Re: Quark Express and FrameMaker

[Wil Gaffga <wil -at- GIBBSCAM -dot- COM>]

Greetings All,

I am in the minority here but here goes...

Hi, my name is Wil and I'm a Quark XPress user. I've been using Quark XPress
for six years now. I started off in graphics and worked my way to Tech
Writing. I'm trying to kick the habit but haven't been able to yet.

I completely agree that earlier incarnations of QXP are damned difficult to
work with for long docs. The current version (4.0x) does an acceptable job.
But only if your target is print or PDF. Do not expect to get any HTML or
help files from it. (Quark is working on that but their attempts thus far
are pitiful). If you want beautifully laid out books or small documents. QXP
is the way to go. FrameMaker does not have the same graphics capabilities as
QXP, no two ways about it. But that is the only advantage QXP has over
Frame. That is why I am looking at moving to Frame.

I can understand the graphics person's NEED for QXP. He or she DOES need it.
PageMaker is not as good, unfortunately. If David works for a small company
I can see the argument for the Designer and Writer using the same tools ...
$, easily transfer data. The company I work for is using QXP because the
Marketing people used to write the manuals (Scary!) and that was the best
tool at the time.

So, it could be argued (futilely) that David's employer could purchase only
Quark. It could work, it does work, it just doesn't provide all the answers
to all the questions. If you are only going for print and PDF ... sure. If
you want more, get both Frame and QXP.

Just my thoughts...

Wil Gaffga
wil -at- GibbsCAM -dot- com

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