Thumbs down: FrameMaker 9 Welcome Screen

[Jerry Kindall]

"Diane Gaskill" <dgcaller at earthlink.net> wrote:
> I also do not like the fact that FM9 opens a book file on the left
side of
> the FM window and its huge and docked.

In my opinion, this is the single best improvement in the new FrameMaker
9 UI.  Now I don't have to dig out the book file from behind the
eleventy chapters I've opened in front of it, and if I have multiple
books open, they are managed separately from the chapters I've opened
from them.  I can even arrange it so the books are tabs in a single
panel or so I can see them all at the same time, whichever way I want to
work.  It makes FrameMaker much like an IDE for writing.

BTW, the book area can be collapsed and will stay collapsed, addressing
your concern with how much space it takes -- your books then "fly out"
from an unobjectionable icon strip.  I have been playing with this mode,
and I like it quite a bit.  Of course, if you don't like the books on
the left, you can put them somewhere else, such as on the right, on the
bottom, or even in a tabbed strip across the top.  It is a frankly
brilliant design and long overdue.

Of course, if you want it to work the old way, that is simple too -- you
can tear the books off and position them as you like.  They do float
over your other documents, which is a change, but wonder of wonders, you
can put them on your second display now!  That is an absolute usability
improvement -- FrameMaker has finally moved into the '90s.

The welcome screen?  In an ordinary day I would see it for about five
seconds.  I don't see any way to turn it off, but I also don't see any
reason to.

I haven't done a major project in FrameMaker 9 yet, but so far the
changes I've seen are all obvious improvements that will make working in
FrameMaker much less frustrating.  Now if only they'd get some
inheritance going with their document model, I'd be in heaven.

-- 
Jerry Kindall, SDK Technical Writer
Tecplot, Inc. | Enjoy the View
Bellevue, Washington, USA