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Anonymous

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FrameMaker Compatible with Mac in Future?

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
May 4, 2011
3 replies
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Is anyone aware if future versions of FrameMaker will ever be compatible with a Mac? I used to work on a Windows computer, and I really enjoyed using FrameMaker to create Install/User Manuals. I work on a Mac now, and I am just wondering if it will ever be available with a Mac.

Thanks!

Feature request

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Correct answer peter minneapolis

Bonnie Scheckner wrote:
Thank you for your response peter at knowhowpro. I know it is possible to run FrameMaker from Windows on a Mac, but specifically I was wondering if there are any plans to make future versions of FrameMaker compatible with a Mac. Your response is still quite helpful. I may have to switch to InDesign. Thank you!

You're welcome, Bonnie.

You're pointing out that I didn't REALLY answer your question, because I didn't say something like, "If there are plans, anybody who knows can't tell, as they'd be committed to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and violating the agreement would cause the person to lose all participation in any Adobe NDA thereafter."

I answered obliquely by suggesting a Google search for past discussions on the issue, as there are many reasons for why Adobe probably wouldn't even consider the task, as well as suggestions of how easy, theoretically, it would be for Adobe to tweak a few things, and magically have FrameMaker for Mac.

Except for the cost of Windows (if using the free Apple BootCamp) or the additional cost of Parallels or Fusion, and perhaps adding RAM, FrameMaker in Windows on Mac is almost a perfect reproduction of FrameMaker in Windows on a PC.

I'm writing a book on InDesign for FrameMaker users. Try the Google search I suggested for views, experiences, and opinions from those who've thought about this move, as well as those who/ve taken the step across the line. If you do make the move, post your questions and discoveries on the InDesign user forum.

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

tlmurray23

Inspiring

Dropping it for the Mac has never made sense to me, for three reasons. First is that during development of many applications, much time and resources are spent deciding what the app is to do, how the UI is presented, what the file format should look like, etc.: The actual time spent sitting at the keyboard getting it done is not the typical money pit. These things are already decided; indeed, soon after 7.x for Mac was killed off, I was approached by a couple of programmers from Europe who wanted to buy the Mac code or at least the approval to go ahead, and they'd have it ready for beta in two or three months. They also guaranteed it would be useable on *nix platforms and its native file format would be compatible with Windows. However, in the end, they were rebuffed by Adobe.

Second is that at $30 a month for a subscription or $1000 to buy it, paying for said development is well within reason. If (say) three people made a whopping $50,000 each month for six months, that's $900,000 . . . or a 900 licenses, and that's paying at an exorbitant rate. A realistic pay rate would be far cheaper.

Third is that it ignores that Mac's increasing presence in the computing world and the scientific world in particular, where one sees lots of Macs and where scientists rather prefer FrameMaker (or at least they used to, before they were forced away).

Look, I like InDesign, but it has certain characteristics that don't lend itself to the type of publishing for which FrameMaker is more well-suited.

K

Kravjoy

Participant

Bonnie,

Did you make the switch to InDesign? I am really at a loss what to do. I am currently using Pages but it is NOT stable and has no index feature. I miss FrameMaker but I am wedded to using a Mac. I have used Parallels and VMFusion. I don't want to go down that path again. I am looking for a stable, robust application to write long technical documents for a software user guide. Have you learned anything that may help me in my search?

BTW... I called Adobe. At first I was told that I could subscribe at a monthly cost to get FM for mac. Knowing that was probabally bad information, I asked the Adobe sales person to transfer me to someone who could explain how the monthy fee worked. After waiting 30 minutes on hold, I was then talking to another person that I could barely understand. He correctly stated that while they do offer FM at a subscriptoin rate, they do NOT have a Mac version. Sad that Adobe gave up on Mac users.

P

peacetype

Participant

I recently switched to InDesign after quitting my job as a technical writer at a software company where I used FrameMaker for 7 years. It made sense to learn InDesign since I now work at home where I use a Mac primarily. Plus I already have InDesign available with my Creative Cloud subscription.

