Those who regularly use Mekon applications know we are always striving to improve them. Eclipse S1000D for FrameMaker is no exception. We have now released Version 9 of this application and it incorporates some increased functionality and also some specific work to speed up its operation in some areas.

Enhancements

There have been three main enhancements which means that: Eclipse S1000D for FrameMaker can work with FrameMaker 12 XML Author, support for the A350 Airbus project (and work with Eclipse A350 BookBuild) is included, and enhanced functionality adding new areas of working with the Technical Information Repository functions of S1000D. These are in addition to solving some operating issues which have been reported to us.

With the arrival of Adobe FrameMaker 12 XML Author, the Eclipse application was enhanced in several areas to make sure that they are compatible. Not only did this require reworking some areas of the application itself but also a change in the Installer to accommodate different locations for various files which need to be associated with the new Adobe product. The result of this work is that the Eclipse application now works with Adobe FrameMaker 12 in Structured Mode, Adobe FrameMaker 12 in the XML Author Mode, and the Standalone FrameMaker XML Author application.

The enhancement to work with Airbus A350 CDIM is already covered above. Switching to the A350 mode is a simple User Preference operation which takes just seconds to effect. Eclipse S1000D for FrameMaker now can now, using the Preferences feature, be rapidly configured to work with both the A350 and A400M CDIMs in addition to any other configurations that you may have implemented yourself.

In some areas of S1000D usage there is a requirement to use the Common Repository mode of working. The Eclipse S1000D application has been enhanced to accommodate this additional way of working. Additional interface windows are provided to allow easy selection of the common information.

Operation Speed Up

Some specific work was carried out to speed up some areas of the application where there was thought to be some slowing up of operation. However, an interesting by-product of the work to make Eclipse S1000D for FrameMaker compatible with the FrameMaker 12 XML Author Application has been a significant speed up in opening DMs and other functions.

FrameMaker Versions Supported in V9

With the need to make the application compatible with FrameMaker 12 XML Author, work was carried out to make all the background files compatible with this new Adobe offering. This has meant that all supporting files are now XML only.

As a result of this work the application now supports FrameMaker 7.2, 8, 9, 10, 11 12 and FrameMaker XML Author.

Earlier versions of FrameMaker do not work with Eclipse S1000D for FrameMaker V9 (these earlier versions are not compatible with XML files). Mekon has supported these long after Adobe has ceased their support and reluctantly we have had to drop them from our ‘supported’ list.