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FrameMakerNoob
Participant
April 11, 2013
Question

FrameMaker Features: popus, collapsing sections, hyperlinks/cross-references

  • April 11, 2013
  • 8 replies
  • 1419 views

Hello, and thanks in advance for the help.

I am required to write a ~1000 page manual in Adobe FrameMaker 11. The manual is to be accessed online, but also available in printable version. The online version should include:
- popups
- collapsing sections

- hyperlinks/cross-references.

Are these features available in FrameMaker by itself?

I know it is a beginner-level question, but the answers I have found online either use additional programs such as Robohelp, or are not straightforward enough for me to understand. I would like to know if FrameMaker 11 is enough by itself to produce a manual with the features I mentioned above.

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8 replies

Jeff_Coatsworth
Community Expert
Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 11, 2013

The native FM to HTML output is reputed to be fairly poor - that's why products like Mif2Go are so successful. You can also go the Technical Communication Suite route that allows you to link your FM content to a RH project and product a variety of online forms of help. I have no idea how to accomplish popups in FM that would get exported properly to online help, but DHTHL hotspots will do your collapsing sections, and hyperlinks/xrefs are all handled very well by FM.

FrameMakerNoobAuthor
Participant
April 11, 2013

Thanks a lot Jeff!
I think I will go with the Technical Communication Suite, and just implement the popups in Robohelp. As a fairly new user, I was confused by the possibilty of producing HTML directly from FrameMaker, because it led me to wonder what sort of features could be handled there. Now I understand, if I want Dynamic HTML stuff, I should export the project to Robohelp.

Again, thanks a lot.

Matt-Tech Comm Tools
Community Expert
Matt-Tech Comm ToolsCommunity Expert
Community Expert
April 11, 2013

For a 1000 page project, if you need good looking output for both print and online, then authoring in FM and producing online by linking to RH is the best way to go. You can implement your pop-ups and other things directly from the FM docs.

-Matt Sullivan, FrameMaker Course Creator, Author, Trainer, Consultant
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