Adobe FrameMaker 7.0

Aside from the introductory shock, FrameMaker is unsurprisingly solid: version 7.0 has integrated an improved FrameMaker with its FrameMaker+SGML cousin, creating a full-functioned document design and distribution tool. This version is enterprise-ready, with tools that allow for distribution options that we hadn't even considered. FrameMaker is capable of compiling your documents into a book, mapping these out in the proper format (from table of contents to your index), and handling powerful graphic design and printing options, such as whether to knock out or overprint color in graphics. The package handles both conditional (content that changes from version to version) and variable text (text used in various places throughout the document) with sharp and easy accuracy.

New to this version is the Quadralay WebWorks Publisher Standard Edition 7.0 (WWPSE7), which provides robust features for creating HTML, Dynamic HTML, and XML output. WWPSE7 exports text, graphics, and tables to these formats, as well as automatically generating cascading style sheets for the page. Among many other functions, it can specify how navigation bars appear at the top and bottom of a page and map FrameMaker content to screen-reader output. Again, this tool works with great refinement and is an impressive addition to the FrameMaker package.

If you work on a team, you'll appreciate Adobe's very friendly (and quite powerful) features that make team-tagging a book project much easier. Definable options include choosing which documents to share, server access and setup, and folder structures. Other revision management tools include the use of change bars (available both automatically and for selected revisions), word and character count tools, and version comparison for both a summary of changes or a completely merged document.

We also appreciated the supporting documentation: the 600-plus page user manual encompasses Windows, Macintosh, and Unix users, calling attention to differences. The online version of the manual offers more information, although in a less handsome format. Also included is the XML Cookbook, a good first-step manual for learning to work in structured work environments.

Overall, if you can get over any initial disappointment concerning the interface, Adobe FrameMaker delivers a powerful authoring and publishing solution. --Emilie Herbst

Amazon.com Product Description
Adobe FrameMaker 7.0 delivers an enterprise-class authoring and publishing solution that combines the simplicity of word processing with the power of XML. Enjoy WYSIWYG authoring in either a word-processing, style-tagging mode or a fully structured environment optimized for the editing and production of valid XML. Take advantage of long document support that includes book management features, sophisticated templates, and rich formatting options.

FrameMaker 7.0 offers built-in support for high-quality printing, the latest Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) standards, and integration of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). Use the included WebWorks Publisher Standard Edition 7.0 software from Quadralay to automatically create HTML versions of your documents and books. In addition, this version combines the features and functionality of FrameMaker and FrameMaker+SGML into a single product.

What it offers over Word:
Stability, table styles, inline graphic placement options, sideheads, runin paragraph styles, independent and outline numbering systems that always work, graphics library (reference pages), conditional text, variables, complex headers and footers, straddle heads, ability to pull in photoshop and illustrator files directly.

What it offers over InDesign or Quark:
Numbering, table styles, inline graphic placement options, sideheads, paragraph styles that can straddle columns automatically, variables, equation editor, footnotes, various automated lists.

Yes, the keystrokes are left over from its Unix heritage, and there is only one level of undos. There is a learning curve, but for long documents, it has no peer. Ventura is not as stable, and LaTex is too complicated. I wouldn't recommend it for making a newsletter, but for long and technical documents with numbering, tables, cross-refs, etc. it is a wonderful program.


The little things DO count   January 1, 2004
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is a review of the Windows version.

Framemaker is a really good product for complex layouts and unusual page sizes. So for newsletters, fancy foldout marketing pieces, and non-standard size manuals, it really does a nice job.

As for efficiency for just getting your word processing done, I have to give it a firm thumbs down. Also, you can really tell this product was not originally developed for Windows because so many of the standard shortcut keys and features are simply not present. I give you the following examples of inefficiency:

Ctrl+Z to undo can undo only one time. Unfortunately, I'm not perfect enough to consistently only make one mistake at a time.

In tables, the only way you can select an entire row or column is to drag your mouse. If you are in one cell and want to move to the next row but the same column (the cell immediately below), you have to either tab over until you get through the current row or else get your mouse and click the cell you want.

There are some buttons on the toolbars that have no equivalent on the menu bar. There is no way to assign your own shortcut keys to various functions you might use often.

If you want to resize a graphic, but only know how wide you want it, you can't simply enter the width and then have it calculate the length in order to maintain the same aspect.

It's all these seemingly small things that in actuality, when implemented properly, can really increase your efficiency so that you can focus on what's important: writing. For the price of this product, I would really like to see them pay more attention to things that you really need on a regular basis instead of focusing on features you might use perhaps twice or less within a book. They really need to get the basics down first instead of just adding bells and whistles.


Bottom Line--It Just Works!!!   November 7, 2003
Robin Currier
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

I've been using FrameMaker for about 6 years, and each release just gets better and more reliable. I've been using version 7 for about a year now, and it has never crashed once, nor has any document become corrupted or unusable. That may sound like faint praise, but after years of using Microsoft Word and having large documents suddenly forget where chapters begin or having numbered lists re-number themselves nonsensically, I SO appreciate FrameMaker's stability. I've made manuals of over 400 pages with FrameMaker with never a problem that wasn't of my own making. This software is just really SOLID and RELIABLE and great for doing large documents. I'd never go back!


Almost perfect   July 8, 2003
Warren C. Norwood (Weatherford, TX United States)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

If all word processing/desktop publishing software worked this well, the world of writing would be a better place. It's not perfect, but it is as close as any piece of software I've worked with in the past 23 years of doing word processing and desktop publishing.

With tremendous power and rock solid performance, FrameMaker 7.0 does everything it claims to do. The user delineates what it needs to do and FrameMaker does it. This is such a remarkable improvement from MS Word that our tech writing department has a whole new upbeat, can-do attitude that everyone who works with us has noticed. Need for your document to have complex numbering? FrameMaker does it with ease, grace, and accuracy. We got four days of in-house training and have sailed forward with grins on our faces.

This is excellent software, worth every penny we paid for it and the training. If you're tired of fighting Word templates and numbering problems, if you just want your documents to behave, if you're tired of Word "helping" you behind the scenes, FrameMaker can change your desktop publishing world from hell to heaven.

If you just need to do simple documents and brochures, get WordPerfect. If you need the power to produce documents more complicated and complex than that, get FrameMaker.