Adobe FrameMaker – TechCommGeekMom

Adobe Tech Comm Suite 2017 is better than ever!

Posted on February 14, 2017 by TechCommGeekMom

Recently, Adobe held a virtual press conference for the 2017 Release of the Adobe Technical Communications Suite, which launched on 31 January 2017. While the Suite continues to include the latest versions of Captivate, Acrobat, and Presenter, it’s RoboHelp (RH), the XML documentation add-on for Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), and its flagship product in the suite, FrameMaker (FM) and its related FrameMaker Server that have all received updates with this newest release.

FrameMaker itself has been around for thirty years now, but it’s been especially in the last few years that significant changes has been made to accommodate DITA support, multi-channel and mobile publishing, and support from right-to-left (RTL) languages.

With the 2017 Release, Adobe’s main objective was to provide new features while simplifying current features that would help with productivity and keep the end users in mind.

I found that now that I have a better understanding of the structured authoring views from my recent DITA course, I could see these products with a fresher perspective while I attended this virtual press conference, and better appreciate the upgrades.

The main attraction for the virtual press conference was FrameMaker, as the product has had some major overhauls, including new features centered around the authoring experience. I won’t go into all of the features, as there’s too much to review, but several of them made a big impression on me. FM has been a complicated tool to use for many years, but it seems to me that with each new release, the tool becomes more user-friendly for those who aren’t as deeply entrenched with all the bells and whistles. The new interface is more modern and usable, and there’s easier access to recent items through the Browse Computer or repository feature. This gives you access to all resources like tutorials, guides, and online help. It also allows you to access structured and unstructured items in one page. Even within the Search function, there is better auto-complete functionality which shows predictive results based on user typing through responsive HTML5 output.

An important upgrade in this 2017 release is that menus have been optimized and reorganized, with more commands to improve discover-ability. My favorite new feature within these new menu changes is that the “Special” menu is gone, and the much more logical “Insert” menu has been added. This is something that has sorely been needed for a long time to be more user-friendly interface! Why, just today I was in a different Adobe tool, and I looked to insert an image, and that particular app (a Creative Cloud app) didn’t have an “Insert” menu at all! Insert menus are commonly used in apps almost universally now, that this was a long time coming. It makes inserting objects more intuitive for an app that’s not always that intuitive. It’s one of those “DUH!” things that I’m glad Adobe has fixed for FrameMaker. The Insert menu provides one stop for inserting images, files, variables, elements, equations…you name it! For example, all that needs to be done to insert an image into a document is to go to Insert-> Image and it’s done! You don’t need DPI settings change, as the DPI settings are retained, but they can be changed. You can also do a “drag and drop” of an image into a document easily. All you do is add to your project, then drag the image into the page, and it adapts to the page. You can still adjust the size in object properties if needed. The object properties dialog is improved, as there is an option to maintain aspect ration, DPI can be set inline, and apply a check inline. The “Element” menu is also enhanced. New options have been added to insert, wrap, and change. The Insert drop down is great! It has everything you need, and will likely be heavily used.

Shortcuts for productivity got a boost, as there is a new Command Search feature that is accessed through the <F7> button and very easy to use. All shortcuts are also now listed next to menu commands so that power users can learn them more easily. <CTRL-1> provides a list of where you are within the structure of your structured authoring, which is rather convenient. Commands that are applicable globally, such as borders, text symbols, rulers, grid lines, and hotspot indicators that impact all open docs both structured and unstructured are viewable now, although there are some limitations with structured views.

PODS have also has some upgrades as well. A new paragraph designer table allows you to create new styles easily in the pod. Styling icons in table and paragraph designers have been replaced with labeled buttons, configurable options have been reorganized and relabeled, and redundant command operations have been removed. Additionally, adding or editing a conditional tag now happens thru a dialog. The former “Select” drop down list has been replaced by Filter icon. Color and background columns have been removed. Conditional takes are listed with their close to final formatting, with tooltips displayed for conditional tags listed in the pod. Several catalog PODS are also redesigned, with old buttons replaced with icons. Deletion has been made intuitive by removing extra options.

