Re: Multiple search windows...

[Dov Isaacs <isaacs@xxxxxxxxx>]

Glen,

As hopefully you are aware, I am not part of Adobe's FrameMaker
development, marketing, sales, or support teams. Lee Richardson,
who does monitor this forum, manages the FrameMaker development
team. I sure he will have seen your post.

        - Dov



At 8/23/2002 12:09 PM, Glenn Maxey wrote:
>Hi Dov,
>
>Here's an enhancement to FrameMaker that I mentioned in the past, but
>want to bring up again because the usability problem still bothers me
>BIG TIME. Could you please add it to the list of enhancement requests?
>
>REQUEST:
>
>Allow for and support multiple Find/Change windows. Each time you hit
>Ctrl+F or otherwise lauch the Find/Change, you get a new window. This
>way you can establish multiple search(/replace) criteria one time and
>have them available for as long as the windows are open.
>
>Even if you limited it to a maximum of two or three search windows, it
>would be 100% superior than just one. Although the windows would be
>equivalent in what they could do, users would probably most frequently
>use one to search for text and the other to search for things.
>
>[If you limit the number of windows to, say, three, Ctrl+F can serve to
>launch new Find/Change windows until the maximum is reached; thereafter,
>it round-robins through each Find/Change window.]
>
>REASON:
>
>Because searching for paragraph formats, character formats, paragraph
>tags, ..., special tags uses the same Find/Change window as does
>searching for normal text, the GUI becomes error prone and cumbersome.
>
>Specifically, in order to look for anything, you have to establish both
>what type of tag you're looking for through a drop down and some
>identifying text by entering it (even if it's wild cards).
>
>A frequent error is when I decide that I need to look for specific text
>in the document after having looked for a tag (like a token or
>Unresolved Cross-Reference). I change the identifying text and forget to
>change the type of tag in the drop-down. True, immediately getting the
>message that it wasn't found often clues me in. However, almost as
>often, it doesn't. "Did I spell it right? Should I change the case? Is
>there leading or trailing space? Or is it really not in the
>document/book?" 
>
>More common, a set of books will require several changes. Each change
>requires looking for something specific.
>
>- Sometimes it is more efficient to look for one thing across a set of
>documents or books; then you change the search parameter and make
>another pass through the documents or books. Although efficient from
>FM's perspective, this is not always efficient from a writer's
>perspective.
>
>- Sometimes it is more efficient to completely modify a document/book
>(implying multiple passes on the document with different search
>parameters), before moving onto the next document/book. This is where it
>gets really tedious re-establishing search(/replace) patterns.
>
>
>The point is, FrameMaker shouldn't make it so easy for me to screw up
>and generate error messages. It shouldn't be putting stumbling blocks
>and usability quirks in my way for things that I do frequently. Things
>that I do frequently are:
>
>[*] Search(/replace) text in the document/book.
>[*] Search for tags (formats, unresolved references, etc.) in the
>document/book.
>[*] Look for one string in one document, while looking for another
>string in another document.
>
>I do them so frequently, that I often do them in rapid sequence. It gets
>to be a real pain changing search settings. I find myself adapting my
>thought process or work flow to match the limitations of the tool. Well,
>here is one case where the tool should be adapted to match the thought
>process and improve the work flow.
>
>Having two or three search(/replace) windows would be a huge stride in
>improving FrameMaker's usability and reducing pilot error.
>
>
>
>Glenn Maxey
>Technical Writer
>Voyant Technologies, Inc.
>1765 West 121st Avenue
>Westminster, CO 80234-2301
>Tel. +1 303.223.5164
>Fax. +1 303.223.5275
>glenn.maxey@voyanttech.com


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