RANT: FM 9.0 -

[Venkat]

<This is a long mail>

Hello,

I have just migrated to FM 9.0 yesterday and IMHO, am finding the UI a pain
to use.  Some of the issues that I am having are:

1. When using structured interface, using F8 to select a character style
creates a new element of the same type at the point where the style has to
be applied.

2. When using F8 to apply the Default Format in FM8, we just used to select
F8 and then press the <Enter> key. This is not possible in FM9 as there is
an entry "Not Applicable" as the first entry in all the lists.

3. Dialogs persist and do not behave as required. For example, take the
"Anchored Frame" dialog. When I want to insert an image in my document, I
use an element "Image". This by default inserts an anchored frame and the
"Anchored Frame" dialog box is displayed. However, when I click the <New
Frame> button in the dialog, the frame is inserted but the dialog box
changes to the edit mode and retains the focus.

My definition of the "Image" element inserts the "Image Title" element below
the image when I press the <Enter> button again. This action is now gone for
a toss as I have to close this persistent dialog to get focus back to the
document. This has slowed me down considerably as I work mostly with the
keyboard.

My question is

Can these behavior be changed. I do not want dialogs to be persistent. I do
not want the "Not Applicable" element as the first in any selectable list.

IMHO, the changes made in FM9 are just eye-candy and do not add anything to
the whole experience of working with Frame Maker. In fact, I find it a bit
of a chore to use it.

Regards,
Venkatesh Parthasarathy,
Senior Technical Writer.

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