FrameMaker goes beyond Word in extending your style control over graphic object styles. As with paragraphs, character tags and tables, FrameMaker provides a catalog for object styles, which can enable you to globally update the position or appearance of named anchored frames and graphics. This functionality empowers you to achieve consistency with graphic formatting just as you have always done with text formatting.

Many of us have been frustrated by how "slippery" the positioning of anchored frames can be in Word. FrameMaker 11 provides considerably more control. This video starts out with a bang, showing how you can easily generate a table of parts, views or animations (with auto-hypertext links) to a 3D graphics. The published PDF output provides an attractive, guided user experience. Discover how FrameMaker 11's new Object Styles allow you to name, then globally update the appearance or positioning of both anchored frames and graphic objects. Hotspots also allow you to create a link between a zone of a graphic and related text.

Although Word has a loose equivalent to user variables, this features is far easier and more straight-forward in FrameMaker 11. Unlike Word, no macros or arcane program strings are required. User variables are ideal for product names, company locations, designated staff members ... anything that is likely to change in your document. Simple actions allow you to globally update not only the content of variables, but their appearance as well. You can combine this feature with conditional text control, which allows you to swiftly "show" or "hide" different sections of text, tables or entire graphics that are associated with a certain version of your documentation. This allows a single set of source files to produce multiple versions of your documentation for various customers or internal content consumers. These features can be invoked with simple keyboard shortcuts while authoring, and you can import their values and setting from one document into an entire book!

Word's style catalogs don't obviously segregate text styles from paragraph styles. FrameMaker 11 provides simple, logical catalogs for paragraphs, character styles, table styles and even graphic object styles. In FrameMaker 11, not only can you globally update headings, lists and emphasized text, you can even change all instances of named tables, labeled anchored frames or graphic objects! This allows you a level of formatting control and document consistency amongst multiple authors you could have only dreamed of with Word. Warning: once you use these tools, there is no turning back.

FrameMaker 11 has graphic object properties, which behave somewhat like layers in InDesign. Confined to vector graphic shapes and anchored frames, they allow users to universally change all instances of certain anchored frames, text call-outs, or common shapes and graphic objects.