Adobe announces FrameMaker 9 and Technical Communication

[Maxwell Hoffmann]

I concur with Bernard's analysis. I too have worked with the product for
some time. The pods in the workspaces allow you to see nearly all of your
marker content at one time. You can sort contents of pods in a variety of
ways for pre-flighting or troubleshooting a document. Pods for Cross
References will color code unresolved cross references (avoiding the
"one-at-a-time" search routine.) And, you can finally replace missing fonts
on a per document (or book) basis, without editing maker.ini and restarting
FrameMaker.

In short, after a couple of days working with FM9, I found it irritating to
work with FM8. Yes, there is a learning curve, but it is well worth it.
FrameMaker's previous user interface jelled around 1994, and after 15 years,
it is time for a change.

The new UI will also make the product more accessible to new users and end
the frustration we've all experienced in "getting the people down the hall
to use the product" instead of Word or other inappropriate choices for high
page count projects.

_________________________ 

Maxwell  Hoffmann
Director, Document Globalization Practice
Globalization Partners International (GPI)       
www.globalizationpartners.com
tel: 866.272.5874          direct: 503.336-5952        mobile:
503.805.3719        fax: 202.478.0956
skype: maxwell.hoffmann         email:
mhoffmann at globalizationpartners.com   
Follow me on TWITTER: http://twitter.com/maxwellhoffmann
Globalization Partners International, LLC provides document, software and
website translation services into over 100 languages including Arabic,
Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Click here to see our latest service: http://tinyurl.com/gpi-doc-analyze

-----Original Message-----
From: Bernard Aschwanden (Publishing Smarter)
[mailto:bernard at publishingsmarter.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 10:09 AM
To: 'Carrie Baker'; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Adobe announces FrameMaker 9 and Technical Communication

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.
[snip]
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