TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I've been a Windows user since I was introduced to it by way of Aldus
PageMaker 1.0a in the late '80s. Windows was itself very much in its
infancy, but I stuck with it (and it subsequently paid off in spades, but
that's another story). I was brought into this tech writing world as a a
bit of a PM guru; I took my FM baptismal much later.
The point is that I've long been married to both Windows UI conventions and
to the flexible layout and typesetting capabilities afforded by "the Aldus
methodology" (or however John Warnock phrased it). That Framemaker ignores
both rubs me the wrong way, inasmuch as it's my belief that a Windows app
should at least make an *attempt* at adhering to known M$ GUI conventions
(right or wrong)—just like Apple rides herd over Mac-centric apps and their
compliance.
Much like other noted Adobe product deficiencies, I see this as nothing
more than that company's bean counters not wanting to devote resources to
retooling FM's UI. I get that it's a business decision, but I'm left
wanting... not that I'm in love with ID, either.
> Chris
On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 11:40 AM, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>wrote:
> I found FrameMaker 10 unusable until I gave up on the window
> arrangement and keyboard shortcuts I'd been using for over ten years
> and instead left the UI in its default configuration and did things
> with the mouse as necessary. After that it was just considerably less
> efficient when performing many common tasks. I used it for over a
> year, but being able to switch to other tools was certainly one of my
> incentives for changing jobs.
>
> The UI semi-makeover Adobe layered on top of FrameMaker starting in
> version 9 could be a useful negative example in a human interface
> design class. They made a lot of things more awkward without
> addressing fundamental limitations that date back to its start on
> UNIX, most notably fixed-sized scrolling lists. It's bizarre to have a
> proprietary UI for an application that runs only on Windows.
>
> On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 11:18 AM, Scott Turner <quills -at- airmail -dot- net> wrote:
> > Thanks for the link on the perceived bugs.
> >
> > After reviewing them I find that the only one that I have encountered is
> the Find focus issue. To categorize it as making it unusable seems extreme
> to me. I have bigger issues with the Windows behaviors and my network
> inconsistencies which, for me, cause true usability problems.
> >
> > The user preferences will always color the perception if a tools
> usability.
>
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> New! Doc-to-Help 2013 features the industry's first HTML5 editor for
> authoring.
>
> Learn more: http://bit.ly/ZeOZeQ
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com -dot-
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
>
> Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
>http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and
> info.
>
> Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online
> magazine at http://techwhirl.com
>
> Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public
> email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
New! Doc-to-Help 2013 features the industry's first HTML5 editor for authoring.
