One of the reasons why technical documentation departments around the world built their business on Adobe FrameMaker is that it is a secure and sustainable investment. FrameMaker is known to be a rock-solid product and has a track-record of being just the best authoring tool for small-, mid- and large-scale technical documentations. And since the release of version 8 (the big switch to Unicode) in 2007, we have released five new major versions and many updates in between. And with the speed and agile development of FrameMaker for many versions now, it’s easy to miss all the new features, changes and enhancements that newer versions bring.
Did you know for example, that we introduced out-of-the-box support for S1000D already way back in FrameMaker 10? And added a complete ExtendScript solution for full automation of FrameMaker?
And did you know that we introduced a native a native XML source code editor way back in FrameMaker 11? With full support for XPATH 2.0, XSLT 2.0, syntax highlighting, pretty printing, context-sensitive code completion and automatic XML Background Validation? And dropbox integration?
And did you know that we added support for MathML in FrameMaker 12 and introduced complete support for multichannel publishing to responsive HTML5, ePUB, WebHelp, amazon Kindle and Microsoft HTML Help (CHM) right out of the box? And that we added the possibility to leverage the potential of PDF-based review cycles (with import of PDF review comments back into FrameMaker as track changes – you can even continue to work on your FrameMaker document while the PDF is reviewed!)? And the more advanced tech writers loved our new RegEx support for Find & Replace.
Or that FrameMaker (2015 Release) already supported DITA 1.3 months before it was officially confirmed as a standard by the OASIS committee? Or that we introduced a complete new engine in FrameMaker (2015 Release) that fully supports Right-to-Left and bi-directional editing and publishing for Arabic, Farsi and Hebrew? And even Thai? And that we have constantly improved the user interface of FrameMaker with each version in every corner of the product? Many dialogs and “Pods” like Variables, Cross-References, Paragraph, Character and Table Styles are re-sizable now, dockable and powered up with many small new feature enhancements? And that FrameMaker comes with an out-of-the box CMS Connection Manager that ships with pre-configured connectors to Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), EMC Documentum, Microsoft SharePoint and DitaExchange?
As I said, it’s easy to miss all the new features.
To make it more easy for you, to check what new features and enhancements have been made since version 8/9, we have created this overview for you. Some of the entries in the left column are actually hyperlinks, that open a new web page with a small video explaining this new feature or enhancement.
Enjoy the overview and let us know in the comments below what you think. And if you’re not on FrameMaker 2015 yet, make sure to give it a try.
Table of Contents
- XML Authoring
- General Authoring Features
- Publishing Features
- Multimedia and Rich Media Support
- Productivity
- Review and Collaboration
- Developer Support
Note:
New in this version
Enhanced in this version
Publishing
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Adobe FrameMaker |
2015 |
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New HTML5 layout |
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WebHelp skin gallery |
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Import/Export layouts/CSS/HTML page template |
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Out-of-the-box multichannel, multidevice publishing |
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Native responsive HTML5 output support |
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Native EPUB3 support |
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Native WebHelp support |
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Import RoboHelp style mapping |
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HTML page template support |
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Publish reference page images |
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SVG Support in HTML5 output |
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Native CHM support |
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Native MOBI support |
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Native KF8 support (Amazon Kindle) |
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Native PDF support |
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Native Adobe Digital Publishing Solution (DPS) support |
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DITA publishing: composite docs |
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DITA publishing: flat books |
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Multimedia and Rich Media Support
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Adobe FrameMaker |
2015 |
12 |
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10 |
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QR code generation |
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MP4 video support |
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Links to play, pause, and jump videos |
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Hotspots on graphics |
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Interactive 3D graphics |
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Poster frames for FLV and SWF videos |
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Object styles |
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FLV and SWF support |
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Embed 3D graphics |
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Support for audio and video formats (WMV, MPG, AVI, and others) |
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Poster for rich media |
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Productivity
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Adobe FrameMaker |
2015 |
12 |
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10 |
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Customizable user interface for easier navigation and better viewing |
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Single click session restore for quick start |
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Currently Open Files pod for easier file management |
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Regular expression support |
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Auto spell check |
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Repeat last operation |
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Table catalog |
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Find and Remove overrides |
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Manage used and unused styles: paragraph, character, table |
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Suppressed alerts |
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Enhanced background color support |
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Review and Collaboration
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Adobe FrameMaker |
2015 |
12 |
11 |
10 |
9 |
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Out of the box integration with DitaExchange CMS |
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Out-of-the-box integration with Adobe Experience Manager |
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Out-of-the-box Microsoft SharePoint integration |
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Content review on-the-go using mobile devices |
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Simultaneous PDF-based reviews and authoring |
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Out-of-the-box EMC Documentum integration |
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Out-of-the-box Dropbox integration |
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Track changes: track user name and time of change |
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Track changes: track text edit operations at book level |
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Track changes: configurable colors for added and deleted text |
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End-user collaboration: community-generated content, comments, feedback |
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WEBDAV support: Basic |
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WEBDAV support: in File dialogs |
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WEBDAV support: for XML files |
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Developer Support
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Adobe FrameMaker |
2015 |
12 |
11 |
10 |
9 |
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DITA: FDK client in core product |
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ExtendScript for automation |
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API for CMS integration |
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Great list, Stefan, has marketing produced a PDF of this?
Yep. The chart is included in this PDF:
http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/products/framemaker/framemaker_2015/pdf/FM_2015_VERSION_COMPARISION.pdf
Thank you, Stefan. It’s great! I distribute the link to my collegues.
And it’s a direct way to easy recognize, what we can implement in our ExtendScripts in older fm-versions.
Stefan, I’m creating a bookmark to this comparison chart. Very helpful, indeed.
This was really useful. Somehow, the smaller, maybe less “sexy” features never made it to my conscious mind. This has really helped.
Thanks I really appreciate these comparison charts showing that FrameMaker is by far the best out-of the box DTP program. Next week I would like to support you with further charts for Version 2016, 2017 etc :-). As you can see, for example FM still lacks basic improvements in the graphics import because this feature isn’t updated since version 5 I think.