Category: FrameMaker

by Barb Binder

In two recent online classes, one FrameMaker and the other InDesign CS5, I noticed that one of my students had inadvertently installed the International English version of their software.

The FrameMaker installation was subtle. I didn't notice it until we got to our spell-check exercise and we watched as FrameMaker flagged "color" and wanted to replace it with "colour." InDesign was more obvious, starting with new documents defaulting to metric measurements and an A4 paper size.

Both students live and work in the U.S., and both wanted to convert their installation back to English US. Unfortunately, the language option for both programs is selected during the installation of the software, and by the time we caught on, the decision was well in the past. So what can be done?

The simplest answer is to deactivate the program (leave the serial number on the system), uninstall it and then reinstall it. This time, slow down and read the prompts. Choose English US when asked, and then complete the installation.

One could also tweek the International English version to work with US English. Both programs allow you to change defaults: you'll want to change the dictionary language default, measurement defaults, etc. Be aware, however, that unless you uninstall/reinstall, the menus and dialog boxes will still show the International English spelling.

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Looking to learn Adobe FrameMaker We offer Beginner and Advanced classes.

I use FrameMaker as the main authoring tool when I write my skills & drills books. I am often asked why FrameMaker is the better choice over Word. While Word is great for word processing, nothing touches FrameMaker when it comes to creating technical documentation. Chris King of RIMS, Inc. has put together a great document that compares FrameMaker to Word.

by Barb Binder 

FrameMaker has a long history of alerting us to various problems in our documents. We have alert boxes that pop up when we:

Open a document with unavailable fonts:

Open a document that was saved using an earlier version of FrameMaker:

Open a document that contains one or more unresolved cross-references:

During my live, online FrameMaker class, we perform an activity that will clear the history, effectively removing access to Edit > Undo and Edit > Redo (i.e., changing the margins or columns).

New in FrameMaker 10 is the addition of a checkbox in all four alert boxes to turn them off forever. Sounds tempting, doesn't it? Who wants to continually be reminded of something we already know? Well, I think that's the key. I will gladly disable the Clear History message and not look back, because I know which actions clear history. I'm also unconcerned about the alert for converting an older file to the current version of FrameMaker. (Once I upgrade to a new version, I usually don't go back.)

The other two, though? I'd leave them on. There's no way I want to get to the printing stage and then suddenly realize that I have unavailable fonts and/or unresolved cross-references. Sure I can fix them both, but I might miss my deadline doing it.

What? You already turned them all off? No worries. Just choose File > Preferences > Alert Strings and you can restore any of the alert boxes to their original states.

Looking to learn Adobe FrameMaker We offer Beginner and Advanced classes.

by Barb Binder 

I was walking to my airline gate recently and overheard an elderly woman complaining to a younger woman as they passed me. All I heard was, "Why do they give us so many ways of doing the same thing?"

Who knows what she was talking about, but it made me smile because I hear the same thing all the time in my various Adobe training classes.

One of the (many) benefits to having spent so many years delivering software training is that I've had the opportunity to observe all of the various learning styles and workflow techniques. I try to let each of my students know early on that even though some of us might be dedicated right mouse button clickers, others (like me) prefer keyboard commands, and still others like to rely exclusively on the menus. It's all good… we can still be friends. My statement usually diffuses the otherwise inevitable frustration that can accompany learning more than one way to do the same thing.

With that thought in mind, let's discuss FrameMaker's drag and drop feature. It's just another way to move (or copy) text and elements. To move something, just select it, press down on your left mouse button, and drag the text or element to its new location.

If you'd prefer to copy, just hold down the Control key and do the same thing. (If you see a question mark, FrameMaker is telling you that you are trying to move/copy your object to an invalid location.)

Dragging and dropping also works within column rows and tables, as long as you add the Alt key to move and Control + Alt to copy.

And as long as you purchase FrameMaker 10 within the next fifteen minutes (I'm just kidding!), you can also drag and drop across other applications that support the drag and drop feature.

As I said earlier, I'm a happy keyboard shortcut gal… the drag and drop feature isn't likely to change the way I use FrameMaker. I'm betting that some of you are going to love the drag and drop feature and begin using it right away. That's okay. We can still be friends.
 

 Looking to learn Adobe FrameMaker We offer Beginner and Advanced classes.

by Barb Binder 

Here's another simple, yet powerful feature that is new in FrameMaker 10. If you pull down the Edit menu and start reading from the top, you'll find Undo, Redo, History and then new Repeat command. Its job is simply to repeat your last activity. This includes:  

• Type text
• Paste
• Delete
• Apply a character format
• Apply a paragraph format
• Insert a graphic object (i.e., Arc, Ellipse, Group, Inset, Line, Math, Polygon, Polyline, Rectangle, Rounded Rectangle, TextFrame, TextLine, and Unanchored Frame)
• Insert a table
• Set Object Properties
• Set text properties (i.e., Plain, Bold, Italic, Underline)
• Insert Footnote/Anchored Frame
• Find/Change
• Apply a condition tag

The two items I care most about personally are applying character and paragraph formats. When I'm tagging a long document, I'd much rather tag the first Heading1 for example, and then just tap F6 (that's the Function key shortcut for Edit > Repeat) to tag the remaining Headings. Being able to repeat Object Properties on multiple frames is a close second.

How do you use the Repeat command? We'd love to hear from you.

Note: There are a variety of activities that you can perform that will stop the Repeat function in its tracks. Click here for the complete list.

by Barb Binder 

Some time ago, a client was considering using Adobe FrameMaker for a project and wanted to be able to electronically highlight text. That existing version of FrameMaker couldn't do it so the client decided to use Adobe InDesign. Because of that one incident, I was keenly aware when Adobe added background colors into FrameMaker 10.

