TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
We recently have converted to Frame from Interleaf, for a number of reasons
- Cost: to the best of my knowledge Interleaf still isn't doing site
licensing
- Online capability: Frame's ability to automatically generate hyperlinks
is worth the price of admission alone. Being part of the Adobe family makes
it even more attractive, as we look to the Web for delivery of materials.
- Performance: Frame is faster, especially for generating TOCs and printing
- Support: We find the folks on the West Coast (Frame/Adobe) much more
responsive than those in Mass.
- Attitude. My impression is that Interleaf is the stuffy Caddy, Frame
drives more like an well-engineered import
- Cross-platform. Frame released all platforms at the same time. Interleaf
usually dragged on the PC/Mac versions.
At the same time, I give Interleaf higher points for
- a complete desktop environment
- better file management
In its day, Interleaf introduced WYSIWYG processing of long documents to
the high-end tech pubs market. But it shows its age. As a later arrival,
Frame was able to leapfrog Interleaf in performance and capability.
Ben Hechter
Northern Telecom
Vancouver B.C.
Coming to you from (relatively) litigious-free Canada, where we don't use
corporate disclaimers.