Desktop Publishing programs?

[Melissa Hinds <mhinds -at- CCD -dot- HARRIS -dot- COM>]

Good afternoon.  I'm new to this list so I apologize in advance if this
topic has been discussed in-depth before.

My company is considering moving from  Framemaker 4.0/UNIX to Word
97 on PC.  Our documentation is extremely large, the smallest being 200+
pages to the largest at 1500+ pages, and contains .xwd graphics (screen
dumps), and extensive tables and line drawings. This move is being
considered primarily because of our inability to get international Frame
licenses and support from Adobe.

However, from my own experience as well as advice from others, Word cannot
handle such large documents, the conversion process will be long and tedious,
and "Word 97 is as buggy as a summer night in Louisiana."

My questions are, what word processing programs are the best at handling such
large documents and the best to work with?

Do these programs have excellent technical support (unlike
Adobe)?

Is Word 97 really as unreliable for documentation purposes I've been
hearing?

Please respond to me privately.

Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me.

Melissa

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
  Melissa A. Rios                    GE-Harris Energy Control Systems
  Technical Writer                   P.O. Box 430, M/S 205
  407-242-5366                       Melbourne, Florida 32935-0430
  mhinds -at- ccd -dot- harris -dot- com              Fax: 407-242-4453
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html