Adobe FrameMaker Basics: A Beginner's Guide

If you have just entered the creation and management of technical documentation, you would have come across Adobe FrameMaker. With an array of tools available, it stands out as a premier solution for producing large, complex documents, especially for technical publications. Thus, it can be daunting to understand the Adobe FrameMaker Basics in one go. 

So, if you are trying to use it for the first time or switching from another tool, then it’s time to know the very basics of this tool. Read this blog to understand the Adobe FrameMaker Basics. Also, explore some steps on how to get it started. Read ahead to know more! 

Table of Contents 

1) Why choose FrameMaker for technical documentation? 

2) Understanding the Adobe FrameMaker interface 

3) Core Adobe FrameMaker Basics to get started 

a) Creating a new document 

b) Creating master pages 

c) Formatting and styles 

d) Adding graphics and illustrations 

e) Working with tables and lists 

f) Saving your work 

4) Conclusion 

Why choose FrameMaker for technical documentation? 

There are numerous tools that you can use if you are doing any technical documentation. However, Adobe FrameMaker stands out as one of the best tools to use for your technical documentation. Here's why: 

1) Creating structured content: FrameMaker allows the creation of structured documents using XML or Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA). It ensures consistency in document design and content, making it ideal for complex technical documents with a consistent format. 

2) Scalability: FrameMaker excels at handling large, complex documents. Its powerful architecture ensures that even voluminous documents are managed seamlessly without sacrificing performance. 

3) Multi-channel publishing: With FrameMaker, you can publish across various platforms and devices with ease. Be it PDF, web, mobile, or print, the tool ensures consistent quality throughout. 

4) Template-driven design: This feature ensures uniformity across all documents. With its advanced templating system, authors can ensure that every piece of documentation adheres to brand and style guidelines. 

5) Intuitive user interface: FrameMaker's UI is designed with technical writers in mind, making complex tasks straightforward and reducing the learning curve. 

6) Robust integration capabilities: Whether it's integrating with a Content Management System (CMS) or other tools, FrameMaker's compatibility ensures a smooth workflow. 

7) Globalisation and localisation: FrameMaker simplifies the translation process, making it an excellent choice for companies with a global presence aiming for multilingual documentation. 

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Understanding the Adobe FrameMaker interface 

If you want to understand What is Adobe FrameMaker Interface and its basics, the following steps will help you: 

1) Workspace customisation: FrameMaker's interface is adaptable, which allows you to arrange toolbars and panels to suit their workflow preferences. 

2) Pods: These are specialised panels that provide easy access to common tasks like paragraph and character design. 

3) Status bar: Located at the bottom, it displays information about the active document, including page and cursor position. 

4) Command bars: These are collections of icons and commands, simplifying tasks like formatting and editing. 

5) Book window: A central space for managing and organising files in a book, aiding in efficient multi-file operations. 

6) Structured view: For those working with XML/DITA, this view offers a hierarchical representation of content elements. 

7) Master pages: It allows you to define and manage recurring layouts and designs for consistent document presentation. 

8) Reference pages: These are used to store and manage reusable content snippets and graphics. 

9) Quick access toolbar: Positioned at the top, this provides shortcuts to frequently used commands, streamlining processes.




 

Core Adobe FrameMaker Basics to get started 

Here, you will learn about the Adobe FrameMaker Basics to help you get started. So, let’s begin learning: 

Creating a new document 

The creation of a new document is foundational in any software application. In Adobe FrameMaker, this process is intuitive yet offers depth, catering to both novices and professionals. Here's a comprehensive guide to creating a new document in FrameMaker: 

1) If you want to create a new document, you have to launch Adobe FrameMaker. 

2) Once the application is up and running, you’re greeted with a start screen that showcases a variety of options, including opening an existing document, reviewing recent files, or creating a new one.


 

3) You can choose either portrait, landscape or custom layout. 

4) After clicking on “Create”, a new document opens with the selected layout. 

