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The best thing you can do is to convince your students to find an internship
program. That aside:
PageMaker is a tool for different purposes and different writing than
FrameMaker. While FrameMaker and PageMaker are excellent tools, marketeers
are not going to use FrameMaker because FrameMaker supports color poorly and
loosely-structured documents not as well as PageMaker and Quark. Technical
Writers can use any of the three tools, but it seems FrameMaker is quite
popular. I would *not* expect a PageMaker user to pick up FrameMaker quickly
without training and assistance, *especially* someone fresh out of school.
Remember, PageMaker and FrameMaker were developed by different companies,
Aldus and Frame Technologies, respectively, only to be bought out by Adobe.
They work quite differently and each has its own unique quirks.
However, for entry-level, I'd be willing to provide training in a specific
tool provided the candidate had the writing and language background and
skills. Is there anyone on the list who would *require* specific tool
knowledge plus skills of someone coming right out of school? (I admit, it
would be a bonus, or an edge.)
Indeed, now that I think about it, from a cost and tool standpoint, you
might be better off teaching your students how to make Word dance and sing
(master docs, autonumbering, style use, sections, header/footer, macros,
etc.). There are many T.W. departments that use Word for technical
publications.
As for web site design, I am unsure of the level you are teaching to.
However, consider making the students create HTML and JavaScript in
Notepad.exe before using a WYSIWYG environment--I would consider this
foundation a great plus! As for which WYSIWYG tool you pick: The market is
still in flux. Sure, Dreamweaver is a powerful HTML tool, as is GoLive. I
use HoTMetaL as well, and FrontPage is a very common tool . . .. In fact,
I'd consider teaching to FrontPage, given its ubiquity, WYSIWYG environment,
and basic code editing capabilities.
Anyway, testimonials: I have worked at five companies in ten years. Two used
Ventura, two used FrameMaker, and one I converted from Word to FrameMaker.
One was Mac/UNIX and the rest Wintel. At these companies, I never excluded
someone for lack of tool use, rather I was and am willing to provide
training on the tools to new employees who have the skills I want. For
low-color, technical documentation with repeating design elements,
cross-references, tables, and reference lists (like indices and TOCs), I
consider FrameMaker to be the most stable and worthwhile tool currently on
the market, with Ventura and Interleaf second.
I haven't used DreamWeaver but know it has an excellent reputation,
especially for artistic web sites. I do strongly recommend teaching a
commercially available WYSIWYG web-site development tool, be it any of those
I mentioned, after teaching the basics of the HTML standard via Notepad.
Again, this software market is very much in flux. I encourage you to look at
GoLive, but you could poll five developers and get five personal
preferences.
Hmmmm, I'm not sure that's what you're after. I meandered away from my
original train of thought, hope it helps.
Sean
sean -at- quodata -dot- com
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: Johndan Johnson-Eilola [mailto:johndan -at- PURDUE -dot- EDU]
>>>Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 1999 3:35 PM
>>>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>>>Subject: Testimonials Needed for Software Purchase
>>>
>>>
>>>I'm gathering testimonials about the value of experience using
>>>FrameMaker and Dreamweaver for students in an undergrad tech writing
>>>program. Here's the context: I'm attempting to convince our central
>>>admin people that students in tech comm classes need better software
>>>for document development and for website authoring than we currently
>>>have. Our current setup provides PageMaker and (gak) Netscape
>>>Composer as our primary packages for this work. Our students end up
>>>having to convince employers that their experiences with these
>>>programs will easily translate to FrameMaker and a higher-end wysiwyg
>>>package like Dreamweaver, although they're not always successful in
>>>making that argument.
>>>
>>>I've been told it would be very helpful in my quest to get funding
>>>for this purchase if I could gather testimonials from either
>>>employers or successful job applicants regarding experience with
>>>FrameMaker and Dreamweaver. In order to keep down traffic on the
>>>list, you can email directly to me <johndan -at- purdue -dot- edu>. I'll post a
>>>summary of responses if there's interest. (I'll also, BTW, be
>>>gathering comments from our own students and alumni, but I want to
>>>get as much material as possible.)
>>>
>>>
>>>Thanks,
>>>
>>>- Johndan Johnson-Eilola
>
