Need Help Defining New Color

Many thanks Nancy.

I'd been word processing for 16 years before moving into usability and instructional design. Have heard other horrors about Ventura.

Good to hear from a pro.

Software developers don't listen to users, they do what they please in abject ignorance and vain presumption, and if it someohow manages to be better than whatever beast is current, people put up with it, or call it a godsend.

Look at MS Word. I declare this software is an act of terrorism. And it's now a de facto standard. Shame on everyone.

I don't give them a millimeter. From a lifetime of experience, I believe zero tolerance is the only way to treat software vendors.

Dear Steven,

I can understand your frustration with FrameMaker's sometimes-opaque instructions and explanations. I have made my living in printing and publishing for more than 30 years and it has the steepest learning curve of any application I have tackled.

That said, it is perfect for certain types of publications. I took over production on a 400-page catalog crammed with graphics and done in Ventura. After putting up with terror-induced insomnia caused by Ventura crashing 8-10 times EVERY DAY, I talked the customer into letting me rebuild the catalog in FrameMaker. That was five years ago and FrameMaker has crashed fewer than ten times since, usually while I was placing a giant graphic.

The "MIF run-around" has proved invaluable. My first use of it was to duplicate a specific rule style the customer insisted on for his tables. As far as I know, FrameMaker is the only application that allows users access to its source code, and MIF is the means.

As for the mysterious Color Views: I did a textbook in Framemaker in two editions--Student and Teacher. The Teacher edition was output as PDF with the magenta plate visible--the Answers throughout the book. To output the Student edition, I switched to a different Color View that made the magenta plate invisible. One file--two books--in just a few keystrokes.

I assume you were forced to use Framemaker for this project. I wish you better luck with it as you proceed.

I got it expressly because it is advertised to import seamlessly into RoboHelp 7. It does not, and RoboHelp 7 is likewise rife with deceitful interface functionality that simply does not work.

Sadly, that's also been my experience; an experience reinforced on multiple forums -- including Adobe's own -- by multiple commentators.

Omni System's Mif2Go (http://www.omsys.com/dcl/omni.htm) is a price-effective and technically very attractive alternative. Mif2Go is a bit more technically challenging (one must edit configuration files) but is spectacularly customizable in return...

Cheers,
Riley

Frankly, if you can't distinguish between a user and app. failures, please do mark-as-ignore. There's nothing impolite to anyone in this forum in stating the simple fact that an Adobe product is junk.

As for venting the fact, I refuse to subscribe to the notion one should be calm about deceitful advertising and junkware, whether Adobe's or anyone else's.

I wish I had never opened FrameMaker. I got it expressly because it is advertised to import seamlessly into RoboHelp 7. It does not, and RoboHelp 7 is likewise rife with deceitful interface functionality that simply does not work. Lie-ware.

Adobe has two fine products, Photoshop and Illustrator. Based on Illustrator, InDesign also seems to behave quite well and I'd have gone with that app if I'd known about Adobe's RoboHelp and FrameMaker barefaced contempt for usability.

Really, FM is a dog among dogs.

For what it is worth...

I never do anything in View > Color > Views. Not sure what color views are, but am sure they have nothing to do with color definitions.

I create colors in View > Color > Definitions, as described by others earlier. When I click Done, the new color shows up immediately in the Set Color tool in the Drawing Tools and appears in the color drop-down in the Object Properties. There is no need to do the MIF route. I have never run into the 33 color limit as mentioned earlier.

For me, FrameMaker is working as advertised.

Steven, this might come as a surprise to you, but we, your fellow users, here, in the FrameMaker forum, are generally polite, respectful of each other, and open to the idea that "maybe we just don't get it yet". You seem to be under the impression that venting at us is acceptable forum behavior. It is not. You might want to check behind you for burned bridges. <mark-as-ignore>

Thank you all for your kind help with the immediate problem.

The larger problem, garbageware developed and sold by Adobe, remains.

If you have hundreds of colors defined, maybe as RGB values, Frame is probably picking them up from PNG graphics in your files.

To delete a few colors, you would use the Color View dialog box.. but select the subtly-named Delete button instead of Add.

Art

To delete colors, View > Color Definitions, select color in dropdown and hit the Delete button. The Delete button is only active for user-defined colors.

no, I take that back. There is no interminable list in View 1. There is exactly the same list shown in Graphics > Object Properties and the tools color palette.