[Closed] FrameMaker 7.x/8 Feature Requests

Report · Aug 19, 2002

Time to start entering these. If you are unsure about whether FM has the feature yet, please do some research and figure it out before posting.

Please don't post requests for assistance in here, either.

Cheers,

Sean

Report · Jul 17, 2003

    2) Inheritable Para/Char Tags ala MS Word.





   Uuugh. No thanks.

Huh?!? No PLEASE! Give us this option. I recently went through the excercise of changing the font for 90% of my para tags. I would love to have an option to declare that a paragraph tag's font be the same as the 'body' for example.

Report · Jul 17, 2003

Mike, checkout Global Update Options. For example, open character designer. Set everything to AS-IS. Change the font to what you want. Use Commands > Globat Update Options to change All Characters and Catalog Entries. Anyway, check it out.

As for the cascading option, what I don't want is moving the doc to another PC causes automatic updates, or unintended consequences, or overrides being applied from reserved or default styles, et al. No. Instead, I prefer to be able to control all such changes. Additionally, my styles don't update very often and my font set is pretty restricted. Furthermore, just select the content you want to base something on, and use New Format to create a new tag, and then reformat it as needed--creation is easy enough without cascading anything. Word's implementation of this is flawed to the point of causing rework. No thanks. But, you are going to have some debate over such requests, it's (hopefully) up to Adobe to sort us out.

Cheers,

Sean

Report · Jul 17, 2003

2) Inheritable Para/Char Tags ala MS Word.

One of the recurring themes in this Feature Requests thread has been better book-level management of all document elements. If FrameMaker were to include improved methods for globally managing fonts (both missing and otherwise), paragraph and character styles, tags of all sorts, et alii, I wonder if it wouldn't create a useful compromise between Word's sometimes annoying "based on" style update behavior, and FrameMaker's sometimes annoying by-the-each style update behavior.

I'll keep this posting short, but I think those who've been reading the thread will understand my reference to the ongoing desire for FrameMaker 8 and beyond to include better book-level tools in the pursuit of effective and efficient document management. I mention this now because I see such improved capablities as possibly striking a usable balance between feature request's such as Mike's vis-a-vis the desire to keep FrameMaker blissfully un-Wordlike.

Cheers & hope this helps,
Riley

Report · Jul 17, 2003

Ditto.

BTW, am not opposed to different ways of managing things like tags and fonts, I just don't believe doing this in the same way Word currently does would be better.

Cheers,

Sean

Report · Jul 17, 2003

Bug? In FM7 for Windows, you can't Page Down from one file to another in a book if the Paragraph Designer is open. However, you can Page Up to the next file in the book, or page either way if Character Designer is open. ?!?!

Report · Jul 17, 2003

Sean, I'm very familiar with Global Update and using As-Is. However, like I said, I only wanted about 90% of my paragraphs, not ALL of them. For example, I want all body text to be serif, while all headings to be sans-serif. I recently changed my body font face and had to do it in about 20 different tags. I would rather say base all body tag fonts on B.Body (or something) so I can change it there only. Similarly, I would like all headings to use the same font, and all code to use the same font. Why should I have to change all them individually or globally only? This is no different than how .css works now; I just want to see it available in the .fm as well.

As for controling cascading changes... I specifically said I wanted it AS AN OPTION, and one that should be applicable on a tag basis. IOW, if you don't want it don't use it.

What I would really like is one place (like a .css) where I can define many common attributes, and then override them for specific tags. Something like subclassing attributes. I probably wouldn't do it for all paragraph attributes; but I would do all basic and default font attributes.

Mike

Report · Jul 17, 2003

Sean said:
> BTW, am not opposed to different ways of
> managing things like tags and fonts, I
> just don't believe doing this in the same
> way Word currently does would be better.

The thing about the way Word does it is that your tags can be standalone if you want them to be. If "TagX" isn't based on anything, you get no surprises when you change some other tag. But if you want to change your "main document font" from Times to Utopia, in Word I change one paragraph tag, and in FrameMaker I have to change a dozen.

