Adobe announces FrameMaker 9 and Technical Communication

Tue Jan 20 10:09:05 PST 2009

It will be a learning curve for experienced users. I've been working with
this for a while now and I can tell you that it takes a while to get used to
it. However, much like working with other tools, it's now a lot easier to
configure the system for what I'm doing, rather than for what the
application feels like presenting to me. It's been a long time coming, but
it feels more like an Adobe tool. If you use things like Photoshop, or
Acrobat, or any other major Adobe tool, you have a way to configure the
interface to do what you want, rather than what the dev team decided.

While the application ends up being pretty easy to work with, you will need
to put time into learning. Think of a new car... If you had a car that was
set up with all kinds of preset radio stations (and only AM) and with a
cassette player in it, you think that what you have does all you need.
However, when you get a new car and it has satellite radio and a built in
MP3 player, you need to learn how to work the new settings. If the dash is
digital and has several screens, you also need to learn not only the new
tools, but the new interface. Add to that new features in the car and it can
seem daunting. However, once you get the new car on the open road and you
start to deal with either the daily commute, or you deal with long trips to
the cottage, to the inlawa, or to the beach, you start to realize just how
nice the new comforts are. To that end, it's worth the upgrade, and it's
worth the extra work to learn the new approaches to working.

Imagine then a FrameMaker world where you can optimize what you do for
template design, for daily authoring, for a review process, for structured
work, for book publishing, for editing, and for just about any 'normal' task
you normally perform as part of your job. Imagine setting up the designers
and toolbars where you want them for one environment, and then being able to
toggle them to another. Forget about the day-to-day, hour-by-hour manual
tasks that you perform and focus on the job. I can't imagine the amount of
time I spend moving dialogs from one part of my screen to another simply to
get different real estate to be the 'focus' of what I'm doing. Two monitors
help, but I'm still trapped in a world of drag-and-drop modifications to do
one task or another.

So, the answer to the question of 'Does anyone know if this is a "good
thing"' is a "yes" but a qualified one. It's a good thing IF you are willing
to take the time to work through the learning curve. Once that's done
though, then it's a much smoother ride and, like the new car, can make the
small bumps seem smoother, the long trips a bit less tiring, and ultimately
make the destination the focus point, not the individual issues that come up
along the way.

I hope that helps out.

Bernard

Bernard Aschwanden
President
Publishing Smarter

www.publishingsmarter.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Carrie Baker
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 5:38 AM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Adobe announces FrameMaker 9 and Technical Communication

I looked at their announcement.
What do you think they mean by
"New intunitve User Interface"? and then "Work more efficiently through a
completely redesigned user experience."

Does anyone know if this is a "good thing".
This sounds like a learning curve for experienced users.

_____________________________________________________________________
Message: 38
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:26:27 +0100
From: "Yves Barbion" <yves.barbion at gmail.com>
Subject: To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Message-ID:
       <2d78e7070901192326u174c65e8ie4d31f5b18d44a54 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Hi FrameUsers
It's here:
http://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker/
http://www.adobe.com/products/technicalcommunicationsuite/

Cheers
--
Yves Barbion ? Managing Director ? Adobe-Certified FrameMaker Instructor
www.scripto.nu  ? skype: yves.barbion  ? T: +32 494 12 01 89
_____________________________________________________________________

--
Carrie Baker
carriebak at gmail.com
_______________________________________________

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