RE: WWP in Frame 6.0

["Sarah O'Keefe" <okeefe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Dan-
>
>I just came back from WinWriters last week. Someone (her name escapes me)
>kept beating the "single-sourcing" drum with FM and Web Works Publisher.
>Personally, I was not impressed.

Hmmmm. That was probably me.

>FYI, I write and publish hardcopy manuals and several flavors of online
>help. I also create a lot of corporate intranet content. Based on what this
>person kept telling me, I saw no compelling reason to use FM as my HTML
>authoring environment.

If it was my presentation, then I pointed out that it doesn't make any
sense to use FM as a help authoring tool....unless you have print-based,
FM-based content that you also need to deliver online. If you don't have
this requirement, then by all means use a dedicated HAT.

> I'll stick with FrontPage and RoboHELP. IMHO, the
>presenter was completely oblivious. She kept saying "how easy it was" to do
>use FM/Web Works, then would immediately counter with half a dozen caveats
>and gotchas.

Hmmm. That doesn't sound like me. I make a living providing training and
consulting services for these products and I certainly don't think that
they're easy to learn.

>I've noticed something about *most* FM users (especially the more old school
>mil spec folks)... they typically want everything to be
>"FrameMaker-centric." I believe this explains why the FM add on market is so
>robust. I would strongly encourage any FM users who need to author online
>help and web pages to use a tool that is better suited to that task. Yes,
>there will be a learning curve but it will be worth it. FM is *not* the
>end-all be-all tool for every writing task on the planet.

Again, if you do not have a print requirement, then I agree.

Incidentally, if anyone else on this list was at my presentation, I'd
appreciate some (off-list) feedback on whether Mike's assessment of my
point is widespread--because if so, I have some "issues" to work on.

Sarah

*************************************************************
Sarah O'Keefe  Scriptorium Publishing Services, Inc.
okeefe@scriptorium.com              919-481-2701 x13
FrameMaker for Dummies: http://www.scriptorium.com/books.html
Advanced WWP training: http://www.scriptorium.com/advwwp.html



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