"there's competition from Author-IT, Flare, and others." you say. Note Sharon Burton's MadCap blog's understated announcement: http://madcapsoftware.wordpress....008/09/23/dita/
I don't think it is Adobe's intention to "eat" FrameMaker at this point, since they are plowing ahead with an upcoming FrameMaker release. But you are probably right about more people moving to InDesign with the CS4 release. InDesign has credibility as one of Adobe's top-tier applications which makes it more attractive to many new buyers than FrameMaker.
As I watched the CS4 launch this morning, it brought me back to 1995 when Adobe bought FrameMaker. I was excited then because I thought that Adobe would make FrameMaker one of its flagship applications and give it the royal treatment that InDesign has gotten since its inception. We all know the painful history, so I won't rehash it.
There are a couple of words that come to mind when I look at InDesign: 1) Polish. Its features and interface are thoughtful and well-designed. Where there features that miss the mark, you can be sure that they will be fine-tuned in future releases. 2) Quality. By this, I mean that you probably won't find old version documentation shipping with the new version.
When I look at InDesign's recent development versus FrameMaker's it is hard to believe that they are owned by the same company. FrameMaker is still my bread and butter program, but it is hard not look at InDesign and wonder what FrameMaker could have become.
Hi, Sarah:
"...UNTIL NOW...," as the late movie trailer guy might say, I've been under Adobe's non-disclosure agreement for ID CS4 pre-release testers.
"...BUT, IN A WORLD..." where disclosure can now be thrown to the winds, I'll add a few comments.
ID's been sneaking up on FM's long technical-document authoring tool set for a few releases. ID CS3 added system- and user-defined variables, running headers, table styles (named table formats), cell styles, named object styles, and nested styles - the ability to specify a pattern that applies named character styles to matching content within paragraphs - and it improved numbered lists a HUGE amount.
ID CS4 is closing in with new additions that matter to technical authors: cross-references, conditional text, smart text reflow (real-time adding new pages as needed, and deleting them when empty), along with boosting the already-powerful nested paragraph feature to include, selecting by a GREP pattern as you noted, and also by line number within the paragraph, so the nth line will get the character style you specify, no matter how it wraps or flows, and the ability to repeat (or loop) applying the sequence of styles (sort of a macro ability.)
FrameMaker users who don't use CS3-level Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop will need extra time to adjust to Adobe's corporate user interface, and learning new ways to perform familiar tasks.
Plus, just because something's on the package label, trust - but verify. Don't assume.
Here are a few FrameMaker features that you may miss:
* Run-in paragraphs
* Side headings and side-heading area
* Paragraphs that flow with text and also straddle multiple columns, and multiple columns AND side heads
* Table sorting
* No Track Changes
* No logical conditional text expressions - AND and NOT were added in FM 8
* No "size matters" inter-paragraph spacing - FM uses the larger of space below and space above for paragraph spacing. ID, like most other applications, adds the space below and space above, which makes it more complicated to set up paragraph formats that will space as you need, regardless of who-follows-what.
* Frame above /below paragraphs can contain graphics, text, or a mix. ID's rules above/below paragraph are great, but they aren't containers.
Here are a few FrameMaker features in ID CS4 that are a little more complicated to do:
* To jump to a cross-reference source from within FrameMaker, instead of Ctrl+Alt+Click, you click in the Cross-Reference panel
* Index markers support multiple-level entries, but can't create multiple entries in one marker like FM's ":" technique
* Without run-in paragraphs, you need to strategize to create TOC entries from a partial heading
There's a very good third-party conversion tool that converts MIF files to InDesign (dtptools.com). However, migrating FrameMaker content to InDesign depends on what FrameMaker are in them for which InDesign has no direct
One more major ID plus that I overlooked:
For diehard Macintosh users, ID works on O SX Tiger and Leopard versions on Intel and PowerPC (G4 and G5) chips. FM's stuck at 7.0 on Macintosh.
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices
Thanks for the write-up. I missed the Adobe presentation this morning, so I'm glad to catch up on the important info on your blog.
1. Does Indesign CSn have anything like FM's equation editor?
2. Has anyone out there actually used Indesign to produce a highly technical harware-software User Manual in multiple versions, multiple formats (pdf & export to RH 7) and multiple languages?
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