After completing my first manual with InDesign, I was surprised at how painful the process of learning InDesign was. I expected it to be more similar to FrameMaker than it is. Many of the workflows are counter-intuitive, especially when compared against more basic word processing software like Microsoft Word and Apple Pages. I also work as a UI/UX designer and I'm a big believer in user-friendly software design, even for professional and highly technical software tools. I don't think the technical proficiency of your user base is an excuse for having unfriendly product design.

To be fair, I should point out that at my last job we used templates provided to us by the documentation department when creating documents in FrameMaker. So much of the document preparation and formatting work was done for us. Much of my difficulty in using InDesign was from learning to set up a document from scratch.

Some aspects of the program were familiar from FrameMaker, such as character and paragraph styles, and worked as expected. Although I felt like I was beating my head against a wall trying to figure out how other parts of the program worked. Indexing, for example, works in quite a different way than in FrameMaker and leaves much to be desired. I also had to grapple with some very annoying bugs.

Getting up to speed in InDesign and producing my first document took much longer and was a lot more painful than I had anticipated. But overall, I was happy with the end result. I feel that the final document has about 90% of the features that I would expect from a professional manual. I also feel confident that it is robust enough that I can make future updates with relative ease, having invested considerable work in its creation.

P

peter minneapolis

Participating Frequently

Bonnie Scheckner wrote:
Is anyone aware if future versions of FrameMaker will ever be compatible with a Mac? I used to work on a Windows computer, and I really enjoyed using FrameMaker to create Install/User Manuals. I work on a Mac now, and I am just wondering if it will ever be available with a Mac.
Thanks!

You can use VMware Fusion, Parallels, or BootCamp to run Windows on Mac and run FrameMaker in Windows. Search Google for terms like "framemaker mac fusion parallels" without quotes for lots of resources. The more RAM on your Mac, the better.

Search Google for terms like "FrameMaker mac version" without quotes for lots of historical posts on the topic. There's a site or group somewhere that keeps up the hope, remote though it may be.

Some people have moved to InDesign. Search Google for terms like "FrameMaker or InDesign?" without quotes and similar terms, for historical discussions.

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

A

Anonymous

Thank you for your response peter at knowhowpro. I know it is possible to run FrameMaker from Windows on a Mac, but specifically I was wondering if there are any plans to make future versions of FrameMaker compatible with a Mac. Your response is still quite helpful. I may have to switch to InDesign. Thank you!

P

peter minneapolisCorrect answer

Participating Frequently

Bonnie Scheckner wrote:
Thank you for your response peter at knowhowpro. I know it is possible to run FrameMaker from Windows on a Mac, but specifically I was wondering if there are any plans to make future versions of FrameMaker compatible with a Mac. Your response is still quite helpful. I may have to switch to InDesign. Thank you!

You're welcome, Bonnie.

You're pointing out that I didn't REALLY answer your question, because I didn't say something like, "If there are plans, anybody who knows can't tell, as they'd be committed to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and violating the agreement would cause the person to lose all participation in any Adobe NDA thereafter."

I answered obliquely by suggesting a Google search for past discussions on the issue, as there are many reasons for why Adobe probably wouldn't even consider the task, as well as suggestions of how easy, theoretically, it would be for Adobe to tweak a few things, and magically have FrameMaker for Mac.

Except for the cost of Windows (if using the free Apple BootCamp) or the additional cost of Parallels or Fusion, and perhaps adding RAM, FrameMaker in Windows on Mac is almost a perfect reproduction of FrameMaker in Windows on a PC.

I'm writing a book on InDesign for FrameMaker users. Try the Google search I suggested for views, experiences, and opinions from those who've thought about this move, as well as those who/ve taken the step across the line. If you do make the move, post your questions and discoveries on the InDesign user forum.

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

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