Re: Framemaker??

[Marcy Baker Hartman <catguest -at- ISVPROG -dot- EBAY -dot- SUN -dot- COM>]

In article PAA21101 -at- ra -dot- cs -dot- ohiou -dot- edu, Lisa Steinberg <aa075 -at- ra -dot- cs -dot- OhioU -dot- Edu>
 writes:

?This may be a stupid question (maybe I'm just ignorant) but could folks
?please clue me in to the differences between Framemaker and Pagemaker?
?Quite awhile ago, I used Framemaker (or should I say, attempted to use)
?and I was not impressed.  It was difficult to use and not user-friendly by
?any stretch of the imagination.  I learned DTP with Pagemaker and I found
?that program, at the time, to be the best for DTP.  Even now, I use only
?Pagemaker for all my final document work.  It has a great indexing
?function, handles graphics very well, and even washes windows.  Has there
?been a *real* significant change in Framemaker to make it the number one
?choice among writers outside of the university setting?  The humanities lab
?where I went to school is even considering switching from Pagemaker to
?Framemaker and all I can do is ask "WHY?".

?Some informed opinion on this matter would be appreciated...Thanks!


Greetings, Lisa:

In answer to your post, yes FrameMaker is becoming the document creation
tool of choice of technical publications groups here in Silicon Valley.
I have been consulting for quite awhile now, and have only found one
job in the last few years that requested InterLeaf (they were converting
all their IL docs to Frame) and two using Word and PageMaker (they were
considering converting to Frame).

IMHO, FrameMaker is an outstanding book publication tool. It handles
graphics and formatting far better than any other product I've used to
date, although its learning curve is steep as you noted.

The absolute best thing I've found about FrameMaker is that it is
seamless across all platforms...That is to say, a document created in
FrameMaker on a Mac can be read (tags, formatting and all) on a UNIX
machine or DOS machine.  Also, we have been creating on-line documents
with HyperText links using FrameMaker for several years now, and from
what I understand from the programmers there is no conversion or
reprogramming necessary to HTML when you create the links in FrameMaker.

I believe that for the type of projects you describe PageMaker is okay.
But if your employer makes the commitment to FrameMaker, please make
sure that full employee training (beyond the basic one-day course) is
made a part of the package.  You will find that the indexing functions
and graphics handling capabilitites (all advanced features in Frame)
are outstanding once you know how to use them.

Hope this helps. 8^}

Marcy

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"When I think back to all the cr*p                     Marcy Baker Hartman
 I learned in high school, its a         Technical Publications Consultant
 wonder I can think at all."                           trillian -at- netcom -dot- com
 - Paul Simon -                              catguest -at- isvprog -dot- Ebay -dot- Sun -dot- COM
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