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A lot depends on what you are using it for. I have found Word to be not
very well suited for large documents with lots of images or for
legal-type documents with complex numbering systems. FrameMaker is
better suited to those. However, if you are used to Word, there are some
limitations to FrameMaker, foremost being that it doesn't export to
Word. For reviews, I export it to PDF and people mark up the PDF copy
using its markup and comments facility. But that is more limited than
simply editing a Word document with track changes on.
Kay
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+kay -dot- robart=tea -dot- state -dot- tx -dot- us -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+kay -dot- robart=tea -dot- state -dot- tx -dot- us -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]
On Behalf Of Federico Viani
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 11:01 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Reasons to adopt FrameMaker
Hello,
I'm writing to this mailing list looking for pieces of advice about
publishing solutions for my high-tech company -- in the wireless field
-- in the hope to get unspoiled opinions from people who are actually
using the software, not just selling it.
We're used to write our documentation using MS Word, and publish it in
.pdf format. Documents' sources come from R&D (SME's) and we at Product
Management level roughly check it for structure, template and possibly
grammar. Then we 'distill' the .pdf and publish it on our intranet and
website. Future revisions might involve the Word 'track changes'
feature, and all exchanges are email based.
After the acquisition of another company's branch, we came across a
bunch of documentation which is in FrameMaker format and we are
wondering whether this could be a chance for us to adopt such a popular
tech writing tool, without actually grasping the real need of such a
solution in our scenario, except we're in a hurry of editing the new
documentation in a smoother way. Exporting techniques to .doc format are
being under inspection. The free ones at least, they don't seem to
provide a real method.
Irrespective of how we are going to solve our format issues, can anyone
point out good reasons for us to adopt such a tool?
We're a global company, we are growing and we'd like to be more and more
productive but still we're wary that it might get in the way.
Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days. http://www.doctohelp.com
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