Inspiring

Question

Programmatically add a navigation pane to Framemaker

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
September 3, 2012
4 replies
4166 views

Hi everybody,

When you edit a Framemaker file (in unstructured mode), it would be nice to have side pane that shows the file structure based (like a mini TOC). This feature has been implemented in Word 2010 and it is very helpful.

My question is: Is it possible to programmatically add such a navigation pane to Framemaker?

TIA,

Roman

This topic has been closed for replies.

S

Stefan Gentz

Legend

An alternative might also be to move to structured FrameMaker and work with XML and a language like DITA. In structured FrameMaker you can see the whole structure of the document in a tree view in a separate pod and can navigate through the document, move paragraphs, tables or even whole sections around.

rombanksAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Stefan,

In general, you are right, although this is a huge and costly effort. Moving to DITA just to use the structure viewer is like putting a new engine in your car instead of just replacing the spark plugs. The unstructured mode should also have a content structure viewer. This is a basic requirement implemented in many other text editors years ago.

Regards,

Roman

S

Stefan Gentz

Legend

Totally agree. If it's just for the structure viewer it's overhead ;-)

But DITA and Structured FrameMaker of course also have many, many other benefits. In my personal humble opinion (don't take it in any way as an "official" Adobe statement), the time of unstructured content is over (especially, but not limited to technical documentation).

And don't be afraid of cost and efforts too much. Once you have moved to DITA and Structured FrameMaker you will never want to go back. And how small or big that effort is, depends on many factors. It must not necessarily a big effort. A lot of things can be automated. Plus, with FrameMaker you can even combine your classic "unstructured" documents with "new" DITA documents in e.g. one book. Like: New content in DITA and keeping old content unstructured. This way you can move into the future slowly and "on the fly" over time.

And learning something new is never bad, isn't it? ;-)

By the way, you might also want to have a look at our partner portal: Adobe Techcomm Partner Portal

Also, please feel invited to register for Adobe DITA World 2016. It's free, it's online and three days full of great content (including a session about migrating unstructured content to DITA): www.dita-world.com

Cheers,

*Stefan

H

Harpreet_seehra1

Inspiring

Hi Tia,

Framemaker Development Kit(FDK) is use to code and you can create your own look and feel using the existing Library and API's and can modify you Framemaker experience.

And getting a mini TOC is not a good idea according to me because framemaker gives you quick way to toggle between you pages and Chapter's if you have a book.

When you create a book there is a mini TOC kind of space created on the left side from where you can toggle to your chapters and pages and so on.

Harpreet

rombanksAuthor

Inspiring

Hi Harpreet,

If I am working on a section, I'd like to see an outline of its current structure. I can only do so if I generate a PDF.

You know that the book panel has nothing to do with the section outline. It only shows the high-level book structure.

In structured Framemaker, this section structure panel has been implemented, but unfortunately, the unstructured Framemaker does not have it.

Kind regards,

Roman (by TIA, I meant "Thank you in advance"). ;-)

RoboColum_n_

Legend

This may not be a solution that you have or want but if you have the Adobe Technical Communication Suite you can author in FrameMaker but link the book to a RoboHelp project. this would allow you to have a TOC and you could generate all sorts of output as a result. You could even generate the output directly from inside FrameMaker. Just a thought!

P

peter minneapolis

Participating Frequently

IIRC there was a FrameMaker outliner plug-in many years ago, or maybe this is a flawed recovered-memory syndrome thing.

Interesting, though, that you specify unstructured, because the structure view of a structured document does function as a navigable outliner that you can filter to different levels of detail.

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

M

Mike Wickham

Inspiring

RoboColum_n_

Legend

Hi Roman. I am not a Developer but I bet if you spoke to one they'd sure it could be done. The questions then are whether it is easy and worth doing. It also depends on whether you want the change to be made to your existing FrameMaker installtion or to a future version. If you want the change made to your existing FrameMaker installtion you will have to find a friendly Developer to code something that would meet your needs. Adobe won't do it. However if you wanted other users to benefit from your idea you'd need to submit a feature request to the FrameMaker development team. You can do that at:

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

effolsom

Inspiring

Posting here in case it helps someone else. I did go to the Adobe site and submit a wishlist item. I got the following note back:

"If you have generated a TOC in frame maker, you can hold the CTRL + ALT key and click on a TOC entry. FrameMaker takes you to the corresponding heading. Not the same level of interactivity, but at least something to click on… until the navigation pane becomes reality ;-)"

rombanksAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks, effolsom,

I really liked the "at least something to click on" part. :-)

As I would have expected, Adobe's note was a kind of ... childish.

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