Frame Wish List Response

[Tony Rocco <tony_rocco -at- NAVIS -dot- COM>]

Mail*Link(r) SMTP               Frame Wish List Response

The following response came to me from Frame after submitting our Frame Wish
List. I thought I would post it for everyone to read. More is yet to come
next week.

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Date: 4/5/96 16:23
From: Diane Burrows
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Your Frame Products Customer ID number is 181494
Please use this number when making new inquiries to
comments -at- frame -dot- com or when calling the technical
support phone line. This will help us more quickly
process your requests.

For follow-up to this mailing, refer to TS Case: 273142

Dear Tony:

You write:


        Some time ago, I requested input for a FrameMaker Wish List from people
        on the tech writers listserv. Well, deadlines are past and I have
        finished compiling the list. It is attached as a BinHex4 document. I am
        sending a copy to Frame as well as to this list, so, who knows, maybe
        some of these suggestions will appear in the next upgrade. Cross your
        fingers. Thanks to all who submitted their ideas.

It is very difficult to handle inquiries that contains such a large volume
of Enhancement Requests in one email. If at all possible, in the future
could you break the email down to no more than 10 requests per email?
It will take me several days to address all of the 40-odd bulleted list
items you sent.

Below is a start on those that were more readily answered. I am
assuming since all your past cases were FrameMaker MacIntosh that this
is the product that you're writing about. All of the answers below are
oriented to the current version FrameMaker 5.1

        Improved HTML support - none of this HTML-Lite crap.

I have attached technical notes 1682, 1756 and 1805 for you in this
regard.

        Enhanced graphic tools.

Please be more specific as to what you would like to see, 'enhanced' is
to broad a term from which to file Enhancement Requests.

        Tables Add spreadsheet functionality to the table generator Functions
        that should already be part of the Table Generator and are needed right
        away are:
                a. Column and Row Summation
                b. Row numbering
                c. Sort

Enhancement Request number 56316 has been filed regarding spreadsheet
functionality.  Keep in mind that the ability to do sums on  tables of
numerical values is more of a Spreadsheet Application function than a
Desktop Publishing Application such as FrameMaker. Therefore features that
tend to be outside the focus of Desktop Publishing are not as likely to
be implemented as such things as global search and replace across book
files.

        Make table cells span multiple pages. Presently, large cells do
        not span pages, they fall off the end of the page. The cells do
        not continue onto subsequent pages.

Enhancement Request 92775 has been filed regarding this. However, if you
have cells that are so large that they cannot fit on the page then a
table is probably not the best function to use for that information.
You might want to consider something like side-heads.

If this is not your situation with regard to table cells, there may be
something wrong with the layout of the document, if this is the case,
then please write to comments -at- frame -dot- com with your specific table
problem and they will address it in another email.

        A multi-level, nested sort function for data in tables

Enhancement Request 79582 has been filed regarding this. This
feature is already avalable through the FDK but not as a utility within
FrameMaker. If you would like information about the FDK product please
let me know.

        The ability to find and change in all chapters of a book at once

This has been filed as Enhancement Request 56025 - global book functions.

        Improve table-handling in general.

Please be more specific about what you would like to see improved.

        The ability to spell check an entire book at once

This has been filed as Enhancement Request 56025 - global book functions.

        Customizable toolbars (like those in WordPerfect 6.1 for Windows)

Please be more specific as to what you mean by 'customizable toolbars'

        Better utility for assigning keystrokes to styles.

Please be more specific as to what you mean by 'assigning keystrokes to
styles'.
        Support for incremental saves. Long docs take too long to save.

Enhancement Request 107354 has been filed on your behalf. There is no
way in that I am aware of that will allow you to only save a portion of
a file. If your documents are quite large, and save is time consuming
you may want to consider breaking your file into smaller files and put
them in a book for ease of use.

        List of third party FrameMaker tools (macros and scripts, templates).

You can obtain a copy of the third-party vendors catalog by ftp. The
ftp address is listed below my email. The file can be located in
/pub/techsup /techinfo/macfconnect.hqx

I will address another portion of the requests on Monday and the remainder on
Tuesday.'

If you have any questions about this particular issue, please feel
free to contact me directly. All other inquiries should continue to
be addressed to comments -at- frame -dot- com -dot- 

On 10/27/95 Adobe's acquisition of Frame Technology became final.
We have not yet begun to integrate Frame's product support
operation into Adobe.  Until further notice, please continue
to obtain technical support for Frame products via telephone,
email and online services using the existing "Frame" phone
numbers and addresses.