These changes have allowed the project management of a given project much easier, as now it’s easier to organize content such as a DITA map, book, topic, image, TOC, or index files related to a project in a single place whereby you can drag and drop files from Windows Explorer.

Structured Authoring gets some boosts as well. The Status bar now provides information about the exact path of the current element in your structured document. You can show or hide content from the structure view for a cleaner view as you work. Some of the new Insert menu options have been added for structured authoring, such as the Insert>Cross-Reference function, which should be very handy. There is also an improved DITA Keyspace Manager, whereby if any DITA map is opened, it gets populated automatically in drop down. The ability to search for a keyspace by entering the 1st few characters.

To keep up with the rapid changes in technology, high resolutions displays are supported now! Support for 4K resolution is now available, and allows the application to scale automatically. No separate setting is required to adjust resolution, so icons are now more sharp and size will scale automatically with the screen resolution.

Publishing features have not been forgotten, as they include brand new responsive HTML5 layouts that are modern, frameless layouts with a redefined browsing experience, are fully customizable, and can easily match the look and feel of your corporate website template. The navigation is search driven, and you also have the ability to add favorites while still being fully accessible (508 compliant).

New publishing features include the introduction of basic HTML5 formatting without any JavaScript or layout, with the look and feel controlled by CSS. This makes publishing lightweight and easy to share. Text searches within searchable vector graphics (SVG) can now be done, and supported in HTML5, as the information in the SVG files can be read and displayed as part of search results. Multimedia files are managed in assets folder in published output. Inline styles have been cleaned up, including the introduction of a setting for Excel inline styles from published output. You can publish topics to a single folder–an important organization feature. Content personalization has been improved with DITA attribute support in dynamic content filters in the indexes, and a new dialog has been introduced to select conditional attributes.

Wow, that’s a lot right there!

All these changes are great for the FrameMaker app, but what about the FrameMaker Publishing Server? No worries! The 2017 release of the FrameMaker manage remote publishing, and can publish bi-directional content across formats and devices, so it can integrate with any CMS.

RoboHelp has brand-new, responsive HTML5 layouts as well, also incorporating modern, frame-less layouts with a redefined browsing experience that’s fully customizable. The Search autocomplete is also functional here in RoboHelp as well, allowing for search in responsive HTML5 output that shows predictive results based on user typing by segment first–which is a unique feature, gives contextual results, can indicate the number of occurrences of an entered word or phrase which helps in narrowing down the matching results, and can even correct spelling mistakes as you type in the search. The new authoring features include thumbnail support for images, folder imports for baggage files, and variable view toggling.

The Adobe Technical Communications Suite 2017 Release (TCS 2017) includes these latest versions of FrameMaker and RoboHelp, as well as the latest versions of Acrobat Pro, Captivate, and Presenter, which went bought together in the Suite, provide a 58% savings over buying the tools separately.

While not formally part of the Technical Communications Suite, it’s also important to mention that the Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) XML Documentation Add-On 2.0 version has been released. If you are using AEM as your CMS or CCMS, you can host your tech and marketing content that’s written up in FrameMaker more easily through the integration of this add-on. This add-on allows for content sharing and reuse which lends itself to consistent user experience and reduced total cost of ownership. Higher content velocity helps to drive enterprise publishing features, such as batch publishing, baseline publishing, and post-publishing workflows. Enhanced review and collaboration capabilities include web-based inline review, web editor enhancements that help with content management capabilities and document life-cycle management.

If you want more information about TCS 2017, you can click on the Adobe advertisement in the right column, or email the Adobe TCS team directly at techcomm@adobe.com.

Additionally, there is a 2017 Release Launch Webinar on 15 February 2017. It’s free! Learn more and register for the event on the Adobe Event website.

