So how many of us are stuck with Frame 7.2?

Combs, Richard richard.combs at Polycom.com
Wed Mar 2 20:52:06 PST 2011


Everette, Dimi wrote:
 
> Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I'm excited about getting FM 10 here
> at work. I've been using FM9 for a couple of years, and it was a huge
> improvement over 7.2 to me. I've used only unstructured and I'm just
> doing run-of-the-mill technical publications, but I love FrameMaker--
> always have and always will (probably!).
> 
> FM 7.2 was good enough for a long time, but I discovered that it didn't
> play well with some of the older books I work on, especially the large
> ones. Then came FM 9 and the nifty redesign--yeah, some of it's a PITA
> but you get used to it. After attending the Adobe webinar about TCS3
> and one about FM 10, I am ready to go to the next level.

I was eager to switch to FM9/TCS2 when we got it, but after weeks of trying, I still couldn't achieve an FM > RH > online help workflow that didn't require lots of manual work in RH. Numbered lists in particular were an insurmountable issue for me. I mean, really -- hanging indents kludged with non-breaking spaces? What is this, 1989?

So, since OLH is my major deliverable right now, I'm sticking with the FM7.2 > ePub workflow that was kind of handed to me a few years ago -- it just works. 

I gather that some of my issues with FM > RH integration may have been resolved in TCS3, so I wouldn't mind giving that a try. 

But I'd want Shlomo Perets' ToolbarPlus Express (www.microtype.com/resources.html) and Klaus Daube's Enhanced Toolbar ... um ... enhancement for that (www.daube.ch/docu/fmaker55.html). The oh-so-cool, Bauhaus-like monotone gray interface introduced in FM9 leaves me cold and is seriously lacking in terms of usability. 

Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
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