I can't see how adding based-on would hurt anything as long as you say "Not based on anything, thankyouverymuch".

Report · Jul 17, 2003

Well, it is feature requests, so keep 'em crossed <g>. Another techique for changing fonts in tags quickly, if you have 20 tags and want to change only 90%, then define the two you don't want to change in a blank FM file--call it a template--a simple Copy, Paste, Apply will do it. Then, change your fonts globally in your working document and, as the final act, import only the tags from the template and it will reset that 10% you didn't want to change. This is very quick. And then, if you are forever changing fonts on projects and have fairly fluid designs, you could FrameScript this to make it more automagical. I don't mind the as-an-option stuff, as long as it doesn't slow the app down, make the app more prone to crashes, or significantly increase minimum hardware requirements. (Plus, I sorta like the fact that FrameMaker relies on up-front planning at the expense of on-the-fly reformatting, it keeps me focused on content. <g>) What I really don't want is for putting a file onto another computer and the normal.dot and list-numbering structures sponaneously get overwritten by those on the new hard drive. Etc. Cheers, Sean

Report · Jul 17, 2003

The original sub-thread began, I believe, with Mike requesting the ability to quickly update an entire chapter file's (document's?) font selection. As I interpreted it, his suggestion was to have FrameMaker emulate Word's method of deriving one or more "child styles" from a "parent style": Updating the parent style's font would thus update any child style's fonts at the same time

How about this idea: In FrameMaker's Paragraph Designer, in the Default Font drop-down list, add the ability to specify a user-defined character style as the paragraph style's Default Font.

For example, one first uses the Character Designer to define a named character style like BodyText that specifies a font family, size, angle, so on. (I chose BodyText but one could of course also specify "ListText," etc...)

The Paragraph Designer in turn allows any named character style, in this example BodyText, to be selected as any given paragraph's "Default Font." Thus, if the definition for BodyText is changed, any and all paragraphs that specify BodyText as their default font receive the updated BodyText font definition.

Does this make any sense? It does seem to me to address FrameMaker's somewhat clumsy by-the-each updating of multiple paragraph style's fonts without basing entire paragraph styles on Word's equally clumsy (as in overly interlocked) "parent style" technique.

Perhaps this approach could be expanded to include the ability to specify a named character style "plus n points" or "minus n points," thus allowing larger or smaller character size variations of a named character style to be specified as that style's Default Font.

Just thinking...

Cheers & hope this helps,
Riley

Report · Jul 17, 2003

> Perhaps this approach could be expanded to include the ability to specify a named character style "plus n points" or "minus n points," thus allowing larger or smaller character size variations of a named character style to be specified as that style's Default Font

That's been on my wish list at my Web site for a long time. It would be great for bullets (base size -1 pt or base size + 2 percent).

I, too, would like the option of Word's based-on. Even in Word it is optional. But, failing that, if you have the resource of the maker.ini at your disposal, you can change a font en mass pretty quickly.

Report · Jul 26, 2003

I'd really like the ability to total a table column.

Less important but nice would be a "merge" feature. I do correspondence for several organizations and the ability to merge information from a database (or output text file from a database) into Frame would be very helpful.

Report · Jul 31, 2003

A refinement. I previously asked for a 'simple hyperlink' method. Much easier would be to have an 'As Is' text option for Cross References. So that you highlight the text that is the source, choose the As Is style of Cross Ref, pick a target and then the link text stays the same and doesn't change according to the target para or anything else. This would save me from messing about with hyperlinks altogether.

Report · Jul 31, 2003

If Adobe must ever patch a release again, and I'm sure they will, could they please emulate Microsoft and fix it so that each patch does the whole upgrade including all intermediate patches? I just spent the whole morning reintalling from CD-ROM and downloading and applying two patches.

Report · Aug 08, 2003

All of the tech manuals I have done have been using Interleaf and Word. Now the time has come for me to use FrameMaker and I'm having a hard time accepting the convaluted logic behind the design of the workflow process. Foremost is this whole business of opening a lot of windows when working with a book. Currently, I'm working on a tech manual that's made up of 15 chapters. I'm going nuts managing all of these files plus the TOC, List of Figures and List of Tables.

