RANT: FM 9.0 -

[Mike Wickham]

> You should post this where it has a chance of doing some good, on the
> Adobe forum. My understanding is that Frame 9 was developed entirely
> overseas, safely away from anyone who might give them adverse but
> useful feedback.

> It's a big company thing to do: play up the window dressing without
> fussing too much with anything else.

I wouldn't call it window dressing. I work with a lot of graphics in my 
documents. The Anchored Frame dialog, Object Properties, Runaround 
Properties other other dialogue boxes can now stay on screen for easy 
access. The Inset pod lists all graphics in a document and makes it easy to 
jump to them. There's also a Fonts pod that lists fonts in a document and 
makes it easy to substitute different fonts. You can set up workspaces that 
display only the panels/pods you want and change workspaces with a click. 
And more.

I sure wouldn't besmirch the gang in India for their work on FM. Look at all 
the changes they've made in versions 8.0 and 9.0.-- like Unicode, for 
starters.  Compared to when development was in the U.S., you can see things 
happening. I've been using FM since version 6.0. Versions 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2 
were so little different that few upgraded. If you didn't use DITA, there 
wasn't much sense in it. And when we've reported bugs, the Indian gang has 
actually responded, worked with us, and fixed most of them. They've been 
quiet lately. No doubt they've been busy reading the next new version. Based 
on past cycles, it's due out anytime. I look forward to it.

Mike Wickham