(IDG) -- Until now, Adobe's DTP (desktop publishing) software, FrameMaker, was available only for Mac OS, Windows, and Solaris, which meant that you had to run it either on expensive hardware or an unreliable operating system. But the advent of FrameMaker on Linux makes it possible to run this proven and widely used software cheaply and on a stable OS.

Another approach

FrameMaker is based on two special concepts. The first is the idea that you can put any content, such as text or images, into frames. Common word processors, such as WordPerfect, regard content as a continuos flow of data. Users often run into problems if they want to break out of that model -- if they want to set text into multiple columns, for example. In this respect, FrameMaker is more like a DTP-oriented CorelDRAW than a word processor.

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The second idea is the concept of fixed paragraph templates, often called logical markup. In this system, you determine whether a paragraph is a title, a subtitle, normal body text, or some other kind of text, then adjust the paragraph template; FrameMaker applies changes over the entire document. This helps you keep a consistent layout without maintaining a style sheet. LaTeX works in a fairly similar way: By typing \section{Section Name}, you create a section with the appropriate font settings and the text "Section Name." In FrameMaker, you do this by marking the text "Section Name" and selecting Section from the combo box on top of the document window.

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The installation

We downloaded the installation package from Adobe's Website, untarred it, and discovered that it takes about 60 MB of space. Do not forget to register -- the key is absolutely necessary to run the software. In our home directory, we had to create a subdirectory called fminit. Then, we ran the bin/fmaddlicense program with $HOME/fminit/licenses as the parameter. Within this program, type Add registration_key your_unix_name. Type Done when ready.

We tried this installation procedure on Caldera OpenLinux 2.3, and a startup window popped up but then instantly disappeared. A few days later, Adobe sent out e-mail to all registered users stating that FrameMaker has problems with 16-bit color depth. After finding this out, we changed our settings to 24-bit color, and FrameMaker started running without a hitch.

Getting started

FrameMaker opens by displaying an unimpressive five-buttoned startup window. Since we didn't have any serious work to do, we simply clicked New. FrameMaker asked us whether we wanted to use a template or start a document from scratch. We used a blank portrait document.

We had expected FrameMaker's workspace to have an impressive appearance in the style of WordPerfect. Instead, we found nothing more than a menu bar, a small button bar for paragraph properties (see Figure 2) and, of course, the white paper with rulers. But the sparse appearance did not denote a lack of functionality, and in fact we appreciated the absence of distractions.

Logical markup

FrameMaker's biggest advantage over traditional word processors is the aforementioned logical markup, which means that every paragraph has a fixed design template. You can create and adjust such a template in the Paragraph Designer by selecting the menu options Format, Paragraphs, Designer. You must create a new template via the not-very-intuitive Commands box in the lower left corner of the window. We needed several seconds to figure that out.

You can easily apply a template to any given paragraph by placing the cursor inside of that paragraph and selecting your desired template. For example, we set up our own template, LWSubtitle, which denoted that there should be a very small space between the selected paragraph and the one preceeding it. We marked the template in the designer window and adjusted the appropriate parameter. With a click on Update All, FrameMaker applied the setting over the whole document. It looked much better now, to our minds.

Adding images

FrameMaker offers two ways to include an image in the text: you can do so within the text flow or inside a fixed frame. An image placed within the text flow will move as you add or delete text around it, just as it would with any word processor. This method is useful for longer documents, because images will remain next to the text passages with which they are associated.

If you instead place images inside a fixed frame, you can set the image in any specific location on any specific page that you want, and it will stay in that position, no matter what you do with the text. This is good for DTP documents in which you want exact image placement, but you could run into trouble with longer documents. If you insert a new page, fixed-frame images won't move with the text, and you'll have to go back and move all the images on subsequent pages by hand.

Placing an image within the text flow is a simple matter of importing the image using the menu option File, Import, File. You can set its properties with the options dialog Special, Anchored Frame.

Our naive assumption that we could also import a fixed-frame picture with just a few mouse clicks was dashed, so we had to ask our local FrameMaker guru for help. He told us to open the graphics toolbar (Graphics, Tools), select the seventh icon counted from the top, and place a frame at the desired image position. Within this frame, we could import and resize the image. We wrapped the paragraph text around the frame by selecting the Runaround Properties item in its context menu. We ran into trouble using TIFF images, however, a strange problem we never encountered with the Solaris version of the software. We switched to PNG, which worked perfectly. You can also, of course, simply convert your images with the GIMP or ImageMagick.

Pros and cons

FrameMaker is neither a word processor nor a typesetting system. If you intend to write non-magazine-style DTP documents, such as reports or documentation, FrameMaker might be for you. FrameMaker can also deal with very long documents better than common word processors. Generally speaking, you can write bad-looking documents in any kind of application; but, as far as we have seen, FrameMaker makes it much harder than a word processor to do so.

Conclusions

We found FrameMaker on Linux to be both stable and reliable, despite being a beta version. It doesn't bother with unnecessary GUI elements, which is more than we can say for certain well-known word processors from certain well-known software companies in Redmond. It still has some problems with picture import, though, such as the inability to handle TIFF graphics. But the concept of logical markup is a plus, and might save time for tech writers by freeing them from fiddling around with each paragraph's layout. And, with a little goodwill and desire to learn, average users could benefit too.

FrameMaker is not just another office suite; rather, it is an important desktop application on the Linux platform. We are looking forward to its final release.

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