Adobe FrameMaker 12 is a really nice upgrade and in almost all respects a success. It's trite, but the coloured icons are almost the best part.
For the everyday user, being able to SEE a cheerful little difference is a small boost. Most importantly, of course, the user interface starts to resemble a modern Adobe interface with workspaces and palettes.
FrameMaker is an old behemoth and it's impossible to ignore the history of the programme when working with it on a daily basis. The menu structure and handling of formatting, printing, links, etc. show that the programme is from the time before Windows. A simple thing like link management is still complicated and works best when working with generated lists. Generated lists are a very powerful tool, but almost unknown to many users.
