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.
This has been fascinating. Here's my 2 cents.
Our staff began life 10 years ago as MS Word for the Mac users. Over the
past 18 months we have switched to PCs and Word 6, with one group using WP
6.1. We think that we have observed that
1. Neither WP nor Word offers a very reliable way to generate Tables of
Contents for multi-file docments. We have demonstrated that master
documents and cross references are not foolproof.
2. WP is more difficult to use for tables.
3. More incompatibilities between individual computers (files look and
print differently) and between computers and printers (fonts and formatting
change unexpectedly) arise on the WP side.
Would you agree? We generally work on 100-400 page documents, and I'm
fighting the temptation to immediately request Framemaker for everyone,
based on your comments.
Also, what do you recommend for database publishing (generating a report or
other document from a database)?