[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 27, 2006

> Adding a text frame to an anchored frame just doesn't cut it ...<br /><br />fwiw ... never wasted my time trying <vbg> style :figure defines placing for an anchored frame, which then holds a graphic; style :figcap, including autonumbering à souhait and 'keep with previous', is for the caption. Using a style for the caption also makes lists of figures a doddle.

Report · Aug 08, 2006

1. Remove the restriction that forces every file in a book to start on a new page. Let the first paragraph style dictate the pagination.

2. Lacking that, support searches and spell checks in files included by reference.

3. Ability to delete catalog entries (char, para, cond text) and variables for all files in a book, not just one file at a time.

Report · Aug 15, 2006

Requests:

Purchase the code/scripts for many of the shareware or free plugins from those resourceful Framers and build it into the product. (Reward them for doing the work the Frame programmers should have done ages ago.)

* purge/delete unused conditional text formats

* purge/delete unused character & paragraph formats

* purge/delete unused variables

* resizable dialog boxes so we can see full names/pathnames and not not ../../../file.eps

* in book files, provide toggle option to show file path or not. Especially useful when you are building books from shared content which may be in more than one location.

* fix shrinkwrap command so it doesn't change anchoring position of the graphic (see http://www.martinek.us/shrinkwrap.html for a script that someone wrote that does this PROPERLY.)

Report · Aug 15, 2006

Provide a bare-bones free-ware/low-cost version of FrameMaker with the abilty to open/close/print documents.

Add additional features at different price-points depending on the complexity of the feature, using licensing.

Example:
- open - $0
- open/print - $49
- open/save/print - $99
- open/save/print/pdf - $149
- open/save/print/pdf/html - $199
- open/save/print/pdf/html/xml - $249
- open/save/print/pdf/html/xml/create-books - $299
- open/save/print/pdf/html/xml/create-books/sgml - $349

Every vendor on the market provides a free product to view & print for their native formats except Adobe... perhaps you folks can get away with $49 for open & print!

We really need consistent features across Windows/UNIX/Macintosh so we can get printers to support FrameMaker books again... it is hard to find a printer who supports Frame documents.

Also, SVG and Flash needs to be an option with Frame Vector drawn graphics when creating HTML/XML/SGML documents!!!!

Report · Aug 16, 2006

David,

There was a FrameViewer and FrameReader years ago. It was abandoned
with the entrenchment of Acrobat/Adobe Reader.

Mike

Report · Aug 16, 2006

David,

In fact, more recently there was a Frame and Frame with SGML/aka Frame
with FrameBuilder. The price points for Frame with SGML was quite a bit
higher than the current Frame. Adobe decided to consolidate the
product at a the price point for the plain old Frame. I don't see
Adobe revisiting the issue, but one never knows.

Mike

Report · Aug 15, 2006

PDF

Don't send application files to printers.

Sean

Report · Aug 17, 2006

MikeKazlow,

I am familiar with the FrameViewer product as well as the differentiated pricing for Frame vs FrameSGML. I have used FrameMaker when it was first released under SunOS.

Microsoft Office has viewers to allow people to open native Office files for free - thus this format has become very widely known. Frame removed this feature, at and the same time, introduced PDF - which did not allow people to use native formats.

Basically, these issues (as well as discontinuing the Macintosh platform) have placed FrameMaker proprietary format as a very dangerous situation where any company relying on them for long term document management are in danger of their intellectual property being lost.

PDF does not solve that - I have old PDF documents which I can no longer open - it is very sad. Similar with old Word documents.

Frame has had a long lineage of compatibility - but Adobe has crippled the native format capabilities by removing the view/print capability at a low cost and removing Macintosh format. These two things have made companies fear the proprietary format - and for good reason... fear drives the continued loss of market share.

Regards,
David J. Halko

Report · Aug 17, 2006

David,

I do hear and understand. In each new major version of Word and Frame,
I have gone through and updated every file created with an old version
to the new version. What a PIA and a waste of time. Especially, since I
started with Mac Word 1.5 and Frame 3.2. Alas, open source document
formats are no guarantee that data can't be lost. If you use an open
source document format and no one really cares about the document
format any longer, you can be just as screwed. Just because anyone can
support it, doesn't mean anyone will or can afford to pay someone to
support it. RTF is a very proprietary format, but it is one of the most
widely supported formats.

