Adobe FrameMaker 7.0 Upgrade [Old Version]

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Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006661Z
• Item model number: 27910406
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 10, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,958 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #24 in	Software > Web Development > Internet Utilities > Electronic Publishing
  #25 in	Software > Macintosh > Web Development > Professional Development
  #46 in	Software > Macintosh > Web Development > Internet Utilities

• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review
Whether you're looking to upgrade your current software or your existing skill set, the latest edition of Adobe FrameMaker is chock-full of useful functionality that packs a punch. Those new to FrameMaker will find the interface a bit underwhelming: unlike many other packages (from Adobe and otherwise), this software does not present dozens of buttons in the initial workspace. Rather, a very modest few sit beneath the menu bar, and they aren't terribly inviting. This means that users might overlook some features or grow annoyed by having to hunt for a certain treatment that ensues.

Aside from the introductory shock, FrameMaker is unsurprisingly solid: version 7.0 has integrated an improved FrameMaker with its FrameMaker+SGML cousin, creating a full-functioned document design and distribution tool. This version is enterprise-ready, with tools that allow for distribution options that we hadn't even considered. FrameMaker is capable of compiling your documents into a book, mapping these out in the proper format (from table of contents to your index), and handling powerful graphic design and printing options, such as whether to knock out or overprint color in graphics. The package handles both conditional (content that changes from version to version) and variable text (text used in various places throughout the document) with sharp and easy accuracy.

New to this version is the Quadralay WebWorks Publisher Standard Edition 7.0 (WWPSE7), which provides robust features for creating HTML, Dynamic HTML, and XML output. WWPSE7 exports text, graphics, and tables to these formats, as well as automatically generating cascading style sheets for the page. Among many other functions, it can specify how navigation bars appear at the top and bottom of a page and map FrameMaker content to screen-reader output. Again, this tool works with great refinement and is an impressive addition to the FrameMaker package.

If you work on a team, you'll appreciate Adobe's very friendly (and quite powerful) features that make team-tagging a book project much easier. Definable options include choosing which documents to share, server access and setup, and folder structures. Other revision management tools include the use of change bars (available both automatically and for selected revisions), word and character count tools, and version comparison for both a summary of changes or a completely merged document.

We also appreciated the supporting documentation: the 600-plus page user manual encompasses Windows, Macintosh, and Unix users, calling attention to differences. The online version of the manual offers more information, although in a less handsome format. Also included is the XML Cookbook, a good first-step manual for learning to work in structured work environments.

Overall, if you can get over any initial disappointment concerning the interface, Adobe FrameMaker delivers a powerful authoring and publishing solution. --Emilie Herbst

Amazon.com Product Description
Adobe FrameMaker 7.0 delivers an enterprise-class authoring and publishing solution that combines the simplicity of word processing with the power of XML. Enjoy WYSIWYG authoring in either a word-processing, style-tagging mode or a fully structured environment optimized for the editing and production of valid XML. Take advantage of long document support that includes book management features, sophisticated templates, and rich formatting options.

FrameMaker 7.0 offers built-in support for high-quality printing, the latest Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) standards, and integration of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). Use the included WebWorks Publisher Standard Edition 7.0 software from Quadralay to automatically create HTML versions of your documents and books. In addition, this version combines the features and functionality of FrameMaker and FrameMaker+SGML into a single product.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The old meets the new!, September 6, 2002

By A Customer

FrameMaker and FrameMaker+SGML sat through many years gathering dust. Frame always had niches in technical publishing and structured authoring, but XML and advances in PDF and graphics moved ahead while Frame sat there waiting for attention.

Well, the attention was finally received, and Adobe has integrated (a) decent XML support, and (b) new graphic formats (placed PDF and SVG) into one of the oldest surviving page composition systems.

FrameMaker creates PDF from XML far better than any XSL-FO processor, and that will probably be the case for years to come.

Frame 7 didn't change the GUI, they could freshen up the front end a bit, but for the page composition capabilities Frame 7 represents a huge advance, and is better than anything in its price range for both structured authoring and XML publishing for print and PDF.