Most notably, the oddly named, and 20 year old Special menu is gone! The items previously listed there have moved to more logical places, including the new Insert menu item. But this isn’t the first, nor the last time I have to deal with improvements to UI! Changes to the UX drives changes to the UI Menu structure and command search And, because I teach folks on multiple versions, I now have more stuff I need to keep in my head. The gripe: Because I have my FrameMaker reference book to update, it means I’ll be able to use even less of the existing text than usual, and need to recreate nearly every screenshot used in the book.
Better, but different! I do applaud the team for putting stuff “where it belongs” even though some of these things date back to before FrameMaker was acquired by Adobe. The Special menu has correctly been eliminated, and other behaviors like cross-references and image insertion behave in substantially different ways. What I’ll like over time: Getting used to the new locations and the new layout will try your patience for a while. What I like: New users have a more intuitive, more discoverable product. I don’t know if the UI overhaul is quite as drastic as in the FrameMaker 9 release, but it’s substantial. And just like when Acrobat X changed it all up, it’s going to take some getting used to. Straight off, here’s my biggest gripe about this release: Nearly every icon, pod (I still want to call ’em panels), dialog, and function has either been enhanced, redesigned, or moved. However, here are a few of the bigger changes to FrameMaker, along with some suggestions I think would further enhance the new functionality. There are so many subtle changes to Fm 2017 that there’s no way I can discuss them all here. If you’re curious about the minutia, I’ve included a comprehensive list of changes from Adobe at the end of this post and bolded my favorite features. In fact, I may enjoy them even more, because I’ll recognize the ways that they’re different from before. As I mentioned above, there are things I’d like done differently, but I absolutely look forward to a faster, more efficient workflow using the myriad of subtle changes in this version.
New features are always fun, and the Project Manager, Command Search, and Insert Images workflows are all excellent improvements to the application. I quickly warmed up to the changes in the designers and the catalogs, and was quite impressed with the conditional text and cross-reference pods.
FRAMEMAKER VERSIONS AND YEAR DATES SERIES
I got a great chance to put the features through their paces, as Adobe was kind enough to not only have me on the beta team for this release, but to commission a series of videos covering the latest features. The thing that’s most exciting is the improvements to the user interface (UI) and the user experience (UX). While I have yet to see a “perfect” release of any application, from Adobe or anyone else, this version gets a big stamp of approval from me. The new release of FrameMaker is here! And since FrameMaker is such a big part of what I do, I’m pleased to announce that I’m very happy with this latest release.
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