Re: another framemaker question

["Brierley, Sean" <Brierley -at- QUODATA -dot- COM>]

Hallo:

FrameMaker does not export to Word. FrameMaker has a way of doing long
documents that is so different from Word that many features would not cross
between packages. If you want to share FrameMaker documents with Word-folk,
send PDF. Checkout http://www.blueberry.com for the Filtrix product, which
might be the exception that proves my rule.

I have been in your situation twice. Both times, the decision makers were
looking at short term costs and were not limiting their scope to technical
documentation. In defense of such decision makers, Word does claim a lot of
features: autonumbering, highly customizable templates, master documents
feature, WYSIWYG, etc. The truth is that Word is really not aimed at the
market these features support so these long, complex, technical document
features might not work as robustly or entirely in the way advertised. On
the other hand, for a lot of reasons, Word makes sense: it is a global
product, it is readily supported by import and export filters, it has a neat
macro language, it is supported well by the HTML and on-line help industries
. . ..

I lost the DTP app versus Word argument in one case and won in the other. My
advice is to explain how Word fails to meet your needs and how your DTP
application addresses your needs. Explain how Word users can see your
documents (PDF/RTF), explain how other users might not need to edit or
revise your stuff, and suggest that the DTP application might offset the
costs of purchase and training in the long term. Research the archives of
this list for info (for example, I found a whitepaper on why use
FrameMaker: http://www.simplywritten.com/wpx.htm).

You might find that it is now too late to implement a new DTP application
for projects as close as a couple of months. Word 97 will make a 500page
book that is indexed, TOCed, and contains graphics. Perhaps doing this once,
and documenting the difficulties, rework, and lost time, is the only way out
for you.

Good luck and happy hunting.

Sean
sean -at- quodata -dot- com

>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: Gil Yaker [mailto:gyaker -at- CSC -dot- COM]
>>>Sent: Monday, March 01, 1999 3:21 PM

>>>Subject: another framemaker question
>>>
>>>
 From everything I've
>>>read, this sounds
>>>like a job for Framemaker. Unfortunately, someone in the
>>>documentation
>>>department said that he tried to get Framemaker as a
>>>standard tool here a
>>>few years ago, but was hit with resistance. As it is, all
>>>documents must
>>>now be delivered in MS Word format.
>>>I'd like to know if framemaker has an Export-to-Word
>>>feature. If it does,
>>>how solid is the implementation? Has anyone else been in a
>>>situation like
>>>this, and what have your experiences been.
>>>
>>>TIA
>>>Gil Yaker


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