First Time Framer!

[Steve Rickaby]

At 14:29 -0700 30/5/07, Dov Isaacs wrote:

>Or maybe you want an InDesign >= 6 that supports all the wonderful FrameMaker features that aren't already in InDesign. That would solve a whole bunch of other problems such as Macintosh support, CMYK + spot color support, transparency support, etc.   :-)

Well, now that you mention it, that would be even better, as I'm on Mac.

On a more serious note, a *full* merge of FrameMaker and InD features, i.e. an InD-like product that fully supported structure, would be Cloud 8.5. For the full 9, I'd prefer a FrameMaker-like product that fully supported InD's features, such as the aforementioned superb text handling.

There are at least three large flies in this ointment as far as I can see:

. It would require re-engineering FrameMaker's code completely, as I'd guess it's 'old' code, while InD is 'new' code [and now in Apple's wonderful development environment like the rest of the CSS apps], which FrameMaker is clearly not.

. FrameMaker's GUI metaphor is radically different to that of the CSS apps, and my suspicion is that a Frame-a-like that followed the CSS app's GUI metaphor would be deemed 'not FrameMaker' by diehards, and too much of a culture shift. We are all far too busy and productive to play 'hunt the command' around the pop-up menus of a few hundred palettes that move around the screen of their own accord ;-)

. Many heavyweight FrameMaker users are dependent on add-ons and features like structapps, custom plug-ins, programming against the API, database import and so on.

Still, it does no harm to dream ;-)

-- 
Steve