Frame's Versatile Publishing Powerhouse Goes the Distance on Any Platform.
Gregory Wasson
Reviews Page Layout/
THE PREMIER long-document-publishing program for the Mac, FrameMaker is now in its fifth iteration. The latest version features new page-layout features, AppleScript support, and enhanced portable- and online-document-distribution options. An ongoing strength is seamless compatibility with the Windows and UNIX versions of Frame.
FrameMaker uses the familiar frame-based approach of QuarkXPress, but what sets it apart is its powerful cross-referencing tools; its ability to automatically update variables; a superb integrated table editor; autonumbering; and a host of other high-end features tailor-made for managing long documents, especially those that are more than a thousand pages.
High-end word processors such as Microsoft Word and desktop-publishing programs such as Adobe PageMaker have adapted some FrameMaker features but generally without FrameMaker's depth. For example, you can use design templates with any of these programs, but only FrameMaker allows you to apply or import only specific aspects of a template, such as character formats, to another document. And FrameMaker whizzes through reformatting lengthy documents, a process that chokes most other page-layout programs.
Although FrameMaker 5 is still not an ideal tool for design-intensive documents such as brochures and advertisements, it has some new, welcome page-layout features. It now supports the wrapping of text around graphics -- you can wrap text around either a rectangular bounding box or an object's clipping path. You can also specify how much of an offset you want between the graphic and the text.
But more impressive is how FrameMaker handles straddling paragraphs, tables, footnotes, and anchored frames across multiple columns. FrameMaker's straddle feature is paragraph-based. You simply select the element you want placed across a column or columns and click on the desired straddle setting in the Paragraph Designer dialog box. Both QuarkXPress and PageMaker, in contrast, force you to use an awkward workaround: You have to create a separate frame or text block that won't flow along with the rest of the text if it's edited.
FrameMaker continues to lack the hard-core typographical tools -- hyphenation tables, custom kerning pairs, and automatic drop caps -- that make QuarkXPress a favorite with professional designers.
The freely distributable FrameViewer enables others to view, search, and print FrameMaker documents without having to run the FrameMaker application. This makes FrameMaker the perfect program for online document distribution. FrameMaker is loaded with hypertext savvy for creating hypertext links, both within a document and between documents.
FrameViewer doesn't require you to make any changes to your FrameMaker document for others to view it, but you have to do some postprocessing to publish the document in other online formats, such as HTML, for World Wide Web pages; Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF), for distributing electronic manuals; or Microsoft WinHelp RTF, for the built-in online help system in the Microsoft Windows operating system.
FrameMaker now supports importing by reference, Frame's easier-to-use alternative to Apple's publish-and-subscribe. For instance, if you regularly use boilerplate text, such as your licensing agreement, for user manuals you create, you can mark the boilerplate text as reference text. If, as you're working on the manual, the boilerplate text is updated, FrameMaker automatically updates it in the manual as well as in any other documents that use it. This handy feature can also be used to set up a simple database-publishing system that uses data exported from a database program, such as FileMaker Pro.
FrameMaker has an unparalleled degree of cross-platform compatibility for Mac OS, Windows, and UNIX users. You can work with a document on a Macintosh one day; continue working on it, using a Windows machine, the next day; and then send the file to a coworker who uses a UNIX workstation the next day, without ever having to worry about conversion hassles. FrameMaker 5 will even warn you if in saving a file on the Mac, you use a name that isn't allowed on a UNIX or Windows system. And this version includes an extensive collection of graphics filters for all three platforms, so even placed graphics won't cause problems as you move a document between operating systems.
But just because FrameMaker is a cross-platform program, this does not mean that you have to put up with the conventions and shortcomings of PC- and UNIX-application interfaces. FrameMaker takes advantage of many Mac-specific features. For example, you can write and store AppleScript scripts in the Scripting menu, although you can't record your actions.
However, FrameMaker's interface is not without its idiosyncrasies. You still have to dive through layers of dialog boxes and submenus to execute some common tasks. For example, if you want to count the words in your document, you have to go to the Document Reports command, on the Utilities submenu, on the File menu, and then double-click on WordCount in a scrolling list of reports.
To add insult to injury, FrameMaker's anemic WordCount command is unable to give you the word count for a selection -- only for the entire document. It's too bad Frame didn't at least provide an AppleScript script for this, which would have been a truly useful example of FrameMaker's AppleScript support. Instead of dealing with these problems and others, Frame seemed content simply to colorize the QuickAccess bar.
The Bottom Line
Thanks to its high-end feature set, Mac-friendliness, and reliable performance, FrameMaker continues to be the premier Mac program dedicated to long-document publishing. Although its interface could stand a face-lift and it still won't win over typography and design mavens, we recommend it to anyone who needs to produce books, manuals, and other long documents.
Adobe has announced plans to acquire Frame Technology. If the acquisition goes through, FrameMaker should have a dynamic future.
FrameMaker 5
Rating: (4 out of 5 mice) Very Good
Price: $895 (list).
Pros: New sophisticated page-layout features, such as paragraph-based text straddles and text wrapping. Superb cross-platform compatibility. Supports AppleScript.
Cons: Interface needs streamlining. Lacks some high-end typographical-design features, such as customizable kerning pairs.
Company: Frame Technology, San Jose, CA; 800-843-7263 or 408-975-6000.
Reader Service: Circle #410.
You can map FrameMaker formats to HTML codes to convert a FrameMaker document into a Web page for online distribution.
New layout features in FrameMaker 5 make it easy to create footnotes, headlines, and even graphics that automatically straddle multiple columns.
