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I've been reading the (mainly positive) posts concerning Interleaf with
interest. When I first started using Ileaf6 two years ago, it took a
month just to install it successfully. It then crashed intermittently
when faced with such momentous tasks as printing out documents over 100
pages. It still does. A UNIX problem? Not according to my system
administrator.
The Ileaf6 interface got a lot of flak from Ileaf5 users. I think I know
why. It is terribly clumsy and the icons are tiny. You have to search
through multiple menus to accomplish simple tasks. I also find that
master documents (like Framemaker Master pages) fail to do what they're
supposed to.
Amazingly, you have to write your own Lisp code (or download some
pre-written code from Ileaf) just to be able to count the number of
words in a document, or to search more than one document at a time. This
may not seem like a big deal until you realise that each technical doc I
write is produced within what Ileaf calls a book, with each section
actually a separate doc. Imagine not being able to search or change
across an entire document. Great stuff.
Having said that, it's definitely powerful and preferable to Word, but
hey. I've just started learning Framemaker and this seems like an
infinitely superior package. Still, maybe this is all down to my
operating system or hardware or whatever. Doubtful though, since I used
to post to the Ileaf newsgroup with reoccuring problems and quickly
learnt that I wasn't alone.
Oh yeah, it also cost 10 grand. Were we ripped off or what?!
