• Microsoft Office 2007 Support – will now let you import content created in Microsoft Word and Excel 2007.
Enhancements include
• Conditional Output – will let you create single source variations of the same document for different channels and purposes. You can now use conditional tags and build complex Boolean expressions for defining output filters in structured and unstructured mode. You can distinguish multi-conditional text through the improved color coding.
• XML Round-tripping – lets you now round trip web-based graphics in XML workflows.
• XML Schemas – are now available as an alternative to DTDs for defining the structure of your content.
There are a lot of very cool enhancements contained within Adobe FrameMaker 8 not the least is the way in interacts with the other packages included with the suite. For example, I took a 3D model of a brake system that was created by someone else and saved as a .U3D file; A U3D file is an industry standard for 3D modeling and is supported by the PDF format. So without having any knowledge of what it takes to create this file, I can drop it into the FrameMaker project and use it to create an interactive product.
Once I drop that image into FrameMaker 8 and create my document, I am then able to generate a PDF file (this is using Acrobat 3D which comes with the Suite) that is capable of handling 3D content. I can then pass this on to an end user, who, in using any version of Acrobat Reader 7.1 and greater, will be able to interact with the file. The second image above shows the PDF as it would be received as a PDF file, and the third image shows it in interactive mode.
In interactive mode, the end user will be able to rotate the image on all axes' turning right, left, up, down, and to any angle to see the entire image. They could then explode the image to see how it moves apart and fits back together again. Once it is exported to PDF, all of the rich media; Flash, 3D, etc, jumps to life and is usable by anyone with Acrobat reader. No special files to send to interact in 3D.
Needless to say that FrameMaker 8 still does what it has done best for so many years, that is create long documents and technical documents. It is superb for working with collaborated works as it has the ability to share files and facilitate peer reviews.
If there is one thing that seems a bit out of place, it is the interface, which seems a bit long in the tooth with respect to many of the other Adobe products, but if the important point is productivity then you have a state of the art engine that will get the job done. With the addition of DITA which breaks down a publishing project into reusable topics and brought together by maps and makes for a very natural fit with FrameMaker's XML handling. Then add the 3D support, this makes for a very good upgrade indeed.
![Adobe Technical Communication Suite [OLD VERSION]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Fly5GJ49L._SL120_.jpg)
Article comments
1 - Michael O'Donnell
Dear reader,
while there is a reason why Adobe would put this bundle on the market, ie. there is a demand for it, I can only say that this bundle isn't worth what it is promising.
I have purchased it and by the sound of it, it should have performed the funcionality that I need, but technically, my computer crashed when I captured etc.
By now, I am using different tools which are doing the job they promise!
Yours,
Michael
2 - T. Michael Testi
Michael,
Thanks for the comments.
I have purchased it and by the sound of it, it should have performed the funcionality that I need, but technically, my computer crashed when I captured etc.
While I am not really sure what this means, did you contact Adobe with the problem? Were they not able to help?
The only crash problem I have heard of with FrameMaker has been with a font cache when having a large amount of fonts on your system. Clearing the font cache clears up the problem.
You should contact Adobe.
T.
3 - RJ Jacquez
Hi Michael,
My name is RJ Jacquez, and I'm the Product Evangelist for the Technical Communication Suite at Adobe and I can tell you that we have been very successful with the Tech Comm Suite since the launch and all of our customers are very happy with it, so I would love to talk to you about the problem you mentioned, so please feel free to email me using the first letter of my first name, followed by my last name at adobe dot com.
Sincerely,
RJ Jacquez
Adobe Systems
4 - Christine
From the review, it seems to me that the Adobe Technical Communication Suite is more oriented towards the printed manual output. (Whereas the old RoboHelp was more oriented towards Help, the Word output was not very good.) How convenient is the generation of Help output with the Adobe Technical Communication Suite?
I used the old RoboHelp. It used a lot of special tags so that the source code was impossible to edit. How is this with the new RoboHelp?