[Closed] FrameMaker 7.x/8 Feature Requests

[Seanb_us]

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

[Seanb_us]

Okay. I'll kick it off.

1) Conditional text that uses AND logic, not OR logic as currently implemented.

2) The ability to easily swap one paragraph style for another.

3) Fix the runaround bug.

4) More and better import filters, including more up-to-date CorelDRAW!, AutoCAD, and SVG filters.

[Seanb_us]

Understood, not everybody will want these. And, some might make upgrading more difficult or increase the resource requirements of FrameMaker.

[Seanb_us]

5) OS X native compatibility.

6) Unicode support.

7) Up to 9 levels of undo.

[_Bill_Swallow_]

8) Adobe Graphics Manager inclusion. ;-)

[_Gordon_Missimer_]

9) Full OpenType support!

[_Bill_Dauphin_]

Maybe 3 or 4 levels of undo would be nice; I doubt I'd use more (I rarely use more than one level in Word). OTOH, I *KNOW* I'd use drag-and-drop text editing.

The acid test for any new feature, though, is whether it can be implemented without making the basic application either slower or less stable.

JOOC, what's "the runaround bug"?

-Bill

[_Clark_McDuell_]

How about associating a text flow with a master page or pages?

[_Horace_Smith_]

Enough space after a sentence that has associated index or other marks to see that you really do have a punctuation mark there.

Symbol insertion from a table, like Word. Typing ASCII numbers is so 20th century.

Cursor movement by arrow keys from one table cell to another.

[Seanb_us]

A @#%#T#$$G#HG^%$ easier way to track down missing fonts.

Not ignore them.

To positively and absolutely root-out the buggers and fix them; especially Times.

[_Bill_Dauphin_]

Ran into another one this morning: I'd like the ability to print out the Book file. (Yeah, I know I can do a screen shot, but it'd be so much nicer to just go File>Print Book File.)

-Bill

[_Puig_Mayor_]

I'd like to be able to position a table at the top of the first page text frame without having to employ a workaround every time.

puig

[_A__Witney_]

I'd like to see the word "Footnote" become something like "Bibliographic Citation>" in the Special menu with a choice of Footnote or Endnote. Format... Document... would also need a place to define properties for endnotes.

I could endure all the levels of undo the marketing department wanted to throw at me if FrameMaker--The Next Generation included a reasonable means of using endnotes.

[_Bill_Dauphin_]

I keep getting my memory jogged.

I'd like to see a way to align "Run Into Paragraph" anchored frames with something other than the top line of the paragraph. At a minimum, I'd like the choice to align with the bottom of the paragraph; better yet, the ability to specify an offset from the top line (in either lines or absolute units) would be really useful.

-Bill

[MichaelKazlow]

1. An easier way to add new FrameMath experessions.

2. FrameMath should properly format Math expressions with any font family.

3. Proper Association of Math MML (1.0 or 2.0) to any FrameMath Expression
for inclusion in html/xml/pdf documents.

4. Ability to import MathMML to the appropriate FrameMath expression.

5. Addition of user created FrameMath pallettes.

6. Ability to import or export TeX, TROFF.

7. Heck why not just integrate Mathtype/WebEq or purchase said technology
from Design Science.

8. Fix how Frame handles tabs.

9. Revival of FrameLite project to compete against Word WP arena.


...Mike

[tlmurray23]

Just wanted to mention that the "Frame Wishlist" is still up www.techknowledgecorp.com/help (bottom of left column).

[_Tyrrell_Albaugh_]

FrameMaker is an important tool in the technical publishing industry. Many authors use FrameMaker to write manuscripts, and publishers use it for composition purposes as well. What would be a great addition:

A suite of tracking and comment features (like those you find in word processors like Microsoft Word) you could use for writing and editing purposes.

Conditional text, the compare feature, comment markers, and change bars (the tools we currently cobble together for editing purposes in Frame) are clunky and difficult to use--a couple of tools specifically designed for editorial purposes would be a huge help.

Tyrrell

[_Tom_Huffman_]

1. drag and drop
2. multiple undo
3. easier customization (customize toolbars and/or palettes with icons that are associated with the already-existing FCODES)
4. macros
5. spell-as-you-go
6. navigate through tables with cursor
7. the ability to specify a graphic as a bullet
8. reasonable html import: not perfect, but something better than plain text

[_Horace_Smith_]

Another one: either variable zoom or addition of one or two more fixed ones. 50% is too small, 80% doesn't let you see the whole page.

[tlmurray23]

Horace, there is varible zoom. Click the percent at the bottom of the window and look at the bottom. Plus, Esc z p does a "fit to page".

[AxialInfo]

And you can type whatever percent you want into the boxes, so you can make the zoom levels 55, 73, 97 etc. or whatever you happen to want.

[_Gordon_Missimer_]

> 5. spell-as-you-go

I have to object to this request. This is one of the reaons Word chokes on long documents. I think FrameMaker's stability would take a severe hit if this feature was addedd.

Just my $0.02.

[Seanb_us]

As an aside: I was running through a 600-page Word doc that had not been spell checked. It had a lot of product names and some script, and the like, all of which caused the spellcheck-as-you-go red squigglies to appear. When I got to about page 260, Word tossed up an error message that there were too many spelling errors and it could no longer display them on-the-fly. <Vbg> 512MB RAM 2GHz and 13GB free and few graphics in the doc (20MB-ish doc), in case you were wondering. </aside>

[_Margie_Yundt_]

How about including a total page count variable that works in book files -- instead of having to fudge it!

[and there would be much rejoicing]

[_Bill_Dauphin_]

Tyrell:

This suggestion...

>>A suite of tracking and comment features (like those you find in word processors like Microsoft Word) you could use for writing and editing purposes. <<

...makes me shudder in fear. Occasionally I've been forced to work in scenarios where Word docs are routed to reviewers for online comments using revision tracking. The resulting files are such a mess that I often end up just printing them to a color printer and using the resulting hardcopy like a hand markup. Even that's inferior to an *actual* hand markup, because of the capricious way the revision tracking sometimes works. I'd run screaming from the room if FrameMaker ended up similar to Word in this regard.

JOOC, why don't you output to PDF and use its built-in redlining tools to collect comments?

-Bill