FrameMaker 12 and TechCommSuite 5 have been released

[Arnis Gubins]

See the TechComm blog at: http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2014/01/product-o-pedia-2014.html

Additional info and individual productopedia PDF links are available here: http://forums.adobe.com/docs/DOC-4221

There are a number of goodies in this release for FrameMaker. The GUI has been improved, multi-channel publishing (Responsive HTML5, ePub, Kindle, WebHelp, and Microsoft

HTML Help), regex search/replace, QR codes, improved PDF commenting/review (you keep on editing the FM docs!), simpler Conditional pod & better conditional expression handling, improvements in the XML/DITA modes, a new simplified XML Author mode (and also as a cheaper stand-alone product), direct links to Dropbox and other cloud-based storage services and more. It's more stable, faster and yes, bugs have been fixed (though there is some debate as to what is a bug vs. feature vs. "as designed" vs. can't duplicate vs. WTF?)

.This one's worth checking out.

[Bob_Niland]

It took some digging, but I see that Illustrator is no longer in TCS.

Did that just happen with TCS 5, or has it been gone for some time?

I was wondering how they'd work around the dissonance between the perpetual license available for FM and TCS, and IL being subscription-only as stand-alone IL or as part of CS. Looks like they discovered the solution . Sad. AcroPro is still in at least.

So, did we get Cross-Reference by Marker Text?

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Just happened with TCS5; they dropped Photoshop with TCS4 – now I’ve got 2 orphaned products that I sometimes use ;>)

[Arnis Gubins]

Error,

The bit about Illy being gone was mentioned in the overview document (http://forums.adobe.com/docs/DOC-4221) referenced in the Forum announcements.

There are some early reviews already available in Vikram Verma's (FM's product manager) blog at: http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2014/01/productreviews.html

Unfortunately, the x-refs to Marker text was a "deferred" item again (it's been on the wishlist for a number of releases), along with quite a number of other items.

However, full regex support in Find/Change using either perl, grep or egrep syntax is now available. I think the real biggie this time around is the multi-channel publishing for the five mentioned formats direct from FM without the need for RoboHelp (actually it's part of the internal RH output engine that's been incorporated; but RH still provides up to 18(?) formats).

The GUI improvements include user-selectable icon groups (small/large and color/grey) giving 4 combos (but with 4K monitors just coming into vogue, this is going to need addressing soon in more than just FM), improvements in the Smart Catalogs, simplified and easier Conditional text usage) along with improvements in the PDF review cycle where one can actually continue to work on the documents while the review is ongoing and expect to get thee comments to pop back in at the correct locations.

Adobe is listening; they might not be as responsive and quick about implementing all (new) things, but I think they're heading in the right direction.

[Arnis Gubins]

Aditional blog entries related to the new product releases:

http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2014/01/technical-communication-suite-5-is-here.html

http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2014/01/framemaker-12-launch-blog.html

http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2014/01/robohelp-11-launch-blog.html

[Bob_Niland]

> ... the x-refs to Marker text was a "deferred" item again ...

Is there a readme, or other list of what bugs and requested spot enhancements did make it in?

For example, I'm not easily able to discover from the intro web pages whether or not SVG now survives into XML output, or is still trashed to raster.

And was any progress made on documentation? Such Help content as I've so far seen still translates to "business opportunity for Matt".

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Ø …business opportunity for Matt..

LOL! Love it !

[Arnis Gubins]

Error7103 wrote:

And was any progress made on documentation?

It looks like Matt's going to have to publish an Addendum soon...

There is no Readme file that I could find in the release. The installation has the ubiquitous empty Documents folder and the currently available documentation is found on the FM support page at: http://helpx.adobe.com/framemaker.html

AFAIK, there is no comprehensive list of "fixes" [the typical history log of what changes/fixes between releases that most developers create] available.

They have updated some of the sample files/templates to be more "contemporary" [I'd say there at about the late 90's in look and feel]. The Reviewer's guide is a classic example of the most droll [and obviously] DITA output.

To sum it up, they sure can make a product, but have a wee bit of an issue using it to its full extent and capabilities.

[Bob_Niland]

> Additional info and individual productopedia PDF links are available here ...

Whitepapers are 413.

http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite.html

to

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=tcs_whitepaper

413

Header Length too Large

[Arnis Gubins]

Works for me using Chrome or Firefox? Prehaps try again or with a different browser.

FWIW, there's nothing new there yet.

[Bob_Niland]

This is using Firefox ESR 17.0.11 on Solaris (SPARC) 10.

I'm trying to get to the Tech Illustrations Trends whitepapers.

It takes me to an update-your-account details, then dies on the 413.

On a Win7/64 PC, it flat out crashes IE.

I was able to get the PDFs with the Fox on W7.

[NZReb]

The new FM12 features sound great but must admit I'm horrified to hear that TCS5 doesn't have Illustrator. My team's got the subscription version of TCS4. Does anyone know if we can separately upgrade FM, or do we have to upgrade the whole suite to TCS5? I assume if we upgrade the whole suite we'd lose our rights to Illustrator?

We bought TCS subscription specifically so we could get upgrades to FM *and* Illustrator. I feel like Adobe have signed us up to a one-year contract and then pulled the rug out from under us!

I'd appreciate any info anyone happens to have.

Thanks, Rebecca

[x-posted to Framers list; apologies to people on both]

[Arnis Gubins]

Rebecca,

This is the same dilemna that most Suite users (Creative or TechComm) have encountered with the introduction of the Cloud model from Adobe. The version of Illustrator in TCS4 was the CS6 version and IIRC, the subscription price was $69/mo for TCS4.

