Seeking inputs on desired features in FrameMaker

Please, an eyedropper tool! I'm a InDesign (and PhotoShop) user of many years; I find applying paragraph and character styles in FrameMaker to be really tedious. I do a lot of mid-sentence character style application, and I'd love to have an eyedropper tool to do it with. So very much faster.

Thanks for considering it.

I would like some productivity enhancements based on long-standing features of other Adobe page-layout programs.

1. Linked graphics panel. A list of all graphics in a file, with page numbers and file format. Users should be able to update individual instances of graphics (including linking to a different file) from this panel.

2. Export linked graphics. Users should be able to export all graphics in a file to a new location.

3. Updating graphics when opening a file. Framemaker should recognize all linked graphics in a folder when one is updated, no matter in what order the graphics appear in the file.

4. Saving link locations. Once the user has told Framemaker where to find linked graphics, it should not ask again on subsequent openings of the file unless files are missing, have been moved, or have been modified.

5. Zoom with control +, control -, and control 0. It's standard in every other Adobe program I use, why not Framemaker?

Support book-level settings that would override ALL formats for all documents in a book.

Ideally those formats would be stored in the .book file.

If that's not possible, have a document setting that would disable the local formats and use those for a specified file, and make it possible to set that for all documents in a book with one command.

You absolutely need to add a Packaging feature, exactly like the Packaging feature in InDesign.   There's the Bruce Foster's Archive plugin but Bruce has passed away and his website, where you could download the plugin, is no longer in existence.  The fact that InDesign has this packaging feature, a fellow Adobe product, and Framemaker doesn't, is absolutely insane. 

When will Framemaker 11 be released?

X to close the book window

Add an X to the book window tab or to the icons below the tab, for closing the book. This would be a small change, but very helpful. I know you can right-click and select Close, but an X would be faster because it's one less click. I feel like I'm always looking for an X, but it's not there.

Hi Kapil,

Many thanks for the opportunity to provide input. Most of the writers in our group use Frame 9.  Here are our 10 requests, condensed from a list of 30:

1.  More stability!!!  In version 9, FrameMaker crashes have increased quite a lot (“FrameMaker has detected a serious error and must close” message.) It happens quite often when doing a lot of copy/paste, or many files are open at the same time.

2.  During spell checks, support some way to deal with ":" ".name" and other syntax (/-* etc.) without getting flagged every time.  Rather than always telling you that you cannot "OK" that item, it should either allow singletons to be "OK'd" or let you  create custom formatting (such as "<char> <sp> .<char>" for example).

3.  Support Docbook again!   ~(:-o

4.  Add “repeat last action” capability.  Keyboard shortcuts are good, but they are specific. It would be great to have a quick way to repeat any action.

5.  Add more options for creating and formatting tables.  For example, there should be an option where you can right click on any table cell and create a table within it, and other options that join tables together, split one table into two, change heading row to body row, and vice versa.

6.  Enhance native graphics features to ease creation of illustrations.  The Frame drawing tools are terrible!  The whole thing can do with a revamp.  This would include:

    - Support for a shapes library with some standard shapes that we can drag and drop (think Visio stencils)
    - The ability to move objects using only arrow key instead of alt+arrow
    - When an object is selected, display the properties in the toolbar instead of having to view object properties
    - Ability to choose a fill color and a different color for the outline of a shape in the same step

7.  Support for capturing keyboard Macros (similar to Microsoft Word), both at book level and file level.  Oh yeah.

8.  Allow a single row to break across pages.  We sometimes want to create a new row for the next page and split the contents but, when we conditionalize and hide some of the content, the two rows appear on the same page and it makes the table messy. Ideally, they should be in the same row.

9.  Revert to using Magenta for the color for all overlapping condition tags.  In Frame 9, it generates weird colors for all unique combinations of condition tags.  The many “fm_gen_<number>” colors in the color list are meaningless and really gum up the works.  At the very least, move all Frame-generated colors to the very bottom of the colors list.

10. Allow us to set a paste choice as the new default; we want to set the default without closing the tool to edit fminit (maybe through the Paste Special dialog or the Preferences window?).

• Hi Kapil,

High Priority - introduce style inheritance for unstructured documents. The simplest presentation (from a document creation/maintenance POV) would be a style list with graphical linking; a tree structure showing the basic style elements, and the pertinent variations.

Example:

Body [MinionPro 11 pt, 0 lines above, 0.5 lines below, US English]

     |---> Bullet1 [Bullet, indent 6mm]

     |          |---> Bullet2 [indent 12mm]

     |---> IndentedBody [indent 6mm]

     |---> List 1. [autonumber: < ><n+>\t< =0>< =0>< =0>< =0>, indent 6mm]

     |          |---> List (a) [autonumber: < >< >< >(<a+>)\t< =0>< >, indent 12mm]

     |          |---> List ( i) [autonumber: < >< >< >< >\t(<r+>)\t< ><, indent 18mm]     

     ...

This gives the user the ability to:

• make global changes based on known consequences,
• easily spot anomalies,
• introduce new styles without unintentionally impacting existing styles.

Laurence Burrows

Hi Kapil,

A simple request, and perhaps this is already possible?

I would like to have custom building blocks for autonumbering.

Currently we have three choices (for non-Asian numbering): <n>, <a>, and <r>.

I would like the ability to define my own base numbering system, for example <h> for hexidecimal or <o> for octal, and then have that choice show up in the numbering panel of the paragraph designer.

Is this possible?

Thanks,

Jason

I have already posted but i feel this deserves a separate post. Please, please, please get rid of your adobe community help. The help system integration is a living nightmare that SIGNIFICANTLY AND NEGATIVELY impacts my productivity on a daily basis. I would settle for a complete removal of the help system and instead when I click the help topics button a PDF of the help just comes up. Or alternatively just provide a generic web help with a link to the pdf. However, what I loathe with a fiery passion, is that when I select the help topics button, it takes literally MINUTES to load the community web help and many seconds to do any navigation or searching.

I don't care about web 2.0.

I don't care about collaborative authoring and help.

I don't care abou forums.

I don't care about instantly updated help.

All i want is a PDF or web help that comes up when I click on it and does not lag noticeably when I navigate through or search through it.

Hi, I would really like to see the following items implemented:

1. Add Global variables to the program.  I can't believe that FM dosen't already have this.

2. When a PDF is imported as a graphic, automatically create an eps, in the same directory as the graphic, to use in the display.  This will improve the display speed.  Displaying a single PDF in FM can cometimes take several minutes.  Two back to back pdf graphics (or other non-eps graphics) can sometimes lock the program up.

3. Try to create a common menu system between adobe programs.  I know your latest PR says that you have, but I don't see it.  Even in something as easy as the "File" menu, where there are a lot of commonalities between the programs, the differences are huge and unnecessary.  It would be fantastic is things as simple as File Save, Open, Close Previous, Zoom , Pan, etc could be in the same place in all programs.

4. The changes you make in the next version should focus on ease of use, not adding new features.  There is a fringe group that will always want more features, but your market base, which is where your money comes from, just want it to be easier to use.

Good Luck!