Hello

[Mike Wickham]

Hi, Gyanesh,

We are glad to have you participating here! In fact, since FM 
development moved to India, it has been nice to see that several members 
of the team have become active in the community and responsive to it. 
Thanks!

One shortcoming that I have always found in Adobe documentation (and not 
just FM documentation) is that it so often fails to document some things 
that should obviously, and by default, be covered. For example, EVERY 
menu command, EVERY preference setting, and EVERY dialog option should 
be well described. Yet, these are often completely omitted from the help 
files.

For example, FM11's Reviewer's Guide says that FM11 now includes a 
Hunspell dictionary option in preferences, in addition to the Proximity 
dictionary. But looking at the new FM11 online help, I searched for 
"Hunspell" and nothing could be found on it. There appears to be no 
information to tell users why they would choose one dictionary over the 
other. This is a preference setting, so it should be described in help.

The Reviewer's Guide also talks about "Improved handling of placed 
graphics," and mentions the new "RemoveGeneratedFacetsForTypes=" setting 
in maker.ini. But searching online help for that setting turns up 
nothing. (Perhaps it is documented in maker.ini itself, but I'm still on 
FM10 and don't currently have FM11 to look.)

The Reviewer's Guide also mentions, under "New Equations and Anchored 
Frame behavior," that anchored frames are now saved as individual MIF 
files, but there is a setting to revert to previous behavior: 
"DefaultvVectorFormatForXMLExport=CGM". Again, a help search for this 
setting turns up nothing.

Which reminds me, one thing FM help has always lacked is full 
documentation of maker.ini settings. Every setting in maker.ini should 
be documented. Some are documented in help. Some are documented in 
maker.ini itself (though often poorly). Many settings are documented in 
the Customizing_Frame_Products.pdf-- but, if I recall correctly, that 
file is no longer included on distribution disks, so many FM users don't 
even know that it exists! (And the downloadable version that exists is 
labeled as for FM7!) But many settings remain completely undocumented, 
including settings that, by default, are not included in maker.ini. So 
users don't know the settings are available.

I would also add that, while I do see the advantages of online 
documentation being updatable and searchable, I miss printed 
documentation. The nice thing about a printed version is you can sit 
down with a manual and just read it to learn about things you wouldn't 
have thought to browse for in help. Adobe should consider creating 
print-on-demand (POD) versions of its documentation to satisfy that 
need. I think they may have done this previously with Creative Suite 
documentation. There was a time you could order printed copies of CS 
documentation in the Adobe Store-- though often a ridiculous six months 
or more after the product release! I used to order those when they were 
available.

Mike Wickham