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rlauriston
Inspiring
February 13, 2012
Question

FrameMaker 10 UI bugs - workarounds?

  • February 13, 2012
  • 1 reply
  • 3726 views

I've been using FrameMaker 10 (unstructured) heavily for the first time and started keeping a list of the UI bugs I encounter regularly. I'm on Windows 7, 64-bit, single 1650 x 1050 display. I don't have any of the following problems with any of the many other applications I use.

1. Document window size and position are not saved.

2. Docked panels often appear behind the document window, and I have to resize or close the document window to use them. Since window size and position are not saved, I have to resize them dozens of times a day.

3. Sometimes I have the opposite problem: the side of a window is completely blocked by the character or paragraph tag catalog, so I have to minimize, close, or move the panel before I can resize the window.

4. When I open a panel, sometimes it appears behind another panel that's already open, and I have to move one or the other before I can use it.

5. The first time I press Ctrl-f, I can just type the search string, but after that the focus within the Find/Change seems to be random, so I can't.

6. After a book has been open for a while, it no longer responds to menu commands. I can double-click files to open them or use the right-click menu, but if I try to select a menu command such as Edit > Update Book or File > Save As PDF the book window minimizes and is no longer active. The only workaround I've found is to close and reopen the book window.

7. A separate FrameMaker button appears on the taskbar for each file that's open.

8. The FrameMaker console window appears behind the application window. Bringing it to the front is sometimes difficult.

9. When I first start FrameMaker, Ctrl-F6 switches between open windows. After a while, it stops working.

10. Alt-key menu letters are not displayed for all menu commands (e.g. Documents on the Window menu).

11. If I Alt-Tab to FrameMaker from another application, pressing Alt-Tab again takes me to another FrameMaker document window (if more than one document is open) instead of back to the other application.

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    1 reply

    kmacdowe+brdcom
    kmacdowe+brdcom
    Inspiring
    October 24, 2012

    I too have experienced all these bugs. I am disappointed Adobe would release a product with so many significant, obvious bugs, not fix them, then release a new version.

    Matt-Tech Comm Tools
    Community Expert
    Matt-Tech Comm ToolsCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 24, 2012

    They did fix them...in particular they fixed

    1. Window positioning in FM9, giving a tabbed interface with multiple tiling options available in the menu bar
    2. The tabbed interface (FM9)prevents docs from appearing behind panels, unless you choose the "fly-out" option, which is best for really small screens
    3. Tabbed interface again solves this quite nicely
    4. Saved workspaces allow panel management based on task
    5. Find/Change focus works as expected in FM 11
    6. OK, so you got me here...FM has *always* "gotten tired" and needs to be restarted occasionally. Much like many tech writers I know!
    7. If you double-click an FM doc in Win Explorer, you get another instance of FM open. Same with CPT and RH, and others.
    8. Console much improved in FM11, and displays as panel, not separate app.
    9. I use Ctrl-tab for this. It works, and always has (for me...)
    10. Alt-key mapping is more complete in FM11
    11. Sounds like you inadvertently used Ctrl-tab, not Alt-tab

    they called it FM 11

    -Matt

    -Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant
    R
    rlauristonAuthor
    Inspiring
    October 24, 2012

    They fixed the bugs I encountered in FM10 in FM9? That's a neat trick.

    I eventually figured out that if I reset FM to its defaults and just worked with UI the way it comes out of the box I did not encounter nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, or 11. They're still bugs, since they make features of the UI unsuable.

    I gave up on keyboard shortcuts because of bugs such as 9 and 10. I encountered lots of other broken shortcuts. The people who coded the FM9 UI clearly did not test driving from the keyboard.

    5 and 8 are still constant annoyances but there's no way I'd recommend throwing good money after bad to fix them by upgrading to FM11, which I hear has even worse bugs and as usual offers no new features of any significant use to me.

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