In this post, I’d like to share my initial experiences with the latest version of FM with you. Perhaps this collection of experiences will be helpful to some of you if you’re thinking about switching to the latest version.My initial conclusion after some hours spent with testing: FM 2026 does not meet our documentation requirements. Here are some reasons for this:At first, I was surprised: A major release for small features like “Find all” and “Book template”? Hhmmm …Book templateAdobes docs for this feature are really weird in my native language (German). The documentation seems to have been carelessly cobbled together, or it was generated by an untrained AI. The book template doesn’t supports conditional expressions. For this reason, all existing expressions were replaced with “Default” and could therefore no longer be selected from the book. IMHO: Book template is a really great idea. But at the moment not more than an idea.PDF exportDespite checking and adjusting the PDF settings several times, all bookmarks are missing in the exported PDF.HTML export from book with logical elements (folders/groups)The errors that occur when exporting to HTML, as described in the following links, have not been fixed.I had reported the following bugs in Adobe's bug tracker. Apparently, those reports were deleted there. I don't know why.https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/FRMAKER-15040https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/FRMAKER-16451What has been your experience with the current version? Can you use this version without any concerns? Do you perhaps have any workarounds that solve the issues described above?Thank you in advance for your tips and advice.Best,Andreas

Participating Frequently

Question

What have been your first impressions of FM 2026 (v18.0.0)?

Forum|Forum|3 days ago
April 21, 2026
5 replies
75 views

In this post, I’d like to share my initial experiences with the latest version of FM with you. Perhaps this collection of experiences will be helpful to some of you if you’re thinking about switching to the latest version.

My initial conclusion after some hours spent with testing: FM 2026 does not meet our documentation requirements. Here are some reasons for this:

At first, I was surprised: A major release for small features like “Find all” and “Book template”? Hhmmm …

Book template

Adobes docs for this feature are really weird in my native language (German). The documentation seems to have been carelessly cobbled together, or it was generated by an untrained AI.
The book template doesn’t supports conditional expressions. For this reason, all existing expressions were replaced with “Default” and could therefore no longer be selected from the book.
IMHO: Book template is a really great idea. But at the moment not more than an idea.

PDF export

Despite checking and adjusting the PDF settings several times, all bookmarks are missing in the exported PDF.

HTML export from book with logical elements (folders/groups)

The errors that occur when exporting to HTML, as described in the following links, have not been fixed.

I had reported the following bugs in Adobe's bug tracker. Apparently, those reports were deleted there. I don't know why.

https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/FRMAKER-15040

https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/FRMAKER-16451

What has been your experience with the current version? Can you use this version without any concerns? Do you perhaps have any workarounds that solve the issues described above?

Thank you in advance for your tips and advice.

Best,
Andreas

Andreas Lenz PEAuthor

Participating Frequently

@All replyers,

thanks alot for your replies. I hope that this collection may helpful for all users that reading this post.

Best regards, Andreas

F

FrameMaker-dk

Community Expert

You have hit my own two reservations. No bookmarks in PDF and trouble with proper export to HTML5.

The latter function seems to have to do with a stricter need to adhere to HTML naming conventions.

I ran some test on one of my samples and FrameMaker made a mess out of the structure. Then I took a look at my para names, and renamed them to Title / Heading 1/ Heading 2 etc, and this did the trick. While it IS nice that things CAN be made to work, I am not super happy that you may need to redefine your entire template.

Bjørn Smalbro - FrameMaker.dk

Andreas Lenz PEAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi Bjørn,

thanks alot for your advice. I will start some tests with renaming the para names. I agree with you that this isn't an elegant solution. But if it works, it will really help me for my publishing purposes. Even though it involves a lot of work to adapt the paras across such a large volume of documents. 😅

Matt-Tech Comm Tools

Community Expert

I would have hoped for some larger features, perhaps a tie-in with AI, CCMS, localization, or other tech, but the revisioning to v18 has been long overdue.

From a branding perspective, 17.0.9 isn’t really Fm 2022, and we’d been languishing with that label for too long.

Case in point: I chose not updated my FrameMaker training and reference books when we moved from Fm 2020 to Fm 2022, as it’s a substantial effort to do so.

That was an unfortunate choice on my part, as once we’d hit 2024, I was left with only the opportunity to update to the Fm 2022 version.

Fast forwarding to today, now that the branding is no longer year-based (I lobbied against the initial change in Fm 2015) I can now update books and courses as needed, based on changes in UI and feature set. In fact, I just submitted the revised EDD workbook to the publisher last night.

So...I’m grateful for the change, and I think it was the right choice. But I still wish we had something with the wow factor that would merit an actual launch effort, which in this case I think Adobe marketing wisely decided against running.

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

W

Winfried Reng

Community Expert

Hi Andreas,

I cannot open your Tracker reports. I do not know why. I would assume that a bug for CHM help is not going to be fixed.

I recommend to create separate posts for your issues. Then it’s easier to comment one of the issues.

Book template - I have not tested it, but could imagine that it is useful for my user variables. Missing in the FM help: conditions in this template.

Find All - sometimes helpful.

Generally for me FrameMaker 18 is more stable than FM 17.

I do not find the description of the new features in the FM help bad or weird.

Best regards, Winfried

Andreas Lenz PEAuthor

Participating Frequently

Hi Winfried,

thanks for your reply.

“I cannot open your Tracker reports.” → Thats right. I guess it’s the same for all of us. Because I guess that the reports are deleted. But with Björns advice, I will start some tests with renaming the paras to resolve the problems with HTML export.

My post is intended more as a summary of various experiences with FM 18.0.0. That's why I didn't create separate posts for each issue. Especially since there are already several posts addressing the issues I mentioned.

The issues with the help addressing some weird contents like this (only helpful for German readers):

I hope that the folks at Adobe will review and improve the various language versions of their documentation in the near future.

Best regards, Andreas

frameexpert

Community Expert

Bjørn Smalbro posted a review on LinkedIn:

https://lnkd.in/eAKJA7di

At this point, it’s not worth it for me to upgrade, especially if there are lingering (or new) bugs. The two main new features are minor conveniences and may be appealing to new users, but I don’t find them very useful in my workflows.

www.frameexpert.com

F

FrameMaker-dk

Community Expert

Thanks @frameexpert

Bjørn Smalbro - FrameMaker.dk

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