FrameMaker 9 Issues

[McKinney, Doug]

Hi Fellow Framers

 

This post is actually directed toward the Adobe development team which I know monitors this list and more generally to anyone who might have information concerning the recent 230 patch for FrameMaker 9. This patch neutered my Paragraph and Character Designer. I have no building blocks and cannot access Commands in the Character Designer. This means I cannot develop new paragraph or character tags (of course I can always write in the building blocks). 

 

Also, it's my impression that FrameMaker 9 was developed for very specific work flows (such as using keyboard shortcuts as opposed to clicking icons). I have nothing against keyboard shortcuts; in fact, I use them frequently and consistently. But there are times when icons (specifically those provided by the Quick Access toolbar) are more convenient for me. The Quick Access toolbar disappears when only the book file is open, forcing me to use keyboard shortcuts for printing, spellchecking, etc. I find those shortcuts awkward. 

 

I use the unstructured version of FrameMaker so maybe these changes lend themselves more and were implemented for the structured document user.

 

There are other issues that I have come across while using FrameMaker 9 that don't come to mind just now, but that I recall worked much better and provided a much smoother workflow in FrameMaker 8. The Spellchecker comes to mind. There are certain ASCII characters such as the (µH) as in micro Henrys, that the FrameMaker 9 spell checker won't accept so I have to make accommodations for to get the spell checker to pass over them and continue spell checking the rest of the book. These were never a problem with FrameMaker 8. 

 

It seems that a good rule of thumb when developing upgrade software is that it should be at least as functional as the version it replaces. It just doesn't make sense to me to pay good money to give up functionality and ease of use.

 

My two cents.

 

Doug Mckinney

Technical Publications

Datron World Communications Inc.

1808 Aston Ave. Suite 230

Carlsbad CA 92008

760 602-7001

dmckinney at dtwc.com <http://www.dmckinney@dtwc.com/>