FrameMaker 7.0 for Mac?

[Steve Rickaby]

At 11:12 -0400 6/10/06, Neil Tubb wrote:

>I use Frame 7.1 for Windows at work, but use a PowerPC Mac at home. I
>would really like to be able to work a bit from home, so was wondering
>if it would be worth picking up Frame 7.0 for Mac. So:
>
>1. Did they actually make Frame 7.0 for Mac...I keep reading about an
>upgrade, but not a real product. I realize it is now discontinued.
>
>2. Are there big problems going back and forth between the two
>platforms? I have an old (5.5) version on my Mac currently, but going
>the Save to MIF route has resulted in no end of weird issues.

Seconding what William said, yes, eBay should find you a copy if you are patient: that's how I got mine. Yes, it exists, and it's afaik identical to FrameMaker 7.0 for PC, in that is has the bugs that were fixed by version 7.1, which was the first release after the Mac version was discontinued. (I have no idea what those bugs were, but I'm sure others on this list can tell you.)

Migration between platforms should not be a big issue for you providing that you are aware of a few issues:

. Fonts are generally ok but you have to watch out for some dangerous ones. Those are generally the ones where font foundries have used different names for the individual faces between Mac and PC platforms. I am currently battling with a particularly nasty issue with Frutiger from Monotype and Linotype. TransType can be your friend here: <http://www.fontlab.com/Font-tools/TransType/>.

. You can cross-map fonts in the maker.ini file on PC FrameMaker, but no such facility exists on the Mac.

. Forward migration between versions should be smooth. Backward migration to 5.5 would have to be handled by the MIF route, as I expect you know, although FrameMaker 7.0 onwards can save in FrameMaker 6 format (as I expect you also already know).

. The Mac version has a different population of graphics input filters to the PC version: Mac FrameMaker, for example, cannot import BMP format files out of the box.

HTH
-- 
Steve