Regards,

Diane G. Arthur
Adobe Technical Support - Frame Products


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     Adobe Systems, Inc. - Frame Products Technical Support Numbers
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Technical Support Hotline:  408.975.6466  Frame Products BBS: 408.975.6729
Technical Support Faxline:  408.975.6611                           or 6730
FrameFacts FAX system:      408.975.6731          BigMac BBS: 408.975.6738

Frame Products Web Site: http://www.frame.com (includes a link to FTP site)
Frame Products FTP site: ftp.frame.com (or 192.111.118.8)
                         login: anonymous &  password: your email address
FrameFile: listserver -at- frame -dot- com: send an email to this address with
                        'SEND HELP' as the body of the message.
Compuserve: Section 17 of the Adobe Forum, type GO ADOBEAPP

Internet EMAIL: comments -at- frame -dot- com    (Canada, U.S., Pac Rim & S.America)
                intltechsup -at- frame -dot- com ( other international queries)

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 Corporate numbers below, use the information ABOVE for technical support.
333 West San Carlos, San Jose, CA 95110   Tel:408.975.6000 FAX:408.975.6799
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#KEYWORDS WebWorks Lite Quadralay technical
#DATE Mon Jun 12 14:07:40 PDT 1995
#VERSION 5 ALL
#TOPIC Who supports the miftohtml filter available with FrameMaker release 5?

Technical Note 1682
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QUESTION:

Where do I get support for the WebWorks HTML Lite filter that can be
installed with FrameMaker release 5?


ANSWER:

Quadralay is providing technical support for this filter. For support,
call Quadralay at (512) 305-0240 and ask for "WebWorks HTML Lite
Support", or send email to html-lite -at- quadralay -dot- com -dot- 

This information can be found under File -> Utilities -> HTML Info from
the File menu in your FrameMaker document.

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#KEYWORDS WebWorks Publisher features limited export decision functionality
#DATE Thu Jul 27 08:20:27 PDT 1995
#VERSION 5.0 ALL
#TOPIC Why was Quadralay's HTML Lite filter included with FrameMaker release
5?

Technical Note 1756
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QUESTION:

I am very disappointed with the WebWorks HTML Lite filter included with
FrameMaker release 5. Why did Adobe Systems decide to provide an
HTML filter with what I perceive to be a limited number of features?


ANSWER:

The following discussion regarding the HTML export filter included with
FrameMaker release 5 was supplied by Mr. Song Zun Huang, Product
Marketing Director, Adobe Systems. This is intended to
help our customers understand why and how decisions regarding this
filter were made:

In order to address the concerns about the functionality of the HTML
Lite filter included with FrameMaker release 5, I submit the
following.

Adobe Systems has always been committed to providing customers with
robust tools for the creation and distribution of information.
Recently, the focus of attention has shifted to the Internet and HTML,
its native language, as a distribution mechanism.  Originally,
FrameMaker release 5 was not scheduled to have an HTML filter.
However, the rise in popularity and numerous requests for HTML support
prompted us to look for a solution for our customers within the
FrameMaker release 5 time frame.

Quadralay Corporation produced a product called Webworks Publisher,
which is one of the best HTML utilities available with a GUI interface
for FrameMaker users. The suggested retail price of Quadralay's HTML
filter is $895 (Win/Mac) and $1295 (UNIX). Companies such as Infoseek
(a leading Internet search provider, http://www.infoseek.com) uses the
combination of FrameMaker and Webworks Publisher to create all their
online documentation for their Website.  Adobe Systems also uses
this combination to create our website, which has been voted among the
top 5% of Websites on the Internet by Point Survey.  Point is the
leading online provider of site ratings and reviews on the World Wide
Web.

We began negotiations with Quadralay to include their HTML filter in
FrameMaker release 5 in December of 1994.  We wanted to provide a
complete solution for our customers.  With a release date of June 1995,
this only gave us six months to incorporate, test, and package the HTML
filter into our product.  Quadralay's Publisher includes some great
features, such as the ability to convert FrameMaker tables and
equations to *.GIF graphics, and one step conversion of FrameMaker
books.  Two problems arose that we had to address.

Problem 1:  Webworks Document Translator 2.0 was only tested with
FrameMaker 4 at the time.  FrameMaker release 5 included some changes
to the MIF file format and was not directly compatible with Webworks
Publisher 2.0.  There would have to be a significant effort to develop
and test the filter with FrameMaker release 5.

Problem 2: The ability to export to GIF (used for the tables and
equations in Webworks Publisher 2.0) across all supported platforms
came into question.  There were technical and legal considerations.
Please note that these considerations directly affected the companies
involved and not the customers.

Both of these items threatened to delay the shipment of FrameMaker
release 5 to our customers.  We were faced with shipping without HTML
support, or a subset of the full Webworks Publisher package that would
alleviate the problems described above, yet offer a useful set of
functions.

After much debate, we concluded that we could offer the following set
of features to our customers in the FrameMaker release 5 time frame.

