The usual method of Mac desktop publishing involves working in three different programs. First you create and edit your text in a word processing program. Use a draw program to create graphics. Then import the whole kit and caboodle into a publishing program to fine-tune your layout. FrameMaker tries to do it all, and though it lacks the high-end drawing features of Adobe Illustrator, Aldus FreeHand, and Deneba’s Canvas, it succeeds admirably in letting you build a lengthy publication without leaving the program.
You can format your document from a selection of standard templates, or build your own custom page design from scratch. Unlike most other document-creation programs, it even lets you mix portrait and landscape (vertical and horizontal) pages in a single document.
The centerpiece of FrameMaker is its extensive use of character and paragraph tags that allow you to automate text formatting. You can use or adapt the catalogs (character- and paragraph-format collections) that are supplied with the program’s templates, or build your own from scratch. Designing a paragraph format involves calling up a six-part dialog box that you navigate via a pull-down menu. It allows you to set the basic paragraph properties (attributes), character formatting, widow and orphan control, numbering, hyphenation and justification settings, and basic table-cell formatting. A paragraph can also be assigned with a side head (which extends either left or right of the body copy) or with a run-in head. Character-format catalogs let you quickly switch to bold or italic for emphasis, or use special styles such as small caps or superscript. You can apply any property in a format, such as a paragraph indent or type style or size, to any selected paragraph, all paragraphs using that style, or all paragraphs in a document.
FrameMaker really shines in the area of table-creation tools. Convert text into tables, and tables back to text. Tables are built with cells you can format separately or together. You can even base a cell’s size on the width of selected type, and have the cell’s text aligned top, center, or bottom in a column. The program will cut and paste columns and rows within a table or from table to table, format straddle heads (spanning two or more cells), and rotate the entire table or just individual cells. Tables can include equations, graphics, and footnotes, and you can apply rules and shading.
FrameMaker’s spelling checker, thesaurus, and find/change features enhance its word processing capability. Using Claris XTND translators, you can open documents created in other word processing formats or import them into an existing FrameMaker document. A QuickAccess Bar provides an iconic view of basic program commands, similar to Microsoft Word’s tool bar. You can do basic formatting and tab setting with a formatting bar, just as in a word processing program. Both text and graphic objects can be rotated freely, but text is best edited in its upright position to keep the text column from redrawing at every keystroke. Although it lacks sophisticated color-trapping tools, the newest version of FrameMaker can produce four-color separations and adjust registration and halftone screen settings.
FrameMaker 4.0 for the Mac is essentially the same as the Windows and Unix versions, but the Mac version adds support for Apple events, balloon help, publish and subscribe (this feature excludes plain text and most graphic formats, so it’s not terribly useful), and QuickTime.
FrameMaker’s equation editor greatly simplifies the often convoluted process of creating math text objects. A multilayered palette lets you build complex mathematical expressions from scratch with relative ease. You can create custom math elements, or adapt existing ones to suit your needs. The program can also examine the equation syntax, so you can make sure you haven’t left anything out.
FrameMaker adds simple-to-use index and table of contents features, applicable to a single document or a set of documents (using the book-generation feature). Cross-references can be set up using tags linked to specific headlines or paragraphs. The variable feature allows automatic page-numbering or, for example, automatic updating of a running head to reflect changes in chapter or section heads. FrameMaker’s unique Conditional Document capability lets you generate more than one version of a document by tagging selected text or graphics as “conditional.” This is useful for creating catalogs or brochures, where you might want to exclude items from one version.
Not everything is hunky-dory with FrameMaker. The font menus display only the family name of a font, not the individual styles (even if you’ve got a font will menu modifier utility installed). There are a liberal number of keyboard shortcuts, but some of them seem almost alien to a Macintosh user (though they’d be familiar to either Windows or Unix users). These include such commands as escape key-F-T-R to produce a document report such as a page count. The control key, seldom used on Macs, also gets plenty of action.
Despite its occasional interface oddities, FrameMaker is slickly designed and performs predictably and speedily in nearly all respects. For a program of its sheer powder, it is not terribly difficult to learn, though 1 wouldn’t recommend it for an absolute novice. Free technical support is limited to 30 days after you make your first telephone call (it’s $99 per year thereafter), but you’ll find that help easy to reach, friendly, and supportive.
To simplify the learning process, FrameMaker comes with a Getting Started manual and a decent selection of templates that you can quickly adapt to many desktop publishing chores. Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can move on to the large Using FrameMaker book for detailed instructions. You’ll want to keep the handy Quick Reference guide at hand for task-oriented advice and a long list of keyboard shortcuts — or use the program’s context-sensitive help menu.
FrameMaker is not necessarily a direct competitor to Aldus PageMaker or QuarkXPress. It lacks many of those programs’ features, such as pasteboards; fast, on-the-fly formatting changes through the Control and Measurement palettes; extensive sets of color models; even the ability to run text automatically around irregular-shaped graphic objects. If your desktop publishing work includes elaborate ads and brochures or free-form magazine layouts, FrameMaker is probably not your cup of tea.
But for projects ranging from simple letters to long, structured documents such as books, instruction manuals, and textbooks, FrameMaker is one of the best document-creation tools you can find on the Macintosh. It’s reasonably fast and well mannered, and its ability to take you through all stages of composing your document without resorting to other programs makes it a real timesaver. I recommend it highly.
Steinberg, Gene. (March 1994). FrameMaker 4.0. Macworld. (pg. 59).
Frame Technology Corporation
Applications
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Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Basilisk II
