FrameMaker and InDesign

[Peter Gold]

Hi, Graeme:

Graeme R Forbes wrote:
> It looks like the new version of ID in CS3 has got some better 
> long-doc handling tools. Or so Adobe says. I would still rather switch 
> from FM to ID than run Windows FM under simulation - Parallels or 
> whatever. One foresees just too many unforeseeable problems.
>
> So: does anyone know what the current state of development of the 
> MIF->ID filter that DTP Tools (?) is working on is?
>
> Reading the ID forum at Adobe suggests that the new version still 
> doesn't have x-refs. Anyone know if that's right?
>
No x-refs in CS3.

> There's also a claim to do footnotes. Anyone know if ID does footnotes 
> *correctly*: do they break across pages like real footnotes are 
> supposed to, or does the entire note jump to the next page if it 
> doesn't all fit on the current page, a la FM?

Good question. I hadn't looked at the footnotes, while testing, until 
you asked. They do break across pages; it's a document-level option, to 
break or not It looks like different component documents in a book can 
set break or no break, but I haven't experimented with this, yet.

I tried a couple of goofy layouts with one-, two-, and three-column text 
frames in one story (same as one FrameMaker text flow,) and found it 
hard to predict how the various sized footnotes - small, medium, and 
large, intermixed - would split (or not split). Perhaps it's saner in 
real situations than an undisciplined test like mine. There were no 
whitespace gaps in the footnotes or the story's text.

There's a lot of formatting and layout control over footnotes. No table 
footnotes, though. No x-refs to fake them, either.

Thanks for asking.

HTH
________________
Regards,

Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices