Fix the bugs! The ones that annoy me most at present are:
- warnings about color that you get when you do stuff with
conditional text and update a book
- Font metric warnings that keep on coming up with certain files,
even though the files haven't changed.

* Better information about named destinations in the generated PDF, so I can link to specific places in PDF documents from HTML

And I'm not really interested in having to search the web for plug-ins that do the job. These should be mainstreamed. I don't want to have to spend a lot of time looking for plug-ins.

In fact, maybe if Adobe open-sourced FrameMaker, a lot of the plug-ins could be integrated without too much trouble. Adobe could maintain the right to say what went in and what didnt (much like Sun does), but get a whole lot of mileage from people's contributions, and we'd all get a better product.

Is Adobe even listening to this forum? And is there any chance that any of these things will actually make it into the software?

Ken.

As I understand it, it's cos it involves converting the Frame document to PostScript, and then distilling the PostScript document to PDF.
There are an increasing number of PDF features which PostScript doesn't support (proper colour management, transparency, etc), so this stuff gets stymied in the above scenario.

Of course, Frame doesn't support a lot of these newer features either. But then that's a pain in the ass too!

Having just spent the last few hours reading some of Dov Isaac's latest Presentations about PDF workflows (from the InDesign and Acrobat user forums), I'm realising that FrameMaker badly lacks native support for PDF generation - we have to muck about with converting PostScript via Distiller. FrameMaker ought to just be able to generate PDF directly in the same way that all the Adobe Creative Suite apps can - this would give hugely less scope for creating duff PDFs.
But then, I expect Adobe already know this :)

Oh.......conditional rows would be awesome! I've had to make two separate tables to accomplish the same thing too!

Rows you can - just select the whole row and apply the condition. Columns you can't, and I agree. There've been times I've needed that and had to make multiple tables instead.

Cheers, Rebecca

I have used conditional text before... but it would be nice to make a table have conditional text and assign it (easily and quickly) to one or more entire columns or rows in a table.

Make it possible to apply conditional text to the whole of the last paragraph in a flow and then turn display of that condition off without getting a blank line. Our group needs this in tables and text insets. Often, we can work around it by conditioning the pilcrow of the second-last paragraph but that's slow, ugly and very prone to operator error. Sometimes we have to add an unconditioned very thin blank line. That's even more prone to operator error.

Cheers, Rebecca

Here's one more.......

I would like the ability to add "ImageAltText" tags when I insert an Anchored Frame instead of having to remember to add a text box and marker inside the frame.