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Confessions of a Failed Technical Communicator

Posted on December 10, 2016 by TechCommGeekMom

homer_confession — Really, Father, my only sins are beer, donuts, beer, donuts, not knowing DITA, beer, donuts…

“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned! I am a failure in technical communications.”

OK, perhaps in many eyes, I haven’t been a failure in technical communications. It will be five years this spring since I graduated with my Masters degree in Professional and Technical Communication from NJIT. In many ways, that feels like it was just yesterday, and I’m still a “new graduate”. But with the change this year in my STC Membership that’s moved from “Student” to “New Professional” to “Classic”, I supposed I’m not anymore.

While graduate school gave me a good foundation to move forward, I learned very quickly that I needed to continue to educate myself. As I attended conferences and presentations, and paid attention to discussions in social media, I found out that graduate school lessons barely cut the surface. I’ve tried my best to continue my studies by attending as many webinars, conferences, and presentations that I can. I even took another university graduate certificate course on digital marketing, hoping to get some insight that might help me going forward.

However, in the end, I failed to do one thing that might actually boost what I’m doing as a fledgling content strategist, and thus, my confession: I needed to learn DITA.

For those of you who don’t know what DITA is, it’s the acronym for Darwin Information Typing Architecture, and it’s a commonly used method for creating structured authoring using XML coding. The idea is that documentation done using DITA methods will allow for single-sourcing for content elements, and equally make it easier to integrate that content into print or digital outputs in a super-organized, modular way. It’s a standard that helps because it’s generic to almost any system out there. Any system that can read XML can read a DITA document, for the most part. When moving from one system to another, the content can stay intact if done using DITA/XML methods.

I don’t remember learning much about DITA in grad school, other than understanding what it was in general as I explained it above. I never learned the details. In my work life so far, I haven’t needed it. It’s always been unstructured authoring. I try to take some small steps to create some single-sourcing content when possible in content management systems, but that was hard to do sometimes. One of my recent jobs made me realize that we needed some sort of structured authoring done, but I didn’t know how to go about it. We created our own coding tags to describe things going on in copy decks. It wasn’t the best, but it was better than nothing.

In the past year, I’ve tried to figure out ways to continue to improve my skills, and make myself more marketable as a content strategist/content manager. I talked to the leading experts in the field. (It’s one of the benefits of getting involved with the STC and attending STC events–you get to know these people personally.) And the one thing that seemed to come back to me again and again was that I had a good resume, and I have some great skills under my belt, and they knew that I was a good writer from this blog. The biggest sore spot in my skill set was that I lacked an important skill–knowing DITA and using it. And while I looked for jobs in my area that included DITA practices (I think I’ve only seen one listing in three years), I’ve been assured that if I could learn DITA, the remote/telecommuting possibilities could be much better for me. And since remote opportunities are my best bet right now, I have to do what I need to do to make that happen.

So, as the saying goes, I bit the bullet. Fortunately, the STC was promoting a course about DITA Essentials taught by Bernard Aschwanden, the Immediate Past-President of the STC, and the proprietor of Publishing Smarter. Bernard’s a great instructor, and he’s taking it nice and slow. One of the best parts of the course is hands-on experience, even if it’s in the simplest ways. That’s the way I tend to learn best–learn the logistics of how something is done, then I need to learn to do the work through trial and error. Last week’s assignment was particularly challenging for me. While I understood what I had to do conceptually, since I was also trying to familiarize myself with a few XML editors at the same time while applying what I wanted to do with my assignment, I got very frustrated. I sent in my assignment, along with notes about where I was getting frustrated and needing some guidance. Bernard assured me that all would be well, and asked me if he could use what I had turned in for my assignment for the most recent class. He also warned me to have a glass of wine ready while taking class, because I’d be needing it. Yikes!

I was told to prepare for the onslaught of big corrections to my DITA homework with a glass of wine. I took the suggestion seriously, thankfully.