IllustratorCC is available as a separate subscription (either annual per month or month-to-month), see: http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/buying-guide.html

The new TCS5 subscription price is $49.99/mo and the annual IllustratorCC subscription price is $19.99/mo, so the costs are effectively the same as for TCS4.

[NZReb]

Hi Arnis

Thanks very much for answering. Do you know if that means Adobe will want us to keep paying the $69/mo subscription + also buy an IllustratorCC subscription? If that's the case, I'm not keen!

[Arnis Gubins]

Rebecca,

I don't know what the status is for TCS4 users on a subscription plan. I'll try to get some clarification as to what's going to happen.

[NZReb]

Thanks, I'd really appreciate it.

[Arnis Gubins]

See this blog for more details about TCS5 subscriptions:

http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/2014/01/technical-communication-suite-5-month-to-month-subscription-...

[Note: this blogs pertains to the month-to-month subscriptions. Still awaiting a response as to what exactly happens when the annual subscriptions come up for renewal.]

[Arnis Gubins]

Here's the response from Saibal Bhattacharjee, the TCS Marketing Manager:

For a TCS customer who had signed up for an ANNUAL subscription plan for TCS 4 before 14^th Jan 2014 (when TCS 5 was launched), the monthly charges for the annual subscription plan will COME DOWN AUTOMATICALLY from the next-immediate monthly billing cycle after 14^th Jan 2014 from $69/month to $49.99/month. This is irrespective of whether the customer continues to use TCS 4 without taking advantage of the option to upgrade to TCS 5, or uninstalls TCS 4 and upgrades to TCS 5.

[NZReb]

That's very interesting - I got billed on 18 Jan and charged $69, not $49.99. The problem may be that I bought through the Aussie shop. Maybe Adobe forgot they've got non-US customers. Someone from Adobe Australia is supposed to be getting back to me; I'll post the outcome here once there's an outcome to post!

Anyway, I really appreciate you looking into this, as well as all the info you've posted about FM over the years. It's made FM a lot easier and more fun to use.

[Arnis Gubins]

From the marketing blurbs that I've seen, the price is supposed to the same in AUD, i.e. $49.99AUD (same goes for euros in the European market and 6,500yen in the Japanese market). It looks like not all of the memos may have been sent or read.

I'll pass this info on to the FM team.

[NZReb]

I just got a call from Adobe Australia and they're going to let us cancel our existing subscription (it's pretty new) and take the promo rate. So I'm very happy with them!

Thanks for your help in sorting this out.

[bowen192]

Any news on UK pricing?

[Arnis Gubins]

Marketing lists equivalent euro prices for the dollar value ones, nothing in pound sterling, so I'd assume that UK pricing will be the euro pricing.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

I haven't noticed Maxwell posting this info that appeared on the Frame mailing list, so here goes - hope it comes through ok:

From Maxwell Hoffmann:

Yesterday we had huge turnout at our first FrameMaker 12 webinar, which covered many significant new features. The session is 2 hours and 15 minutes long. I am posting info on how to access the recording and also some time stops you can fast forward to for specific features and areas that interest you the most.

Here is the link to the recording: http://adobe.ly/1ibB3Ku

(use your Adobe.com account credentials to log-in … once you have you won’t need to log-in again as long as browser instance is running.) If you are using Chrome, I recommend that you clear your cache and restart Chrome before viewing.

Here are some key “time stop” points that will take you to major highlights of the presentation:

•             1 hour 10 min = How to publish from FM12 to EPUB, HTML5 RESPONSIVE LAYOUT and more

(in answer to many questions, this is FrameMaker 12 by itself, with no plug-ins, and no assistance from RoboHelp 11 or Tech Comm Suite 5!)

•             1 hour 36 min = Structure and FrameMaker XML Author 12

•             1 hour 50 min = MathML equations, including XML code view to edit

•             1 hour 53 min = improved XML white space handling

•             1 hour 57 min = Preview DITAMAP topic content

•             12 min = user interface enhancements

•             25 minutes = Regular Expressions used in Find/Change

(e.g. reverse date format)

•             28 min 44 sec = Generate QR code

•             30 min 28 sec = background color on text level and boxed/colored paragraphs

•             32 min 30 sec = improved Conditional Text control, new UI and complex expressions

•             38 min 44 sec = enhanced Smart Catalogs with search/filter to narrow choices

•             46 min = improved collaborative workflow with Dropbox integration and improved PDF review

Many people emailed me after the webinar asking about our 40% discount offer. For a limited time, all existing customers of Adobe Technical Communication Suite, Adobe FrameMaker and Adobe RoboHelp are eligible to take advantage of this limited period promotional offer to purchase subscription licenses of Adobe Technical Communication Suite 5 at 40% off for an entire year. This would allow you to subscribe to the entire Tech Comm Suite 5 (FrameMaker 12, RoboHelp 11, Captivate 7, Acrobat Pro XI and Presenter 8) for only $29.99 per month, the same subscription price as FrameMaker. Subscriptions are now a 1 year commitment, though you are billed monthly. Perpetual (boxed DVD) licenses are still available.

Here is the link to that promotion:
http://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker/promotions.html

[Mike Wickham]

Adobe makes it really hard to find a link, but you can still buy a CS6

perpetual license here:

http://www.adobe.com/products/catalog/cs6._sl_id-contentfilter_sl_catalog_sl_software_sl_creativesuite6.html?start=10