Information Today
Volume 19, Issue 6 — June 2002
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Adobe Systems Unveils New FrameMaker Products

Adobe Systems, Inc. has announced the release of Adobe FrameMaker 7.0, the latest version of its enterprise authoring and publishing solution. FrameMaker 7.0 allows corporations to use XML to search, share, and re-purpose content across the enterprise. Adobe also announced the release of the new Adobe FrameMaker Server, a tool that lets companies produce personalized, data-driven content for output to print or Adobe PDF.

FrameMaker 7.0
FrameMaker 7.0 combines the product's word-processing functionality for long documents with FrameMaker +SGML's full set of tools for structured authoring of valid SGML applications. Users can choose to work in the structured environment to address single-source information publishing needs and create valid XML files, or select a simpler interface to create well-formed XML files for general word-processing use.

FrameMaker allows corporate users to create, edit, and import valid XML content in full WYSIWYG mode with real-time validation and context-sensitive guided authoring. Once valid, the XML content can be searched, shared, and re-purposed across the enterprise, integrating disparate systems and processes. For users new to XML, FrameMaker provides starter templates that enable them to work with industry-standard xDocBook and xHTML DTDs. They can map XML elements to tables, graphics, footnotes, cross-references, and index markers.

Through the use of templates, FrameMaker 7.0 enables users to publish a single-source document to multiple channels, including print, Adobe PDF, the Web, e-books, PDAs, and more. The included WebWorks Publisher Standard Edition 7.0 software from Quadralay provides features for publishing to HTML, Palm Reader, and other hand-held formats. Support for Scalable Vector Graphics allows the integration of high-quality, interactive vector graphics for Web publishing. FrameMaker also supports Adobe's XMP (eXtensible Metadata Platform) and WebDav (World Wide Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning), which streamlines document collaboration and content sharing. XMP gives Adobe applications a common framework that standardizes the exchange of metadata across publishing work flows.

According to the announcement, FrameMaker 7.0 enables users to easily publish XML documents in Adobe PDF and print, unlike other XML-based solutions. FrameMaker also outputs tagged Adobe PDF, which means documents created with the application can be viewed on mobile devices like PDAs. Tagged Adobe PDF files are also accessible to people with visual disabilities because they can be read appropriately by screen-reader software applications that synthesize text to speech.

FrameMaker Server
Adobe's new FrameMaker Server software allows companies to extract existing content housed in databases, document management systems, and XML repositories to be manipulated in FrameMaker. The Frame Development Kit provides a comprehensive way to integrate FrameMaker with server-based systems such as Web applications and legacy mainframes. FrameMaker Server handles text and graphics in a variety of formats with multi-language support.

Adobe FrameMaker 7.0 and FrameMaker Server will be available in the second quarter of this year to customers in the U.S., Europe, and Canada through Adobe Authorized Resellers and the Adobe Store at http://www.adobe.com. The estimated street price for the FrameMaker 7.0 desktop version will be $799 for the full product with a special 90-day upgrade offer of $209 ($349 thereafter). The estimated street price for FrameMaker Server will be $7,999. For more information about new features and upgrade policies for Adobe FrameMaker, visit http://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker.

Source: Adobe Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA, 800/833-6687, 408/536-6000; http://www.adobe.com.

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