The glass of wine was done by the end of the class, and yes, he ripped my assignment apart, but it was okay in the end. I knew there were problems with it, and he showed me where my original thought process was correct, but I didn’t know how to execute it properly. One of the mistakes I was making was my use of XML tags, particularly using the correct ones. While the XML editing apps all have guidance features to help you with using correct tags in certain situations, I still wasn’t using the best choices. Most of that was because I’m not familiar with what these XML tags mean, so I was using them at face value. For example, I was using a step example tag in part of my content, and Bernard understood why I used it, but felt that the way I used it was incorrect, and didn’t allow for cleaner coding. Okay, I can deal with that, especially when he demonstrated the correction.

So, as much as I’m struggling with DITA, I do understand the essential concepts behind it now. My biggest problem is learning how to use it beyond the most elementary tasks. I haven’t had any “real world” scenarios to date when I could implement and learn how to use the XML editors and use DITA practices in writing or rewriting content. I need to figure out how to find content and start having a way to truly play with something so that I can get the full experience of that trial and error to master DITA.

After the STC course that Bernard is teaching, I plan to follow-up with Scriptorium’s DITA tutorials as well, and see if I can learn some more about XML coding. I have a lot to do to figure this out, but I know that in the end, this will be a big skill that will make a lot of difference in how I approach content. The content strategist skills I already have acquired have helped me frame DITA much more easily than if I learned this with no prior knowledge. But, I can tell that I still have a long way to go before I feel that I’ve mastered this.

So, this ends my confession. I have needed to learn DITA. If it’s not taught in university classes in technical writing, it should be. I think it would have saved me a lot of frustration, and provided more opportunities for me sooner. If I can get a better handle on this, I’m hoping that I can start exploring how XML Editors can integrate with CMSs, like Adobe CQ. I’m not an Adobe AEM developer (I’m not a developer at all!), but I know how to create websites and pages with AEM, and hopefully I can start figuring out how to integrate those skills with DITA skills. I was told by one mentor, that would make me a very desirable job candidate, and I think she’s onto something. Of course, I need to brush up on my AEM skills, since it’s been a couple of years since I’ve used them regularly, but with all things, once you master them, it’s like riding a bicycle. You might be a little unstable at first, but you never quite forget how to do it once you get started back into it again.

Here’s hoping that in 2017, DITA will become a “bicycle” skill for me. I’ll go say a few rounds of the Rosary in the meantime for my penance.

(What do you think? How important is DITA in technical writing? I’ve heard some say it’s a passing trend, and others say that its usage continues to grow. Include your comments below.)

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Will Tablets Replace PCs? Part 2

Posted on October 25, 2016October 25, 2016 by TechCommGeekMom

"Nope. Even I can't see much improvement over the last few years," says Geordi LaForge. — “Nope. Even I can’t see much improvement over the last few years,” says Geordi LaForge.

Four years ago, I wrote a post that was in response to RJ Jacquez’s post on his blog about the advent of the Microsoft Surface’s release.

My response to RJ Jacquez’s question: Will Tablets replace PCs?

RJ’s argument was that while mobile was the wave of the future, he felt that the Surface was not a mobile product. Since the Surface still ran full programs rather than streamlined apps, it really didn’t qualify as a mobile device, despite its tablet-like form. His argument was that the industry needs to learn to streamline code to make lighter programs for heavy duty use so that mobile can become more prolific.

My argument at the time, more or less, was that while I agreed with his thinking and supported more use of mobile, I didn’t think it was going to happen anytime soon because PCs enabled people to use more powerful programs that tablets just couldn’t handle. I supported the idea of cloud technology, which was just barely emerging at the time, but I knew it wasn’t there yet. Only when cloud technology could catch up, I contended, then we could start making a bigger move to mobile devices as our primary work tools.

Well, here we are, four years later. Have we made huge strides in moving more to mobile? Yes and no.

More tablet-like devices have been created in these four years, and the main leaders in this arena, Surface and iPad, have made improvements over the years. Surface has its standard version of the device, as well as a “Surface Pro” and “Surface Book”. iPad has developed its competition creating iPad Pro, but the various MacBooks continue to be the competition for the Surface Book.