In FrameMaker 10, you can now add a background color behind your text through both the Paragraph and Character Designers. This would have solved my student's highlighting needs. He could have set up a character format called Highlight, and then used it to highlight strings of text.

OK, that takes care of that one application, but what else can you do with a background color when highlighted text isn't a priority?

My personal favorite is to use it for a condition tag indicator. I was never a fan of using underlines, strikethroughs and overlines as a style indicator, though I certainly understood why I needed to. With FrameMaker 10, I'm happy to retire the lines and switch to colors.

Speaking of colors, I always add a color to my user variables so that I can keep an eye on them during layout and editing, even when I'm zoomed out. Now I can use a background color instead.

But the real reason I think Adobe added support for background color is for PDF comments. This has got to be one of the most life-changing features for me. (I'm referring to importing PDF comments, not specifically the new support for background color within PDF comments.) If you are using FrameMaker 9 or 10 and don't know about it, definitely take five minutes to read about it here. We can now import comments that have been added with text highlights in Adobe Reader or Acrobat, and not just the basic editing tools.

by Barb Binder 

When I started working in Adobe FrameMaker 10, one of the first differences I noticed was the appearance of checkmarks in front of the formats in the various Catalogs. My first guess was that the check marks indicated whether or not a format was being used in the document, or not. But I would see checkmarks on formats I wasn't using (i.e., CellBody) and when I applied a format, sometimes the checkmarks didn't show up. At least not right away.

After doing a little research, it turns out I was right about the checkmarks. They do indicate format usage within a document. In the example below, the poem starts out using the Body format, and is appropriately checked.

When I assign a Heading1 format to the title, a check should appear in front of the Heading1 format. It might appear right away, but the only time you can count on FrameMaker accurately updating the list is when a file is being opened. For that reason, we now have a Refresh Catalog button. Clicking it makes FrameMaker refresh the list to show an accurate accounting of used and unused formats.

While we are examining the buttons at the bottom of the Catalogs, take a look at the new choices under the Options button. For the first time we have the ability to sort the items in our Catalogs, and to safely delete all unused formats. Nice! (Note: the sorting and display options you apply in one document will also be applied to all of your other documents. Don't worry, you can change them back at any time.)

If you are wondering why I still haven't addressed the checkmarks in front of the 5 formats (CellBody, CellHeading, Footnote, TableFootnote & TableTitle) that are not yet used in the document, it's because I can't find anything in writing on the Adobe website. But here's what I think: since those five formats are automatically applied when you insert a footnote, a table footnote and a default table, FrameMaker has them identified, and ready to go for when you need them. 

by Barb Binder   

I can't tell you how many times my Adobe FrameMaker students ask where the "red squiggles" are when we start the lessons on text editing.

In my humble opinion, there's not a whole lot to like about Microsoft Word, but I have to admit that I do use Word for writing, primarily to take advantage of Word's automatic spelling and grammar checks. I encourage my students to continue writing and editing in Word for the same reasons, before importing their docs into FrameMaker.

Even though FrameMaker was initially conceived as a 3-in-1 program (word processor, illustration and page layout), let's face it, most people use FrameMaker because it excels in technical document layout, but FrameMaker does not excel in word processing or illustrating.

The good news is that the new Adobe FrameMaker 10 offers Auto Spell Check, and with it, those beloved red (and green) squiggles.  

1. To activate (or deactivate) Auto Spell Check, choose File > Preferences > General. Ensure there's a check mark in front of Auto Spell Check and click OK.

   

    

2. Once Auto Spell Check is activated, FrameMaker will scan the document and highlight spelling mistakes.

   

    

3. In Word, you have likely learned to recognize red squiggles as spelling errors. As in Word, you can now correct the spelling in FrameMaker by simply right-clicking and selecting the correct spelling from the list.

   

    

4. In Word, you are probably used to seeing green squiggles to indicate a possible grammar error. You will now see green squiggles in FrameMaker, but it's not quite the same thing. Auto Spell Check is just that: spell check. While FrameMaker will not evaluate your grammar, it will flag other types of mistakes. In this example, FrameMaker found two spaces between the words "was" and "only."

    

So what else will FrameMaker flag in green? To see the options (which have always been there, even if you never took the time to review them):  

1. Choose Edit > Spelling Checker.

    

2. Click the Options button to see what else FrameMaker is looking for (or ignoring). For instance, it's the Extra Spaces checkbox that asked FrameMaker to flag the double spaces above.

    

I have a couple of authors who send me docs with straight quotes. I am going to enjoy this new feature in FrameMaker 10 to visually flag them. How will this change your workflow? 

by Barb Binder   

At least one student in every one of my Adobe FrameMaker classes inquires about templates. And why shouldn't they? Templates are the single best way to get a jump start on the design of a new document. In FrameMaker, there are two different locations for the templates that come with the software.

Start by exploring the standard templates:

1. Choose File > New.
    
2. Click the Explore Standard Templates button at the bottom of the dialog box.

There are two screens of templates that represent a variety of business documents. I have to admit that they are not the most attractive designs, but don't discount them. Because they demonstrate a wide variety of FrameMaker features, the templates that ship with FrameMaker are a great learning resource for you. Take the outline templates for example. Numbered paragraphs tend to be one of the hardest things for new users to figure out. If you open up these templates and look over their formatting properties, it all becomes very clear.

If you are still looking for inspiration, FrameMaker 9 and 10 ship with additional templates, but you have to know where to look.