5) You can create headers, footers, and page numbers in Adobe FrameMaker. Here's how: 

a) If you want to create a footer, click “View” from the menu bar and click “Master Pages”.  

b) Then select the “Footer” element from the bottom of the page.  

c) After mentioning the author’s name, click the “File” option and then “Save”. 

d) For adding page numbers to your document, you can select “Special” from the menu bar and then select “Variables”.  

e) From the “Variables” section, you can click on “Current Page #”. This “#” will automatically generate the correct page number. 

f) Then click on “File” and choose the “Save” option. 

Creating master pages 

Master pages are important, as they set the format for the rest of the pages in your document. If you are keen on making headers, footers and page numbers, then creating master pages will help in setting up these, including logos. 


 

a) The first step you can take to create a master page is to select “View” and then click on “Master Pages”. 

b) Then click on “Special”. This will take you to the next option - “Add Master Page”. 

c) If you want to base this new master for your pages, click on “Copy From Master Page”. 

d) Then select “Add”. 

Formatting and styles 


 

Like you perform formatting in Microsoft Word, you can also use “tags” or “styles” in Adobe InDesign as an alternative to quickly change the formatting of your document.These “tags’’ help you maintain the same style throughout your whole document. If you want to change only the characters and not the entire paragraph, then follow these steps: 

a) Select the text to format. 

b) Then click on “Format”, “Characters”, and finally on “Designer”. 

c) After this, you can write or choose the desired style that you want to apply to your characters. 

d) Then click on the arrow on “Commands”. Now, select “New Format”. 

e) After that, click on “Create”. 

f) After you have chosen the desired character tag, you can click on “Apply”. After that, click on “Update All” to apply to any existing character tag. 

If you want to apply a paragraph tag, then follow these steps: 

a) First, select the paragraph you want to format. 

b) After that, click on “Format”, which is on the menu bar. 

c) Further, click on “Paragraph” and then “Designer”. 

d) In the “Paragraph Tag” option, select the desired tag from the drop-down menu. 

f) After that, you can adjust the fields, such as “Basic”, “Default Font”, “Pagination”, “Numbering”, “Advanced”, “Asian”, and “Table Cell”, in the “Paragraph Tag”. 

g) After you have made all the adjustments, click on “Apply”. 

h) If you want to change the formatting of any paragraph to the existing paragraph tag, select “Update All”. 

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Adding graphics and illustrations 

Another good part of Adobe FrameMaker is that you can insert tables, graphics or illustrations into your documents. You can use a table tag to apply tables consistently throughout your documents, or you can simply follow these following steps: 

a) For inserting a new table: 

1) From the menu bar, click on “Table” and then on “Insert Table”. 

2) The “Insert Table” dialogue box appears. You will notice that under “Table Format” there are two default options – Format A and Format B.  

3) You can adjust the “Columns”, “Body Rows”, “Heading Rows”, and “Footing Rows”. 

4) Then click on “Insert”. 

b) To import any graphic: 


 

1) If you want to import any graphic on your FrameMaker document, first select the document where you will import the graphic. 

2) After that, from the menu bar, select “File”, and then “Import”. You will see the “Import” dialogue box appearing on the screen. 

3) Then click on any graphic that you wish to import to this document by selecting “Import by Reference” or “Copy Into Document”, which appears at the bottom of the dialogue box. 

4) After this, click on “Import”. Adobe FrameMaker can sometimes detect the type of graphic that you are importing. If it detects the graphic, the “Imported Graphic Scaling” dialogue box appears. If it doesn’t detect, then the “Unknown File Type” dialogue box appears. 

5) To select the graphic from the list, click on “Convert”. 

6) Then click on “Set” after adjusting from the dialogue box. 

7) Finally, click on “Set” to complete the process. 

Saving your work

It is very important that you save your work after creating a new document or making any changes. To save your work, you can follow these steps. They are as follows: 

a) On the menu bar, click on "File" option and then select “Save”. 

b) Then, name your document by filling in the “File Name” field. 

c) Then, select your desired location where you want to save the document. 

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Conclusion 

Understanding Adobe FrameMaker Basics is one of the best ways to get familiar with the Adobe world. This standard tool is used by various industries for both authoring and publishing technical content across mobile, web, etc. These steps that you have just learnt in this blog will help you to use FrameMaker easily.  

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