Re: Summary: Using Word's Hidden Text as a conditional....

[RJACOBSE -at- GPS -dot- COM]

Roy Jacobsen -at- GPS
06/04/97 11:10 AM

 Without starting a religious war...

Moving to a different documentation tool opens up a major can of worms,
including, but not limited to:
* Cost
* Training for TW staff
* Compatibility with the doc tools of the rest of the company
* Pubs department processes and tools

In addition, there are the implications of moving the legacy documentation
set onto the tool. In our case, we're dealing with RTF files for WinHelp,
as well as paper documentation. I haven't heard anyone weigh in on the
merits of using Framemaker for producing WinHelp source.

NOTE: I am in no way disparaging the capabilities of Framemaker or those
who are using it. I am well aware that it is a powerful tool. But that's
not where we're at, and I don't think we can move to it painlessly or
quickly. If someone can prove me wrong, I'm listening.

Regards,
Roy Jacobsen
Editor
Great Plains Software
rjacobse -at- gps -dot- com
 Date   : 06/04/97 10:42 AM
 To     : TECHWR-L @ LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU
 cc     :  (bcc: ScribeTribe)

 From   : kmarsh @ EARTHLINK.NET

 Subject  :    Re: Summary: Using Word's Hidden Text as a conditional....
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RJACOBSE -at- GPS -dot- COM wrote:
>
> Roy Jacobsen -at- GPS
> 06/04/97 10:41 AM
>
> Here's a summary that's way overdue. Some time ago, I posted the
following
> query to WINHLP-L and TECHWR-L:
>
> > We're using MS Word and dealing with a large doc set (printed and
online)
You could save hours of heartache and aggravation if you used
FrameMaker. It's worth bugging your boss about, believe me. Word isn't
designed for publishing large volumes of documentation and in my
opinion, is a pain in the royal you-know-what for writing documentation.
just my two cents,
Kathy
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