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Subject:Re: FrameMaker and MS Word From:dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sun, 13 Jan 2002 10:02:15 -0800
Sherri B wrote:
>
> I've been thinking about Frame because lots of our documents go
> over 150 pages and Word tends to throw up when it gets to that size.
Horse feathers. We publish manuals with hundreds of pages and dozens of illustrations using nothing but Word 2000 (on Windows 98 Professional and Windows 2000 Professional).
I've done the same back to Word for Windows 2.0, more than a decade ago.
You just have to know what you're doing.
The problem is that people think everything should be EASY because anyone can use Word. With Framemaker, you pay so much for the software that only professional writers use it, and no one EXPECTS to be able to use it without training and a huge "get-acquainted" period.
>
> If I go with Frame, can I import my documents and reasonably
> retain stuff? (ie formatting, images, diagrams)? What about
> exporting them back to Word - is this possible? I'm concerned
> about becoming a stand alone unit that no one can interface with -
> I also don't want to be the only one that able to update documents.
You can bet that *something* will be lost on each translation.
>
> There's no way they will buy multiple documents for all the
> architects who also write their own documentation, so I'm stuck
> being the only one with it.
Ease and success of document exchange, savings of time and money--just two of most obvious reasons to learn how to use the tool you've already got, rather than spending hundreds of dollars on a new tool that will only isolate you from the rest of the company.
In fourteen years as a tech writer, I've used Framemaker twice, but *never* seen a document that couldn't have been created in Word...or WordPerfect or Ventura Publisher or troff, for that matter. It isn't the tool, but the knowledge with which it is wielded.
--David
=============================
David M. Brown - Brown Inc.
dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com
=============================
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