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1) The use of CorelDRAW! should not preclude your DTP application
choice. That is, if the majority of your work (>50%) is done in
CorelDRAW, then I see why CorelDRAW! carries such weight. If, as I
suspect, your DTP application is where you spend most of your time, then
I'd care more about carefully choosing it than accessory software. ID
should be able to accommodate output from CorelDRAW!
2. Understood. Even PM 7 is dated. However, neither PM nor ID are
appropriate for long docs. FrameMaker would have been better considered
than ID.
3. Your arguments against FM are invalid. FM has no steeper learning
curve than Ventura. Adobe has shown nothing but commitment to continued
future releases of FrameMaker. Replaced by ID? Those apps do different
things. PM might be replaced by ID, but not FM. And, if there is a
replacement one day, there will be an upgrade path. You got way bad info
here.
4. There really is no turmoil in the DTP industry. I mean, Microsoft
changing the RTF for WordXP is as much turmoil as you see in the DTP
industry. After 4 years, Corel released Ventura 10. After two years, and
on schedule, Adobe released FrameMaker 7 and continues to develop maybe
an interim release and also FM 8. PageMaker has been updated to 7+ and
InDesign continues to be updated, as does Quark.
Good luck with Ventura. I'd appreciate a review of it's capabilities,
features, and stability. Also, what's the best way to get to HTML Help
with it, via RTF?
Sean, I initially looked at InDesign. However, I'm already using
CorelDraw
for the illustrations ... so using Ventura seems like the perfect
software
to combine illustrations with text.
I have to say ... that wasn't the only reason! Some of the features
within
PageMaker (6.5) are so pathetic, it started my hunting around for a
better
DTP. That reason alone, would have made shelling out for another Adobe
DTP
product, impossible to justify. In addition, I couldn't convince myself
that
InDesign was not aimed at magazine layouts (somewhat like 'Quark'). That
might be an unfair view of InDesign - but since most of my work revolves
around creating manuals, I couldn't take a chance with deciding on
purchasing it.
However, there is no question - I would have liked to have gone with
FrameMaker (my first choice) - because of it's venerable position within
the
DTP field. Unfortunately, it was ruled out because of the steep learning
curve, and Adobe's somewhat uncommitted attitude towards future
releases. We
had to decide what DTP to stay with, and I would have had a difficult
time
explaining (after purchasing the full version of FM) why we would commit
to
software that will (as rumored to be) one day replaced by InDesign.
I'm glad my boss is not completely aware of what seems to be turmoil in
the
DTP market, otherwise he might have chosen to stay with MS Word, or
PageMaker ... and waited out the storm (something I considered doing).
:-O
I hope no one sees my opinions of InDesign, as unfair or biased.
Also, Just received Ventura 10 today, :-) ... So I will definitely take
the
advice, about authoring in Ventura. Especially if it will make life
easier
(compared to my current text editor - MS Word).
Lastly ... just want to say thanks to those of you who offered
suggestions,
and also for taking the time to provide some 'Links' and the directions
to
the Ventura 10 news-group for more info.!
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