Mike

Report · Aug 30, 2006

In a large document having chapters and sections that will be both a PDF and a online help, the process to generate a mini TOC on a page is only as valid as the last time you did an update to the book or Update References. It would be a plus to a writer if the minti toc would update when one does an Update. At this time the Text Insert Properties dialog box is both misleading and doesn't work . One must Special>List Of Paragraphs and repeat the same propcess used to create the mini toc the first time. The number of steps to create the mini TOC is poorly documented as well. The mini TOC is a great way to create valid links, but in large documents that are always changing, this mini TOC can only be vaild and should be updated as the document is to be released, this makes it a major task. Again this TOC should be updated when doing an Update book or in the file Updated references

Report · Sep 19, 2006

Sherman, I just make mini-TOCs the same way as a regular book TOC, only without a "book", and import it as a text inset. I do have to do updates a lot, and to each file, but it works very well.

Report · Sep 19, 2006

And for fun old school memories...an OSX version :)

FM was the last program I booted up in classic. It has now been about 8 months since that day. I just got a new 24inch iMac and won't be installing Classic on it. It was a good run.

Report · Sep 21, 2006

Department of Defense study urges open source adoption
8/20/2006 6:50:40 PM

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060820-7545.html

http://www.acq.osd.mil/actd/articles/OTDRoadmapFinal.pdf

Perhaps it is time to reconsider that Linux release.

Report · Oct 04, 2006

All these XML-oriented features are ok, but I think it is time to update/improve long-ignored parts of the program: most notably the EQUATION EDITOR (!) and tools to edit imported graphics. For god's sake, the equation editor doesn't seem to have changed since version 5.x! Presently, MS Word (with MathType) puts Framemaker to shame in this area. I hope this will change with the next release of Framemaker.

Report · Oct 04, 2006

The equation editor hasn't really changed since I started using Frame
on a Mac in version 3.2. I think we will see improvements in this area
shortly after Adobe revives the Mac version of FrameMaker. Wait is that
Godot I see down the walk...

Mike

Report · Oct 05, 2006

Ditto. Adding this variable at the end of table headings is so helpful to the reader, but having to add it manually is a pain. It would be great if you could add this to the style for the table heading.

Report · Oct 05, 2006

That was the best joke I've heard in awhile 🙂 Reading it on my new 24inch iMac makes it even funnier.

"The equation editor hasn't really changed since I started using Frame on a Mac in version 3.2. I think we will see improvements in this area shortly after Adobe revives the Mac version of FrameMaker. Wait is that Godot I see down the walk..."

Report · Oct 13, 2006

Without an OS X version, at least I have one thing to look forward to: Since my next Mac will be an Intel chip, I can at least run the Windows version in a mode almost as seamless as Classic is to OS X. But I would still prefer a native OS X version.

Report · Oct 16, 2006

A few things spring to mind:

- Paragraph-based line-breaking algorithm (Knuth-Plass-like)
- High-end hyphenation algorithms (such as DiHYPH from Dieckmann's)
- Hanging punctuation
- Full Unicode support
- For crying out loud: Fixing the bl**dy footnote bug!
- Accepting TeX code for formulas
- Support for multiple series of footnotes & endnotes
- Support for nested series of footnotes & endnotes
- Priority-based page-breaking where one can define how problematic orphan/widows, short lines, and other page problems should be handled.

Best regards,
Mats Broberg

Report · Oct 16, 2006

I would like the ability to highlight text without having to use the graphic tools!

Report · Oct 18, 2006

Can Adobe do anything about the frequent crashes. I seem to have almost as many auto saved files as regular. At least some hint in the auto save what did and didn't get saved. FM 7.

Horace Smith

Report · Oct 18, 2006

Horace, sorry to hear that you're getting such frequent crashes. What's your environment: operating system version, Frame version, available memory, and free disk space? I ask because the Windows version of Frame I'm using seems very stable (7.2b144) so I'm curious what's happening to give you such a different experience.

The idea of indicating what autosave did and didn't get is a tough one. If a crash prevents you from saving info, how could you highlight what was not saved? Maybe a sliding marker of some type that indicates "last touched" material in a file? hmmm

Report · Oct 18, 2006

Post about your crashes in the regular forum area if you want a hand or sympathy. Cheers, Sean.

Report · Oct 24, 2006

My particular Holy Grail would be a tabbed document selector in Adobe products. I even use PaintShop Pro 9, rather than Photoshop CS2, because PSP has that feature. It would be absolutely invaluable in Framemaker (and I'll jump ship as soon as another product that has it comes along).

Rows of tabs at the top of the window are far more usable than miniaturised title bars (that show only about the first ten characters of the path, and that get covered up by other windows) at the bottom.

Report · Oct 24, 2006

OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I second that!