http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Articles/Document-Design/Software/Adobe-FrameMaker A listing of the most recently indexed works about Articles and Document Design and Software and Adobe FrameMaker in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Articles/Document-Design/Software/Adobe-FrameMaker http://tc.eserver.org/35539.html http://tc.eserver.org/35539.html New FrameMaker documents have default Master Pages. Single-sided documents have one, called "Right," and double-sided documents have two, called "Left" and "Right." We use these pages to place the objects we want to repeat on all the Body Pages, things like our running heads, page numbers and repeating graphics. But what do you do when you need a different look for a Body Page, on a repeating basis? For example, no page number on the opening page of each chapter? You set up a custom master page. Here's how. http://tc.eserver.org/28737.html http://tc.eserver.org/28737.html FrameMaker seems to be Adobe's best-kept secret. A tremendously powerful desktop-publishing program, FrameMaker has been ritually ignored by reviewers who instead concentrate on the big three DTP apps: QuarkXPress, InDesign, and PageMaker. Adobe positioned FrameMaker as a niche 'word-processing' product appropriate only for long-document production. http://tc.eserver.org/28736.html http://tc.eserver.org/28736.html In Adobe FrameMaker, it is necessary to use special keyboard combinations to insert special typographic characters in your work. You can find an extensive list of special characters in FrameMaker's online help. You also can paste in special characters from Word or HTML. http://tc.eserver.org/27656.html http://tc.eserver.org/27656.html At the 2004 WritersUA and STC Conferences, structured FrameMaker and XML were among the more popular session topics. There is obviously significant interest in the user assistance community about authoring XML documents with structured FrameMaker. This is not surprising, as many organizations are struggling with the problems of creating and delivering increasing amounts of user assistance in multiple formats, and managing their content in a way that maximizes their capabilities to reuse content across multiple publications. http://tc.eserver.org/27089.html http://tc.eserver.org/27089.html Autonumbering had changed as new versions of FrameMaker have arrived. What worked in FrameMaker 5 might have broken in 5.5. This is due to changes Adobe made in the restart building blocks (request presentation). While our examples below use the maximum building blocks (meaning a little extra work), the result is numbering schemes that are more flexible for multiple versions of FrameMaker. http://tc.eserver.org/27090.html http://tc.eserver.org/27090.html Everything that is in FrameMaker is in FrameMaker+SGML. FrameMaker+SGML has capabilities that FrameMaker does not have. http://tc.eserver.org/24990.html http://tc.eserver.org/24990.html FrameMaker is the industry standard for writing book-length documents. It is a powerful program capable of creating books of well over a thousand pages. The learning curve for the program is significant. FrameMaker is a much different animal than Microsoft Word and other word processors. http://tc.eserver.org/23459.html http://tc.eserver.org/23459.html We recently converted our documents from Word to FrameMaker. Most of the people in my department had been using Word for years and had grown accustomed to applying character formatting using key commands or buttons on the toolbar. I was afraid that they would use the same methods in FrameMaker simply out of habit, rather than using character tags. http://tc.eserver.org/20893.html http://tc.eserver.org/20893.html FrameScript is a lot like FrameMaker; it has a fairly steep learning curve, but once you learn it, you’ll find it a real workhorse. The best way to start is to read the FrameScript Scriptwriter’s Guide. And the Quick Reference will provide you shortcuts to learning the FrameScript syntax. This tutorial will introduce some foundational concepts of writing scripts that will help you get started. http://tc.eserver.org/20888.html http://tc.eserver.org/20888.html There are two types of cross-references in FrameMaker: paragraph cross-references and spot cross-references. (There is a third type, element cross-references, available only in FrameMaker+SGML. This tutorial will not discuss element cross-references) Both paragraph and spot cross-references are similar, in that you have to insert an Xref object that points to a Cross-Ref Marker. The Xref object has an XRefSrcText property that must exactly match the marker text of the Cross-Ref Marker. Let’s start with spot cross-references, since they are a little simpler to work with. http://tc.eserver.org/20892.html http://tc.eserver.org/20892.html In the previous lesson, we introduced a simple FrameScript loop to process all of the paragraph formats in a document. In this lesson, we will introduce a variation of the loop, and the important concept of linked lists' of FrameMaker objects. http://tc.eserver.org/20891.html http://tc.eserver.org/20891.html Being able to navigate paragraphs in FrameMaker documents is an essential FrameScript task. This tutorial will explore several methods. For background information, see the Loops and Lists tutorial. http://tc.eserver.org/20890.html http://tc.eserver.org/20890.html Here is a simple script that proportionately scales a table to fit the text column that contains it. This script works with the current table but can be easily expanded to work with all of the tables in a document or book. http://tc.eserver.org/20889.html http://tc.eserver.org/20889.html If you are making a lot of FrameMaker graphics, such as lines with arrowheads, the thought of having to change them later can give you nightmares. Wouldn’t it be nice to have 'stylesheets' for graphic objects? With FrameScript, you can apply 'styles' to your graphics so that their properties can be globally changed. http://tc.eserver.org/20501.html http://tc.eserver.org/20501.html I'd like to vote in favor of dispelling the MYTH that FrameMaker is difficult to learn. http://tc.eserver.org/20502.html http://tc.eserver.org/20502.html Instructions for installing Adobe PS 4.26 for Windows 95/98 and attaching it to Acrobat Distiller for use with FrameMaker 5.5x. http://tc.eserver.org/20503.html http://tc.eserver.org/20503.html This article centers on a single-source documentation process that involves authoring structured, chunked documentation in Adobe FrameMaker 5.5.6 and converting it 'just in time' to a WinHelp online help system using ForeHelp Premier 2000. http://tc.eserver.org/14927.html http://tc.eserver.org/14927.html Have you ever wanted to check a large set of FrameMaker files to make sure all the borders, text- symbols, and rulers are turned off? What about hyperlinks? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to automatically validate all the hypertext links within a large set of FrameMaker files? Did you ever wish there was a way to automatically convert a set of data into FrameMaker tables? You can do all these things, and more, using the Maker Interchange Format (MIF). This article presents some of the main features of MIF and gives an overview of some of the ways you can make use of MIF. Additional articles will delve deeper into using Perl to process MIF, providing details on specific applications. http://tc.eserver.org/13053.html http://tc.eserver.org/13053.html FrameMaker may be the current standard for technical publication, but that doesn't mean it's a perfect program. Many writers who've used FrameMaker find that it's complex and quirky, with a lot functionality hidden in its now somewhat dated interface. So where do you go when you need help? This article will give you some suggestions.