RANT: FM 9.0 -

[Fred Ridder]

Darren Butler wrote:
 

> Why Adobe would want to emulate Microsoft is beyond me. What's next, a
> dancing paper clip?
> 
> We actually purchased 9.0 then down-graded (yes, you can do that) to
> FM8. High volume shop, NO time for an (un)learning curve.
> 
> Are there any menu-to-ribbon road maps that one might recommend?
> Eventually, a CMS upgrade will force us to go the FM9. 

Adobe *didn't* emulate Microsoft, and what they came up with is *not* a ribbon UI like MS Office has.
Their intent was to emulate other *Adobe* apps with floating toolbars and dockable dialogs. Over the years, Adobe had made only small changes to the original circa 1990 user interface that they bought from Frame Technologies in 1995, and many people had complained that the UI didn't look sufficiently Adobe-like. The fact that FrameMaker 9.0 has a UI that looks and acts similarly to Adobe's flagship apps should be a great benefit to the minuscule handful of new users who come to FrameMaker from tools like Photoshop or Illustrator or InDesign, but its value to experienced FrameMaker users is (at best) debatable.
-Fred Ridder