FrameMaker DITA Feature Comparison
This document provides a comparison of the DITA features in the default FrameMaker 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 2015, with those in DITA-FMx 1.1 and 2.0.
Updated 11 September 2015 (DITA-FMx 2.0.04)
| Feature | FM8 | FM9 | FM10 | FM11 | FM12 | FM2015 | FMx 1.1 | FMx 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keyspace management | n/a | n/a | YES | YES | YES | YES | n/a | YES |
| Support for ditaval-filtered keyspaces | n/a | n/a | NO | NO | NO | NO | n/a | YES |
| Automatic keyspace switching | n/a | n/a | NO | NO | NO | NO | n/a | YES |
| Automatic keyspace regeneration | n/a | n/a | NO | NO | NO | NO | n/a | YES |
| Support for key element references | n/a | n/a | NO | NO | NO | NO | n/a | YES |
| Support for key-based glossary term references | n/a | n/a | NO | NO | NO | NO | n/a | YES |
| DITA map authoring (structure application provided) | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Tree-structured collapsible structure view | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Tags-on/tags-off view | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Drag and drop interface | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Edit referenced topics and maps by clicking topicref | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Visual notification of missing references | LIMITED | LIMITED | LIMITED | LIMITED | LIMITED | LIMITED | YES | YES |
| Create and edit relationship tables | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Open all referenced files in map | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Insert new topic as topicref | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Update all topicref labels in map | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Topicref label options (title, file name, or both) | NO | NO | ONLY IN RESOURCE VIEW | ONLY IN RESOURCE VIEW | ONLY IN RESOURCE VIEW | ONLY IN RESOURCE VIEW | YES | YES |
| Search for content in referenced files | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Generate a FM book (for search and spell check) that contains all referenced XML files | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Generate a report of all referenced files | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Generate a ZIP archive of files referenced by map | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES |
| Visual labeling of linking and collection-type attribute values | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Auto-open DITA map in document view | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Feature | FM8 | FM9 | FM10 | FM11 | FM12 | FM2015 | FMx 1.1 | FMx 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Create new topic or map based on type | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Automatically generate file name based on title text and building blocks | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Specify custom template for new topic or map | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Insert prolog data on file creation | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Create a DITA map and topic files from FrameMaker file | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| New DITA file from "File" menu | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Ability to overwrite an existing file on file creation | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Ability to create new topic folders based on topic type on file creation | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Feature | FM8 | FM9 | FM10 | FM11 | FM12 | FM2015 | FMx 1.1 | FMx 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Support for DITA 1.3 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | LIMITED model only |
n/a | NO |
| Switch between DITA versions without restarting FrameMaker | n/a | n/a | NO | NO | NO | NO | n/a | YES |
| Tree-structured collapsible structure view | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Tags-on/tags-off view | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Drag and drop interface | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Dynamic "conref" creation and management | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Support conref ranges | n/a | n/a | YES | YES | YES | YES | n/a | YES |
| Support coderef element | n/a | n/a | NO | NO | NO | YES | n/a | YES |
| Automatically assign IDs to required elements | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Dynamic "xref" creation and management | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Support xref and fm-xref | YES | YES | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Support imagemap development | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES |
| Support FM variables | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | LIMITED | YES |
| Support image “alt” text | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | LIMITED | YES |
| Automatically add author and date to draft-comments | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES |
| Auto smart-spaces | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Auto smart-quotes | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Context sensitive Help for element structure | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Limit the number of files opened when resolving references (results in faster reference resolving) | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Provide support for multiple selection of filtering attribute values | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Dynamic "link" (in related-links section) creation and management | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Strip XML padding from pretty-printed files | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Supports "pgwide" tables | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Properly round-trips column widths in simpletable and choicetable elements | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Automatically, insert/update prolog data on file save | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Determine where an element or topic is referenced (Where Used command) | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Validate manually updated ID attributes | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES |
| Convert conrefs to text | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Support index-see, index-see-also, and index-sort-as elements | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Provide custom management of index-see, index-see-also, and index-sort-as labels in index entries | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Support indexterms as markers and as a container (to allow for complex element nesting) | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Whitespace normalization for easier transfer between XML editors | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Support graphic overlay objects (callouts and "Frame-art") | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Support multiple marker types | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Support optional columns in properties tables | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Display only the available element types when inserting a conref or xref | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Support topic-based DTDs rather than "ditabase" if needed | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Supports inline tagging anywhere within codeblock | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES |
| Optionally use GUID IDs | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Automatically set the @status for new and changed elements | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Support separate sizing of images when rendered in FM vs. the DITA-OT | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Preserve forced line breaks | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Preserve table cell rotation | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Store document dictionary entries | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Restore previous view settings | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Integration with Bluestream XDocs CMS | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Feature | FM8 | FM9 | FM10 | FM11 | FM12 | FM2015 | FMx 1.1 | FMx 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Generate output from the DITA Open Toolkit | LIMITED Extra plugin needed |
LIMITED Extra plugin needed |
LIMITED Extra plugin needed |
LIMITED Extra plugin needed |
YES Integrated |
YES Integrated |
YES Integrated |
YES Integrated |
| Support for multiple DITA-OT environments | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Specify ditaval file for DITA-OT output | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES |
| Easy integration with DITA-OT | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Integrated ditaval file creation/management | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Feature | FM8 | FM9 | FM10 | FM11 | FM12 | FM2015 | FMx 1.1 | FMx 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Generate a single FM document from all topics in the map | YES | YES | NO | YES | YES | YES | NO | NO |
| Map to book (aggregates all topics into FM chapters for PDF output) | YES | YES | NO Creates separate FM files for each topic |
YES With proper setup |
YES With proper setup |
YES With proper setup |
YES | YES |
| Map to book output can be generated at any location in the file system | NO | NO | NO FM files are created in topic folders |
YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Support “per-project” control of generated book formatting and properties. | NO | NO | NO | NO All output uses the same INI file settings |
NO All output uses the same INI file settings |
NO All output uses the same INI file settings |
YES | YES |
| Apply filtering to generated book based on ditaval file | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Integrated ditaval file creation/management | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Generate related links from reltable | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Attribute values on topic referencing elements in map are passed on to topics in the generated FM files | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Option to move indexterms in prolog to topic title | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Automatically apply numbering and pagination to generated FM files | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Automatically generate FM lists (toc, index, etc.) from "booklist" files | NO | NO | NO | NO Added via INI file |
NO Added via INI file |
NO Added via INI file |
YES | YES |
| Automatically include FM binary files in generated book | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Option to move figure titles so they follow the image | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Use "real" FM table titles (for tables that wrap pages and include the Table Continuation variable) | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Support table row and cell shading | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES |
| Support table indenting based on parent element | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES |
| Automatically apply a custom template to each bookmap component | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Automatically run a custom FDK client or FrameScript during the book-build process | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Run pre and post book-build command line scripts | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Import attributes and metadata from map as variables and conditions | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES | YES |
| Add PDF metadata (PDF Doc Info) to generated book | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES |
| Apply change bars and other formatting based on the value of the @status attribute | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES |
| Apply master pages to generated files | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | YES |