TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Actually Word, in my experience is NOT used for large documents but instead,
smaller pieces of large documents.
Gosh, I miss WordPerfect 5.1. FrameMaker is a very good alternative to
large document management and development if you intend to keep those
documents large.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Byfield [mailto:bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 1:09 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Subject: Re: Dual-Platform Documentation Software
"Gerald R. Posey" wrote:
>
> I've searched the archives and I have not found exactly what I am looking
> for. Does anyone know of a software package for developing documentation
> that will run on Linux as well as Windows. I am currently using
FrameMaker
> 6 on Windows but I am not tied to this for future development. I have
also
> tried Star Office 5.2, works on both platforms but does not work for
large
> projects. Should I pursue an additional copy of FrameMaker 6 for
> Linux/Unix? Should I work with Star Office a little more? Or, should I
try
> something new like OpenDoc or concentrate on html, xml, etc.? Questions,
> questions, questions :-/
First, some bad news: The beta of FrameMaker 5.5.6 for Linux expired
at the end of 2000.
You're right that StarOffice isn't much good for large documents,
but the same is true of MS Word, and that doesn't stop people from
using that tool. You should be able to work around the shortcomings.
Other programs to consider are WordPerfect for Linux and Applixware
Words. Chilliware's iceSculptor is an interesting attempt at a
WYSIWYG XML editor, but it's not ready for documentation work;
believe it or not, despite being based on XML, it doesn't even have
styles.
Having batted this question around for some time, I have found that
the easiest solution is an XML or SGML one. Either one is both
platform and tool independent.
Of course, "easiest" is a relative term, since you still have to
setup a DTD (I suggest using a sub-set of DocBook) and style sheet.
<snip>
IPCC 01, the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference,
October 24-27, 2001 at historic La Fonda in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
CALL FOR PAPERS OPEN UNTIL MARCH 15. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