It would help tremendously if a BOOK file generated a file that unifies all 18 of my files as one FrameMaker File. Currently I have to generate a PDF to see my manual in its entirety. The problem with this PDF is that you can't really edit a PDF file. I would like to see a FrameMaker Book File that unifies all of the documents into one MASTER FrameMaker file that one can edit. When all work is done on this file all one needs to do is only close one file instead of closing 18 separate files. Redesigning the workflow in such a way would make working with FrameMaker much more delightful and productive.

Report · Aug 10, 2003

Couldn't disagree more! I find working with component files far more comfortable and more efficient - small is beautiful, and navigating through a ten-page chapter file is a sight easier than navigating through some humongous six-hundred-and-some page whole-book file.

But opinions aside, one of your question is already answered: hold down Shift before clicking on File, and you'll get the options "Close all files in book" and "Save all files in book".

Report · Aug 11, 2003

I'm with you Niels, as, I suspect, are most FrameMaker users. Didn't think it was worth posting--while Adobe's implementation of the book idea is not complete, there really is nothing you have to go nuts over to manage . . .. In fact, am very pleased it's not all one file like Word. Cheers, Sean.

Report · Aug 11, 2003

I too agree with Niels and Sean. One of FrameMaker's biggest strengths is its ability to modularize content in separate files.

What is it, exactly, that Mr. Binar is doing when he's "managing all of these files plus the TOC, List of Figures and List of Tables"? "Managing" in what way?

Cheers,
Riley

Report · Aug 13, 2003

1. "Save All" under File menu.

2. The ability to flag certain files in a book to not print. i.e., do a Print Book that only prints those files you wish to print.

Report · Aug 13, 2003

Art,

These functions already exist.

1. To Save All in a book, hold down the shift key before clicking on
the File menu. You'll see a variety of options for "ALL" files.

2. To selectively print files in book, ctrl+click the files you want
in the Book window to select them. Then, File > Print Selected...

Report · Aug 19, 2003

0. Mac OSX native (or at least Carbon)!!!!
1. FULL Unicode support
2. FULL OpenType support, with, for example, control in the Para and Char Designers of automatic usage of old-style figures
3. Improve Search/Replace functionality: FULL GREP s/r; multiple search criteria, so, for example, one can search for instances with a specific parafmt applied; quick saving of a search to a script from within the s/r window
4. Included scripting language which, among other things, can control the GREP s/r
5. Endnotes
6. The option to have changes to formats propagate automatically to all the files in a book
7. Better footnotes: let them split to the next page; make them able to avoid graphic frames at the bottom of a column; flexible controls to aid in keeping a footnote on the same page as its reference
8. Better control over the positioning of an anchored frame
9. Typography and display engines from InDesign (merge Frame functionality onto the InDesign engine?)

These items are all so important to my work with Frame that I seriously hope that they have already been implemented in Frame 8, which I hope is in beta by now. Of course, I know that most of this has been discussed many times before, but please indulge me in my therapeutic listmaking. :-)

Report · Aug 20, 2003

0. Mac OSX native!!!!!!
0. Mac OSX native!!!!!!
etc.

If Adobe doesn't at least make an announcement by the end of the fall our company will have to find a new product (probably one of the XML editors that is currently out there for OSX).

Forums are therapeutic...so that is the last of my ranting for the day. :coolfrown:

Report · Aug 20, 2003

LOL! Well, it was nice knowing you, Raman. ;?P

Report · Aug 22, 2003

Multiple levels of undo are a definite must! Also, it would be so great if I could have multiple page sizes in one document. Most of my documents are letter size, but every now and then, we have to add electrical schematics or other drawings that are 11 x 17. I always have to Mickey Mouse it so that the drawings are still in the TOC and Index, but I have to maintain separate files for them and manually insert them into my PDF files.

Report · Aug 26, 2003

1. An option for setting an anchored frame ABOVE the current line.

2. Capability of saving table headings as part of a defined table.

Report · Aug 26, 2003

3. Tables within tables.
4. Turn off automatic backup files.