[Hidden-tech] Framemaker

[Linda Taylor]

Thank you Roger, for your comments. I am working on a text book that  
is rather graphic heavy so we are frustrated graphically.  It seems  
to me to work like tables on a website. As an illustrator and graphic  
designer I mostly see it's limitations. May I ask just what it does  
that inDesign does not? Many say it's better at authoring, but maybe  
I don't know what that means. I have also worked on large text books  
that seemed to work fine in inDesign. And yes, it is doubly  
frustrating that we need to use Windows to do this.




Linda Taylor
Taylor Graphics
413-628-3959
lintaylor at verizon.net



On Feb 9, 2009, at 11:11 AM, Roger Williams wrote:

>>>>>> Linda Taylor <lintaylor at verizon.net> writes:
>
>> Thank you for your comments on Framemaker. As I feared you just  
>> can't do a
>> lot of things I want to do. Although there are loyal users who  
>> value it
>> for long books, I think other layout programs are catching up and  
>> are more
>> commonly used by publishers...
>
> Amazingly, Framemaker is still the sole product Adobe suggests for  
> technical
> communication.  The irony is not lost on folks actually involved in  
> technical
> communication, who are still shaking their heads over Adobe's  
> decision to
> effectively kill FM five years ago when they decided not to port it  
> to OSX and
> dropped all other non-Windows platforms.
>
> Unfortunately, I have yet to talk to a technical writer who has  
> come up with a
> suitable alternative; if you want an app that will do both  
> authoring and
> publishing, like FrameMaker, there simply isn't one.  We've  
> evaluated inDesign,
> Ragtime, Papyrus, KWord, Mellel, and OpenOffice, and none of them  
> quite fit
> the bill.  For now, we're running Windows FM7 under Parallels (or  
> Wine), which
> is quite painful.
>
> I'd be very interested in hearing what solution other technical  
> writers -- and
> technical publishers! -- have come up with!
>
> -- 
> Roger Williams <roger at qux.com>
> Chief Technical Officer, Qux Corporation
> 433 West Street, Suite 8, Amherst, MA 01002, USA
> Tel +1 413 253-6400 * Fax +1 508 302-0230 * GSM +1 508 287-1420

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