atw: Re: FrameMaker - points by Peter & Bruce
- From: Craig Hadden <craig_john_hadden@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: atw <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2005 13:47:33 +1100 (EST)
Peter (Martin) wrote:
pm> before you go Esc o c p you could try a mouse
pm> click on Default Paragraph font
I originally suggested using the mouse:
ch> choose the style again from the drop-down on the
ch> toolbar
Later I wrote:
ch> F2 doesn't work in vanilla FrameMaker
I based that on a FrameMaker (6.0) Help topic
("Character formats"), which lists only "Esc o c p" as
the shortcut for "default paragraph font". It lists 3
or 4 different shortcuts (including F8 and F4) for
other actions, but it doesn't mention F2. It turns out
that the topic is incomplete.
So I'm sorry ? I was wrong. :-(
The upside is, I'll be very happy to use F2 instead of
"Esc o c p" myself from now on! :->
Peter (Fagan) wrote:
PF> I was trying to correct the impression, given by
PF> earlier posts, that FrameMaker was fearsomely
PF> complex
Granted, I think some posts overplayed its supposed
'philosophical' differences from Word.
PF> the fact that I was not even aware of [FrameMaker
PF> using the term "format" in place of "style"]
PF> serves to reinforce my point ...that FrameMaker's
PF> handling of "styles" is essentially very similar
PF> to Word's
More so, I think it emphasises the gulf between
experienced users and learners. Experienced users can
take differences in terminology for granted, but
learners are often totally bewildered by them.
(Understanding terminology such as "formats",
"catalogs" and "tags" can form a big part of learning
FrameMaker.)
Many people who learn FrameMaker have someone to fill
them in. That makes the task _far_ easier, because
then the learner hears that many of the differences
are superficial. Christine's post sought that type of
insight.
PF> Now how's that for a recovery?
Very impressive! You should be in politics! :->
PF> Not so much as a "Bother!" or "Drat!"
In contrast to this, and Bruce's anecdotes about
people learning FrameMaker quickly, I have a couple of
anecdotes too:
* The graphic designer at my office did indeed learn
FrameMaker impressively quickly and well. (She
designed the typography and page layout.) But she
curses FrameMaker because it works differently from
the other Adobe programs she knows and loves, and it
doesn't integrate with most of them very well. (I
realise that FrameMaker isn't meant to appeal to
designers!)
* A FrameMaker user once spent about an hour trying to
show me how to do something in FrameMaker. (I forget
what.) Numerous times, he reverted to the previous
saved version of the file, scrapping all his changes,
because he'd done it wrong. (Maybe he'd only spent a
couple of hours learning FrameMaker, like the people
Bruce mentioned!)
However, I accept that Peter and Bruce's posts were
counteracting various negative replies that Christine
received.
PF> I ...have not detected one ...imperfectly
PF> implemented feature
PF> I did not mean ..."The way FrameMaker does things
PF> could not possibly be improved on."
It seems natural to interpret the first of those
statements as meaning "FrameMaker is perfect", as I
did, but I can see what you were driving at.
PF> list items - ...the numbers never break
PF> cross-references ... never break
PF> combine multiple document files ...without break-
PF> ing or corrupting master, slaves, TOC or index
I think statements like those are misleading, and
again they come from an experienced user's point of
view.
It's more accurate to say "_FrameMaker_ doesn't break
them". (I assume FrameMaker fans would be happy with
that wording!) The fact is, it's usually _easy_ for
novices to break numbering, cross-references, etc. by
rearranging numbered paragraphs, deleting
cross-reference markers, or doing something else
wrong, because FrameMaker is a complex program in
which the user has a lot of freedom. (Mind you,
FrameMaker 6 did break the page numbering that we'd
set up in FrameMaker 5.5, and I've had a problem with
"wandering table captions". If you're interested, see
the bulleted points near the bottom of
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/austechwriter/message/10647
for details.) If the document breaks (albeit
temporarily), it matters little whether FrameMaker did
it or the user did. However, breaks are usually very
easy to fix in FrameMaker, and I do agree that it's
much more reliable than Word.
Cheers,
Craig
Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies.
http://au.movies.yahoo.com
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