Frame's future

[Shlomo Perets]

You wrote:

>Please update to a current version of the FrameMaker Application Pack
>for DITA.
>
> > FrameMaker 7.2 DITA support is "Based on a core plugin developed and
> > maintained by Leximation" (quoted from the DITA > About window).
>
>Is this a problem? Adobe picked a great starting point for the app pack,
>in my opinion.
>
> > In fact, my FrameMaker console tells me that the beta period for this
> > component has expired, and that I should contact Leximation for an
> > update (even though it was downloaded from Adobe).
>
>Then you are using an old version. The second beta should not have this
>issue.


Licensing and integrating existing plug-ins is an excellent way to extend 
functionality of a core product. In response to Hedley's suggestion, I 
mentioned the DITA and Apply Master Pages plug-ins as examples for plug-ins 
that are already incorporated into FrameMaker.

There are many high-quality plug-ins out there that could significantly 
improve the end user experience -- handling tables, indexing, markers, 
conversion, manage formats, archiving, and many more. The FrameScript 
runtime is also a great idea.

Even though some of the existing 3rd party add-ons are low cost (or even 
free), my impression is that the vast majority of FrameMaker users use 
FrameMaker as it comes out of the box (this is probably true with respect 
to other products).


Shlomo Perets

MicroType, http://www.microtype.com * ToolbarPlus Express for FrameMaker
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