Surface’s OS is still the same thing that runs on laptops, namely full versions of Windows 10. Windows 10 runs regular, full version programs, but it also runs on apps that can be bought through the Microsoft Store, including many cloud-based apps such as Microsoft Office 365. But, it’s still a really flat PC in a tablet format. People still use it like their PC, running more powerful programs in it, and use it as a laptop, just smaller. It’s certainly more portable than a standard laptop, but as laptop design gets thinner and thinner, it doesn’t make much of a difference. Additionally, the price tag on the Surface is still pretty high. To get a powerful enough machine that can create and edit video, you’d pay somewhere around US$3000.00+ for a Surface, when you could get something just as powerful in another brand of laptop for less than half that price (like I did for my current laptop).

iPads, in the meantime, have become more robust, and while still more dependent on cloud-based apps such as its own Work suite and it does run the cloud-based Office 365, other apps like Adobe’s Creative Cloud aren’t the same. There are Creative Cloud apps available for iPad, but they are still the watered down versions of them, and not the full versions that can be used on a laptop. Even though Adobe claims that Creative Cloud is cloud-based, it’s only cloud based insofar as it will save your work in iPad to your storage within Creative Cloud, but that’s about it. iPads have definitely been a frontrunner in promoting cloud-based storage, but running robust apps that are memory-intensive isn’t part of its anatomy.

Still, with these minimal advances, they are still steps forward in the right direction. For example, I do used Office 365 or iWork on my iPad when I help my son write up his homework assignments, and I can store them on my OneDrive or my iCloud. If he’s working on a bigger project, he can use PowerPoint or Keynote on my iPad, save it to OneDrive or iCloud, and then continue working on the project using my laptop or his desktop. Cloud-based storage, and some other cloud-based apps have definitely gotten better, for sure. I like this ability to switch from my laptop to my iPad to work on low-impact project, like doing my son’s homework.

There are some apps that won’t ever happen on iPad. For example, I’ve been working heavily in Dreamweaver this past week or two. This is not to say there aren’t other HTML/JavaScript editing tools that are probably iPad apps out there, but this is the most popular one and a standard one to use. Is there an iPad version to access? No. I need to use my laptop for this. This might be where Surface would be the better choice, but again, it’s still really a laptop in a different device shell, as mentioned before. I doubt that Flare or Adobe TechComm Suite tools are ready for the iPad treatment either. They can probably run on a Surface, but would you really want that?

Even a StarFleet Captain like Benjamin Sisko can find this sort of thing daunting, and needs to seek Kira's help in straightening this out! — Even a StarFleet Captain like Benjamin Sisko can find this sort of thing daunting, and needs to seek Kira’s help in straightening this out!

It looks like the PC versus tablet/mobile wars will continue to rage on for a while. I don’t think they’ve gotten that far in four years, but the few improvements made have certainly been in the right direction. We’re not quite there yet. I think RJ’s original thought that all apps need to be streamlined for mobile use was a great observation then, and it’s still one that needs to apply now. If we are truly going to move towards the mobile age, bigger steps have to be made. These are steps forward, for sure. I think more has been concentrated on mobile phones, to be honest, since more people own them. And that seems appropriate. I don’t bring my iPad or my laptop with me everywhere, but I bring my phone everywhere. Then again, I’m not working on HTML code on my phone, so there has to be some sort of balance at some point.

Mobile devices are becoming more powerful all the time, but it looks like we’ll have to be a little more patient before we see another big leap with technology. I know there are some “big” announcements from Microsoft and Apple about these tablet products sometime this week, but I’m not holding out for any big advances, even though they are certainly overdue.

What do you think? How will this lack of technology development–or the future of mobile technology–help or hurt tech comm? Include your comments below.

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Saddle up for a FREE workshop event from Adobe at #STC2016!

