Re: FrameMaker vs. PageMaker

[Romay Jean Sitze <rositze -at- NMSU -dot- EDU>]

On Wed, 20 Sep 1995, Charlene Wolff wrote:

> Now that the Word vs. Frame debate has come to a close, I would like to
> open a new arena.  My company is currently running both FrameMaker and
> PageMaker to produce documentation, and my boss would like to support
> only one. The battle lines have been drawn between the two sides and we
> are in a deadlock. I am hoping that I can get some objective opinions
> about the benefits of each program.

I love both programs--but for different purposes. Before trying to take
any kind of stand for one or the other, I would want to know more about
the relative arguments your people are dealing with.  Since each program
has specific strengths, I would need to weigh the relative needs to see
where it would be easiest to compromise on the differences.

I much prefer to work with PageMaker for brochures and many other
marketing pieces.  However, there are some distinct advantages to using
FrameMaker for longer documents, manuals, etc.

I might add that I haven't had the opportunity to work with the latest
version of FrameMaker, so I don't know whether it would meet the
challenges that PageMaker has offered in the past in terms of document
design ease.

Given the expense of keeping up with current updates in
these major packages, I can understand the reluctance of your boss to
support both. I guess the question that would have to be answered is
which need would be easiest to adapt to the other forum.

        RoMay Sitze,  rositze -at- nmsu -dot- edu