Features of HTML Filter:

- Easy to use graphical interface for mapping tags.
- Mapping of Paragraph tags to HTML tags.
- Mapping of Character tags to HTML tags.
- Convert cross references to URL's.
- Convert generated hypertext links to URL's.
- Convert manual hypertext links to URL's.
- Imported GIF images to IMG_SRC.
- Imported text by reference into regular text.
- Variables into text.
- Converts generated lists and inserts URLs to documents.

Since GIF export utilities abound and many are free as shareware,
Netscape did not support HTML 3.0 (Netscape has 70% of the browser
market), and the majority of Web pages do not include tables or
equations (HTML 3.0 will have table abilities, but the current HTML
does not) we felt that FrameMaker users could in fact create useful Web
pages using the HTML Lite product.

In addition HTML Lite offers the following advantages to our
customers.

Advantages of HTML Lite:

- Users can use the simple Graphical User Interface to map paragraph
and character tags to HTML tags.  Only tags that are actually USED in
the FrameMaker document are picked up and presented for mapping.  Tags
in FrameMaker that are not mapped, default to the "body" tag in HTML.
Since most HTML documents only contain a few types of tags, this makes
it easy to define only the major headers and titles while all the body
text maps automatically.

- Since you do not have to go through and retag everything, the
original document can remain intact and unmodified. Customers can use
FrameMaker as a central authoring environment.  Documents created do
not have to be modified for publication via HTML.  You do not have to
change the original author's document.

The decision was made to include HTML in FrameMaker release 5 and to
call it "HTML Lite" since it did not offer the full set of features of
the Webworks Publisher product.  It does include all of the features
listed above.  If you also consider that HTML Lite is included at no
charge (recall that the Webworks Publisher product retails for $895-
Win/Mac and $1295 - UNIX) it represents a significant value add to the
core FrameMaker product.  In addition, customers will receive free
support and updates from Quadralay Corporation as well as the option to
upgrade to their full Webworks Publisher product. (Currently, Webworks
Publisher supports FrameMaker 4 MIF.)

In the future, Adobe will continue to enhance its products' ability to
publish via electronic and paper based mediums.  A full featured HTML
authoring environment integrated into the authoring product would be
one example.  Until then, we would like our customers to join the
millions of people who are distributing information via the World Wide
Web.  We hope that the ability to use their favorite authoring package,
FrameMaker, to author on the WWW will be useful since they can use the
familiar FrameMaker environment for HTML authoring.

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#KEYWORDS bug fixes export filter
#DATE Mon Sep 18 08:06:01 PDT 1995
#VERSION 5.0 ALL
#TOPIC Is there an update for the HTML Lite filter from Quadralay?

Technical Note 1805
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QUESTION:

I am having various problems with the HTML Lite fitler from Quadralay
(which is shipped with FrameMaker release 5).  Is there an update
available for the filter?


ANSWER:

Yes, there are new versions of Quadralay's HTML Lite filter available
for all platforms. The Macintosh version fixes all known crashing
problems. In addition, the new versions fix the following:

- The current version does not scan the paragraph styles correctly on
  some documents.  The Frame paragraph styles listed in the mappings dialog
  is blank for these documents.  This has been fixed in the new version.

- Relative paths used in the gotolink hypertext command were not converting
  correctly. HTML Lite would ignore the path. This has been fixed in
  the new version.

- The TOC style has been changed to a more generalized solution. The
  current version tried to remove any page numbers in the TOC.  This
  could cause other information to be lost.  The new version keeps
  all information in the TOC.
- Paragraphs mapped to Title now have an HTML anchor. This was done because
  of Netscape.  A hyperlink to a document with an invalid anchor point
  (marker in Frame terminology) should place the viewer at the top of the
  document.  Netscape goes to the end of the document.  Adding the anchor
  (marker) to the Title ensures that all TOC entries point to a valid anchor
  (marker.)

- Memory requirements are reduced in the new version.

- Support for hypertext markers opennew, openpage, and gotopage have been
  added.

- On the Sparc version only, the bug that crashes OpenWindows 3.0 machines
  has been fixed. This addresses Frame bug #95495.

These new versions are available on Quadralay's ftp server. The
instructions to get the new version for each platform are:

ftp ftp.quadralay.com  (192.195.32.1)
login: anonymous
password: your e-mail address
ftp> cd htmllite
ftp> binary
ftp> get MacHTMLLite.hqx    - for Macintosh
ftp> get windows.zip        - for Windows
ftp> get xmotif.tar.gz      - for all UNIX platforms
ftp> quit

All installations follow the install card after uncompressing. (The UNIX
version also needs to extract the tar image.)

Please contact Quadralay Corporation (512) 305-0240 if you have any
questions on the above fixes or have trouble downloading the fix from
their ftp server.

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