Adobe Systems Incorporated announced the availability of Adobe FrameMaker 7.2 software, the latest version of its enterprise-class authoring and publishing software. Adobe FrameMaker has expanded support of Extensible Markup Language (XML) in its popular publishing solution for industries such as telecommunications, aerospace, semiconductor, government, finance, and information technology. Unlike standard word processing tools, FrameMaker gives users the ability to easily create, edit and publish valid XML content in full WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) mode.

“Adobe FrameMaker 7.2 now has more powerful XML capabilities, making it easier for our customers to streamline their unique workflow processes,” said John Brennan, senior vice president, Corporate Development at Adobe. “The new version delivers the features FrameMaker customers have been asking for and extends Adobe's advanced integration of XML across its publishing and design products.”

New features enhance the ability to author and publish technical manuals and other complex documents using structured data in an XML format while conforming to the business rules associated with the document’s substance. Users also gain an easier way to migrate from unstructured data to structured data, through an enhancement to a feature known as the "Conversion Table" that preserves character and paragraph styles. A new Unstructured to Structured Migration Guide included with FrameMaker 7.2 details the steps required to adopt an XML workflow.

New structured templates also give authors an instant starting point for documents. Templates include a sample application of Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), a XML-based architecture for authoring and delivering content, which organizes and integrates technical information.

XML Schema, a Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) standard for describing the structure of a document, is an alternative to Document Type Definitions (DTDs), which FrameMaker also supports. Users gain greater flexibility with new support for XSL Transformations (XSLT), which gives options for converting an XML document to another structure, allowing content to be reprocessed into new formats quickly and easily.

Technical publishers can use the new Multiple Undo feature to reverse edits such as Change Font and Import File. The History Palette lets authors view recent changes -- all in one spot -- and undo multiple edits with a single click. Also included with FrameMaker 7.2 is WebWorks Publisher Standard Edition 8.0 software from Quadralay which provides new, easy to use features for publishing to HTML, Palm Reader and other handheld formats.