Most technical writers who I know love FrameMaker for its speed and stability, but are a lot less happy with its interface. Let’s face it – FrameMaker is getting pretty long in the tooth, and its interface could stand some major updating. But at least it’s highly customizable, if you know how to edit the right configuration files, and Shlomo Perets does. For several years, he’s been providing the ToolbarPlus Express for FrameMaker – a customized set of toolbars and keyboard commands that makes the Windows version of FrameMaker a lot easier to use. Up until recently Toolbar Express has been a free download, but with the release of version 4, he’s now selling it for $25 US. Is it worth it? Read on for the my opinion.
Installation is straightforward. Unzip the ToolbarPlus Express files into FrameMaker’s fminit\configui directory and change two lines in its maker.ini file. If you’re paranoid, you can back up the directory and its subdirectories first, but I’ve never had a problem. There are no DLLs or executables involved – it’s all done with modified versions of Frame’s configuration files and the addition of some PDF files.
ToolbarPlus Express adds a new toolbar to FrameMaker. The four Frame Quick Launch toolbars are combined into two to save space. It adds drop-down lists for character styles and fonts. Buttons in the toolbar let you repeat paragraph and character style commands, set documents to read-only, copy paragraph, character, or conditional formats, increase or decrease zoom levels, and move around the document in various ways – and that’s not a complete list. There are screen shots on the MicroType web site of the toolbar and some of the context menus, as well as a PDF file that describes everything in the application.
ToolbarPlus Express also adds an extensive set of keyboard shortcuts to FrameMaker’s existing ones. Many of these mirror keyboard shortcuts that are standard in other Windows applications, making FrameMaker easier to use for Windows users. Others are mapped to the application and insert keys. If you’re a keyboard maven, you’ll find that you will hardly ever need to touch the mouse. I’m more of a menu guy myself, but I find that having many of the same CTRL and ALT key combinations that I use in Microsoft Word available in FrameMaker greatly lessens the mental gymnastics that I have to perform every time I switch between the two applications (usually, several times a day).
ToolbarPlus Express has been around for some time as a free application. Now that you have to pay for it, what new features make it worth upgrading to version 4? For a start, there’s now a Microtype menu that gives you access to both the toolbar documentation, keyboard shortcut charts, and FrameMaker help and configuration files. The most useful command in the menu may be the Insert Special Characters command, which lets you insert the most common special characters from a menu. I find this much easier than trying to remember yet another set of keyboard commands. In the toolbar, there’s now a paragraph button, which opens a drop-down menu for commonly used paragraph formatting commands, such as setting a paragraph to the top of the page.
New in this version are modifications to FrameMaker’s top level menus and context menus. Show/hide conditional text is now a menu item in the View menu, for example, saving mouse clicks. Insert Special Character is available from a context menu. Other context menu items let you select various ranges of text or parts of tables.
I’ve been a big fan of the ToolbarPlus Express for years and have installed it on every version of FrameMaker that I use. If you aren’t using it yet, the productivity gains you’ll get from it more than justify the $25 US cost. If you’re considering upgrading, the choice becomes a bit harder, but in my opinion it’s still worth it. I’ve found that the additional commands added to the menus, especially the new Insert Special Characters command, and the selection commands from context menus more than justify the upgrade. I use many add-in products with FrameMaker, but ToolbarPlus Express is the one that I can’t do without.