I don't have FrameMaker 2019, but I'll answer a couple of these.
4. The scroll wheel issue was fixed long ago. Version 8?
8. Frame will open old Frame files, but once you save them, they will be
in a new version that will no longer be openable by FrameMaker 7,
without conversion. I believe FM 2019 will let you save as MIF 7--
though if you have used features that were not available in FM 7 days,
you may lose some data. I have no experience with this. Others will be
able to help more. There are also some fine, inexpensive scripts out
there that let you save back to various FM versions-- but again, some
things created with new version can't save backward.
There may also be some character conversion issues moving files in
either direction. FrameMaker 8 moved to Unicode. So there are issues
with the way some characters display (if at all) when you move files
back and forth across that boundary.
10. I HATE the subscription model. FrameMaker 2019 still has the
perpetual license available. and I implore you to go the perpetual
license route so that the option doesn't disappear. It has disappeared
for the other important Adobe products. Subscriptions are nice in that
they can budget the high cost of software on a monthly basis, but they
are a poor value in the long run. Subscriptions cost more in the long
run. Adobe upgrades FrameMaker approximately every 18 months. It is $400
to upgrade the perpetual license (if you own the most recent version),
but it is $540 to rent the software on the subscription model for the
same period. Not only that, but a perpetual license is an asset. If you
sell your company, it increases the valley of your asking price. You can
even sell the license standalone and get some or all your $1000 back.
But with the subscription model, FrameMaker is not an asset. You get an
expense and a contract liability. instead.
MOST IMPORTANTLY, if you ever stop paying the monthly rental, your
software quits. You are done working in FrameMaker, unless your files
can be converted safely back to your old FM7 version-- and you better do
the conversion before the subscription runs out and FrameMaker turns off!
Mike
On 3/31/2020 7:01 AM, Wendy McGovern wrote:
Hi, Framers,
Apologies for a somewhat long post, but I would really like some input. We are
contemplating finally upgrading from our Frame 7.1 (yep, had it for 17 years)
to the newest version (Frame 2019). Our version of Frame has been ridiculously
stable and its amazing features have served our purposes without having to
upgrade over the years. We upgraded our computers to Windows 10 last year, but
the 32-bit Frame has worked in that system so far. We do get messages about
fonts changing when we change print driver to Adobe for making PDFs, but it
hasn't had any ill effects for us. Some background:
We do legal books in Frame that use the generated files feature for summary and
tables of contents, tables of cases, tables of statutes, and subject matter
indexes. Most of our books have extensive footnotes (lawyers love to include
footnotes that go on for 7/8ths of a page). We make PDFs of the books as well
as send MIF files to a conversion company for EPUBs. We use unstructured Frame
and don't need structure for anything. We don't use conditional text for
anything. Recently, I had an incidence of Frame files in a book I was working
on get corrupted where paragraphs had been bizarrely messed up and lost the
work I had done on the files in the last week or so. Another coworker had saved
a Frame file to RTF and later couldn't open the Frame file again because it
said it didn't recognize the file format. This is leading us to believe that
maybe it is finally time for us to bite the bullet and upgrade to be compatible
with all the other software out there now. So, some specific quest
io
ns (keeping in mind the unstructured environment):
1. I was going to ask if Frame 2019 allows the old Escape key sequences of
Esc-jj and Esc-cc to work, because I saw on the list that they broke those
functions in the later versions-but I see from the Frame 2019 manual online
that they have restored those functions in 2019. So this functionality works
well now?
2. Is Frame ever going to fix the footnotes problem? I've replied to Adobe's
feature requests over the years, and they still don't have a fix.
3. Is Frame 2019 stable as far as people using it now can tell? (I've seen some
posts here about problems creating PDFs and other things that shouldn't be
happening with recent versions of Frame.)
4. There was a small problem with Frame 7.1's ability to use the scroll wheel
that needed a special mouse driver that we had to use and we had to reinstall
it when we went to Windows 10, but once the driver was in place, it was fixed.
I'm assuming Frame 2019 doesn't have any issues like this anymore, right?
5. Another minor problem with our Frame is a glitch where if you hold down the
mouse a little too long when selecting something, Frame will crash. Has anyone
had this happen with the latest version?
6. Is IXGEN available for the latest Frame?
7. Is Frame to RTF conversion good? We save Frame files to RTF to send to
authors for updating their chapters. (People would always need an explanation
of why we used the RTF Japanese for the setting.)
8. How do you open old Frame 7 files if you have Frame 2019? The online manual
for 2019 says you have to open Frame 7 files as MIF. But in order to change
them to MIF, don't you have to convert them from within Frame 7? Can you choose
to open them as MIF from 2019 itself? And what about the .book file? Is that
preserved if you open all its enclosed files in MIF, or is it an option to save
a whole old book as MIF so that generated files are also converted? Would we
have to convert all our Frame 7 books to MIF before installing Frame 2019 (or
can you have both versions of Frame installed on your computer at the same
time?)? And do you have to replace fonts for Unicode ones?
9. Now that Frame has EPUB format as an output, is it good? Is the unstructured
version capable of it? Does it involve cleanup to make the EPUB presentable?
Are all the links in the Frame file preserved in the EPUB?
10. Finally, what do people think of the subscription model versus buying an outright
license (if Adobe even still lets people buy a "forever" license)? I think I
remember seeing some panicked user on the list mentioning something about Adobe screwing
up their subscription and them not having their Frame functionable anymore.
11. And another finally, seeing some recent posts about problems someone had
with the trial version, is there any advice about that?
I am on the digest, so if anyone replies, could you please reply to me directly
as well as the list? Thanks for any advice you can give.
[Pennsylvania Bar Institute]<http://www.pbi.org>
Wendy McGovern
Publications Editor
Pennsylvania Bar Institute
5080 Ritter Rd, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
(E) wmcgov...@pbi.org<mailto:wmcgov...@pbi.org> (P) 717-620-6257
(P) 800-932-4637, ext. 6257 (F) 717-796-2348
www.pbi.org<http://www.pbi.org>
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