Re: Rumors of FrameMaker's Death are Untrue, says Adobe

[Darren Barefoot <dbarefoot -at- MPS-CANADA -dot- COM>]

Without opening up the beastly Word/Frame debate, here's my two cents on
intuitiveness:

Intuition: a. The act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of
rational processes; immediate cognition.

Denigrating familiarity in software design is, I think, ill-advised. MS Word
is intuitive, and more intuitive than FrameMaker, because it adheres to
Microsoft's standards for interfaces. If I've used Access, or Front Page or
any other (ubiquitous) Microsoft product, I intuitively understand how Word
operates. The very commonness of Microsoft's products makes them familiar
and thus intuitive. The icons, menus, ToolTips, online Help etc. are
generally consistent. The same can't be said for FrameMaker or any of the
Adobe products--each product has a different look, and, for example,
FrameMaker's help system is, to be gentle, irritatingly unique. Word's
dialog boxes are, simply put, better designed. Compare the Preferences
dialog box in Frame with the Options dialog box in Word. Which is easier to
use? Which provides more functionality?

Let's be honest. If you took somebody who'd never used a computer before and
offered them these two products, which one would they find easier to use?

I will admit that FrameMaker has certain advantages over MS Word.
Intuitiveness is not one of them. DB.

-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Huffman [mailto:tlhuffman -at- EARTHLINK -dot- NET]
Sent: Friday, May 21, 1999 11:28 AM
To:
Subject: Re: Rumors of FrameMaker's Death are Untrue, says Adobe


John:

As a long-time critic of software reviews, I wish that folks would avoid
using the
phrase "It's more intuitive." Typically, this means little more than "I'm
familiar
with it and I like it," which is not very useful for the rest of us. I, for
example,
do not find Word particularly intuitive.

*********

> One must recall  that tools such as Frame and Pagemaker used to be the
domain of
> the composition dept..  People who excelled in structure and formatting.
> The Technical Writers  role is to emphasis the document content.  The TW
is a
> project manger of sorts, who gathers  information, interviews subject
matter
> experts (SMEs), coordinates doc. reviews and art development.  In short,
TWs
> keep doc. development on track and team members on the same page.
>
> The more composition work we become involved in the  more all of the above
> suffers.
> Word wins in this example because it is more intuitive!
>
> "Deyo, Steve" wrote:
>
> > NOTHING approaches Word's market penetration (94 percent isnt it?)!
> >
> > Those who appreciate the niceties of doing a job well will always be in
a
> > minority compared to those who just "go with the flow"
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Richard Phillips [mailto:rgphill2 -at- mediaone -dot- net]
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 1999 7:52 PM
> > To: Ethier, Kay
> > Cc: 'Framers -at- frameusers -dot- com'
> > Subject: Re: Rumors of FrameMaker's Death are Untrue, says Adobe
> >
> > Possibly it is the case that FrameMaker will be kept alive but that
fewer
> > and
> > fewer goodies will be added to it since Adobe feels their software
> > engineering
> > resources might be deployed to better advantage elsewhere.
> >
> > It is a sad truth that the FrameMaker constituency never quite reached a
> > point
> > of critical mass where it would have begun to push MS Word off the
cliff. I
> > personally know of companies that shy away from using Frame because they
> > regard
> > it as a specialist's tool and hestitate to have their documents put into
> > Frame
> > becaue they cannot be certain that -1 year hence or 2 years hence- they
will
> > have a Framehead in the house to edit them.
> >
> > this is only a guess.  any comment?
> >
> > Dick Phillips
> > rgphill2 -at- mediaone -dot- net
> >
> >
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ----------------------
> >
> > Ethier, Kay wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Framers:
> > >
> > > Instead of us re-hashing the rumors continually, why don't you come
hear
> > it
> > > from the horse's mouth ...
> > >
> > > See bottom of ALL frameusers.com postings for the note about the
> > FrameUsers
> > > Conference?  Dr. John Warnock -- of Adobe -- is going to tell all of
us
> > the
> > > Future of Frame and Adobe.
> > >
> > > Come hear for yourselves -- if you can't come, ask Brad to tape it for
> > you!
> > >
> > > :-)
> > >
> > > Kay
> > >
> > > On Wednesday, May 19, 1999 4:31 PM, Rebecca Merck
> > > [SMTP:Rebecca -dot- Merck -at- OneSoft -dot- com] wrote:
> > > > I swear, I thought I sent a note in to the list about 20 minutes ago
> > about
> > > > this....  It's a conspiracy, I tell you!  :)
> > > >
> > > > I called Adobe.  They assure me that the elimination of FrameMaker
from
> > > the
> > > > Adobe product line is pure rumor, that they fully expect to support
the
> > > > product for YEARS, but the rumor is pervasive enough that if you
call
> > > them,
> > > > they have a documented response to read to you, there have been so
many
> > > > calls.  Currently, they have plans to do releases to support new and
> > > > upgraded operating systems, among other things.
> > > >
> > > > -Rebecca
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> >
_________________________________________________________________________
> > > >  (un)subscribe send an email to majordomo -at- FrameUsers -dot- com with
subject
> > of:
> > > >   Subscribe: subscribe Framers          Unsubscribe: unsubscribe
Framers
> > > >              subscribe digest Framers                unsubscribe
Framers
> > > >
> > > >     1999 FrameUsers Conference:
http://www.FrameUsers.com/conference/
> > > >      Dr. John Warnock Keynote on Adobe and the Future of FrameMaker
> > > >
> >
_________________________________________________________________________
> > >
> > >
_________________________________________________________________________
> > >  (un)subscribe send an email to majordomo -at- FrameUsers -dot- com with subject
of:
> > >   Subscribe: subscribe Framers          Unsubscribe: unsubscribe
Framers
> > >              subscribe digest Framers                unsubscribe
Framers
> > >
> > >     1999 FrameUsers Conference: http://www.FrameUsers.com/conference/
> > >      Dr. John Warnock Keynote on Adobe and the Future of FrameMaker
> > >
_________________________________________________________________________
> >
> >
_________________________________________________________________________
> >  (un)subscribe send an email to majordomo -at- FrameUsers -dot- com with subject
of:
> >   Subscribe: subscribe Framers          Unsubscribe: unsubscribe Framers
> >              subscribe digest Framers                unsubscribe Framers
> >
> >     1999 FrameUsers Conference: http://www.FrameUsers.com/conference/
> >      Dr. John Warnock Keynote on Adobe and the Future of FrameMaker
> >
_________________________________________________________________________
> >
> >
_________________________________________________________________________
> >  (un)subscribe send an email to majordomo -at- FrameUsers -dot- com with subject
of:
> >   Subscribe: subscribe Framers          Unsubscribe: unsubscribe Framers
> >              subscribe digest Framers                unsubscribe Framers
> >
> >     1999 FrameUsers Conference: http://www.FrameUsers.com/conference/
> >      Dr. John Warnock Keynote on Adobe and the Future of FrameMaker
> >
_________________________________________________________________________
>
>
 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=

--
Tom Huffman
tlhuffman -at- earthlink -dot- net


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=


 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=