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.
>I have decided on Framemaker for authoring and now
>need to purchase a graphics application. Although we
>have an illustrator here, he stays pretty busy doing
>Marketing stuff and I know I will need to create and
>tweak illustrations from time to time. I have used Corel
>Draw & Corel PhotoPaint in the past and am fairly familiar
>with them but am wondering how they compare to Adobe >Illustrator and Adobe PhotoShop, which I have
>never used.
As a FrameMaker fanatic, I applaude your choice of documentation
software.I assume that, in making your decision, you must have looked at
MS Word, so let me put it this way:
Corel Draw and Corel PhotoPaint are to Adobe Illustrator and Adobe
Photoshop what MS Word is to FrameMaker. Y
You can do many of the same things with the Corel products that you can
do with the Adobe products, and you can definitely produce professional
work. However, for me, the Adobe products are easier to use and allow
far greater depth of control.
Another important consideration: work from Illustrator, Photoshop and
PageMaker can now be imported between the three products reliably.
Images can even be dragged and dropped between Photoshop and Illustrator
(I'm not sure about PageMaker, since I haven't tried it). Eventually,
FrameMaker should be compatible with all three products, since Adobe is
moving towards a common interface in all its products. Not only would
the Adobe products be easier to use, but, if you ever new writers, they
could quickly learn all the software they need to know.
--
Bruce Byfield, Outlaw Communications
Vancouver, BC, Canada
(604) 421-7189 or 687-2133
bbyfield -at- axionet or bruce -at- dataphile-ca -dot- com
www.outlawcommunications.com (updated 1 May , 1998)
"Yours is the open road,
The bitter song, the heavy load
That I'll never share
Though the offer's still there,
Every time you turn around."
- Stan Rogers