Posted on April 27, 2016 by TechCommGeekMom

While I was unable to go to the STC Summit last year, I am looking forward to going to Anaheim this year to not only being a presenter at the STC Summit, but also to learn and connect with other technical communicators again!

I realized that one of the events I’ve always liked attending is the Adobe pre-conference event. They always have great information to share. However–what’s this? No Adobe Day this year? Nope. But wait…there’s something better.

Register for the FREE Adobe Tech Comm Tools Workshop at the 2015 STC Summit! — (Click on the wanted poster for more information)

That’s right! Saddle up, and gain some skills through this FREE Adobe Tech Comm Tools Workshop! This looks like a great event, cowboys and cowgirls! There are industry leaders leading the workshop, you earn a certificate for participating (which you can include on your resume, it’s that good), and lunch and snacks are included in the afternoon. And did I mention it’s free? Who says you can’t get a free lunch AND a free certificate? Evidently not Adobe!

Oh, did I also mention that even if you can’t attend to earn the certificate, you can still follow along on my Twitter feed found at @techcommgeekmom that day, as I’ll be tweeting highlights of the event for all who come to the Twitter corral!

If you don't comply, you can't register. But these are easy terms to deal with, Sheriff. — If you don’t comply, you can’t register. But these are easy terms to deal with, Sheriff.

Now, there are some caveats in registering, namely that you have to bring your laptop, and download the Adobe Tech Comm Suite Release 2015 Trial Version (if you don’t already have the full version). Other than that, it should be like riding into the sunset.

This is a great opportunity for those who would like to either get to know the Tech Comm Suite better, or brush up on some skills. Space is limited so you should register as soon as possible to get your seat on this great event!

Information and Registration for the Adobe Tech Comm Tools Workshop at the 2015 STC Summit

(My apologies to those who are more sci-fi savvy for mixing my space westerns together. Firefly and Cowboys and Aliens were the first things I thought of!)

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What was TechCommGeekMom’s 2015 Top of the Pops?

Posted on January 1, 2016 by TechCommGeekMom

Florence and The Machine think that TechCommGeekMom's Top of the Pops 2015 is smashing. (Source: telegraph.co.uk) — Florence and The Machine think that TechCommGeekMom’s Top of the Pops 2015 is smashing. (Source: telegraph.co.uk)

I always find it interesting to see what stories people end up gravitating to each year on TechCommGeekMom, and along with other year-end summaries, I like to figure out what were the most popular blog posts for a given year. Sometimes, it’s something that’s archived from an earlier year. That’s good, because I try to write or post things that will have long-term relevance as often as possible. However, I’m usually interested in what was written THIS year that came out to be the most popular of all original information posted that wasn’t an archived post or a curated topic posted.

So, this year’s “Top of the Pops” for 2015 are:

What’s interesting to observe from a statistical perspective is that the top three almost tied for first place–#1 has one more view than the next two, which are tied.

I’m also pleased to see that most of my most popular posts this year were ones that came from the heart, based on personal experiences or observations. I’ve often argued that social media is a medium in which people discussed things and could more closely relate to each other because there is the ability to have more personal experiences and have the opportunity to connect and respond. The fact that many of these top blog posts relating to my job woes, trying to provide DIY training for myself, and trying to take positive steps towards the continual advancing of my career are relatable topics–that I’m not the only one going through these feelings and experiences. I almost always try to open up conversations with my blogs–for better or worse–and the reflection of the top original posts for 2015 reflect that.

The last one I listed was something personal that I wanted to include. This showed a big part of my weight loss and self-improvement journey I’m on right now. I’m still on that journey, having made a bold move in the last few weeks (something that I may write about soon, but not yet). I was glad to see that truly personal topics matters, and that even when relating it to something in technical communications, people responded positively towards it. My weight loss journey is a deeply personal one, and something that I don’t have to share, but I do, simply because I think all of us can relate to a non-tech comm struggle like that easily.

What will 2016 bring? Stay tuned…plans, resolutions, and predictions coming soon!