[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 · Jun 22, 2004

Version that runs on OSX. If OSX is good enough for an Army supercomputer, don't you think FM could run on it?

Why stop requesting this? Maybe the current management will be terminated by Arnie out there in CA.

Report · Jun 23, 2004

> Why stop requesting this? Maybe the current management will be terminated by Arnie out there in CA.

Keep up the good fight!

Report · Jun 25, 2004

You will be interested in this petition:

Report · Jul 19, 2004

1543 and counting on the petition. Feature request: OSX version of FM.

Report · Jul 20, 2004

> 1543 and counting on the petition. Feature request: OSX version of FM.

Hmmph. With my luck, that's 85% of all Macintosh licenses.

Report · Jul 26, 2004

Slightly different request than compatibility with Mac:

How about ensuring Distiller creates PDFs that can actually be viewed by older versions of Adobe Reader?

Distiller 6 creates PDFs that cannot be properly viewed in IE with Reader 5.1 on Windows, unless "Allow Fast Web View" is disabled in Reader.

Report · Jul 27, 2004

Guess there's only one scientific writer before me:

What I need most is...

1. True unicode support (to access Greek characters in OpenType fonts)
2. A accessible equation editor (I frequently have to switch to linking to MathType equations that were saved as .eps files to get it all right...)
3. As many levels of undo as possible... (is this updated with FM7.1?)

Report · Aug 09, 2004

I would like to be able to mark specific .fm files in a book so that Conditional Text errors or Numbering errors would NOT be reported for these files when updating and generating a .book.
For instance, a back page that is common to all my manuals always alerts me that the conditional text settings do not match the previous file in the book. I know that. I want to mark this file in the book or in the file itself to always, always ignore conditional text settings.

Report · Aug 16, 2004

Chris,

I think DEC used (use?) their own in-house-version of TeX - which have all those nice features that FM does not support today.

RE
Mats

Report · Aug 30, 2004

A Missing Files dialog box that actually shows the COMPLETE filename and path to a missing file, instead of having an ellipsis obliterating the information I need to find the missing file!

Report · Sep 17, 2004

Ideally, support for Mac OSX (don't dump Mac!). With respect to Frame 7 on Windows, I miss the keyboard shortcuts that were available on Mac for many/most menu commands.

Report · Sep 17, 2004

Speaking of Mac, what happened to the EOL on Mac statement at the top of the forums page? Seems to have vanished at some point, although it is still listed on the FM product page.

Report · Sep 17, 2004

It's back at the top. It wasn't marked by Dov as a permanent topic and had drifted down to the archive section.

Thanks for pointing this out.

Report · Sep 17, 2004

Good old Adobe. Glad to know they don't want us Mac users to ever use any of their products in the future.

Adobe = Windows only by 2005

Always have a goal.

Feature request. OSX version of FrameMaker.

Report · Oct 04, 2004

Hi All:

I am new here - but been a FM User/Fan (nut?) since V3.x I have two requests for now:

More font colours in text frames and paragraph designs. Basic Red, Green, Blue, etc doesn't cut it. An RGB Selection would be nice.

Whenever you enter something, like cut/paste, the text below and above are blurry and unreadable until you page up/page dn. I was the same in V5.5 and in V7.0x. This is probably the most annoying thing and I would call it a bug ....

Don

Report · Oct 04, 2004

Hi Don

> More font colours in text frames and paragraph designs. Basic Red, Green, Blue, etc doesn't cut it. An RGB Selection would be nice.

We define colors as we need them:

View menu --> Color --> Definitions

Then they appear in all the lists that let you pick a color.

Cheers, Rebecca

Report · Oct 05, 2004

Also, Ctrl+L to refresh the page without PgUp/PgDn. Doesn't solve your problem though; only addresses the symptom.

Report · Oct 06, 2004

Rebecca:

Thanks - I was able to add the colours as you described. Although being able to define a colour on the fly (as in my request) would be nice, I like this better. This way I can manage my colours and save them in my documents.

Don

Report · Oct 12, 2004

Hi Folks:

Here's one. I always reference my graphics and store them in a separate folder. In one manual, I have approximately 1000 referenced graphics. Over the last 5 years, I have created numerous versions of this one manual. I have added some graphics, edited others, and stopped using some too. As a result, I know there are many un-used graphics in the folder. I could use a way to list all referenced graphics in my books and that way I can remove the un-used files. I know I should clean up as I go, but as we all know that is not always possible. If any one knows a way to do this as-is, I would appreciate some feedback too ... !

Don

Report · Oct 16, 2004

> If any one knows a way to do this as-is, I would appreciate some feedback

There is a very handy plug-in (sadly, for Windows only) called Archive, at http://www.pacifier.com/%7ebfoster/index.html.

Report · Oct 12, 2004

So, you would like to request a feature that let you manage your referenced files? Good idea!

Sean

Report · Oct 12, 2004

Hi Don,

If you have FrameScript, it's an ideal tool for handling all these sorts of tasks. I have a script that lists all the linked graphics in the active document or all components in the active book. Email me outside this list at chris.dorsey@alliedtelesyn.co.nz if you want it. Haven't seen FrameScript? Check out http://www.framescript.com.

Report · Oct 13, 2004

Don, FrameMaker already allows you to create lists of referenced graphics. From the book main menu, select either Add > List of > References or Add > Index of > References, and move Imported Graphics to the Include column. In your case, you probably want the "Index of" option because that alphabetizes the referenced file names based on their paths -- that is, you get an alphabetized list of what files are imported from each folders. If you want to resolve multiple books, just generate an IOR for each book and then copy the content to a program like Excel, where you can re-sort all the entries, thereby alphabetizing the entire list. I've done this many times in the past and it always works out for me.

Report · Oct 13, 2004

So you'd like to see FrameScript added to FrameMaker as an Adobe feature? And better documentation for creating and using lists of referenced graphics. Yeah to both. Better documentation, maybe adding some tutorial- or task-based documentation, a la Classroom in a Book would be a good idea.

This ** _FEATURE REQUEST_** thread has been hopping lately.

Cheers,

Sean

Report · Oct 13, 2004

Gary / Chris:

Thanks for the quick responses and the information. I used the Index of References to generate a list. I them exported it to a text file and used this to run a batch file to "only" copy the used graphics to a new folder (copy filename.tif d:\folder\). I switched the two folders and I now have a clean folder that only contains the referenced graphics. I cleaned up some PSD files and some other files that were not LZW compressed too. End result:

Old Folder: 1180 files (160MB)
New Folder: 740 files (88MB)

Thanks for the help! Since I will be checking the files into a document storage program, this is a huge help.

DOn