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FrameMaker 6.0 upgrade options

The dillemmas posed by V6.0 are:

A. For most people, the bundled WWP Standard (Lite) Edition isn't good
enough, which forces them to purchase the very expensive WWP 2000
top-of-the-line product. If you were satisfied with FM 5.5.6's HTML export
capability, you'll have to start all over again with WWP 2000 because the
built-in capability has been ripped out of version 6.0 (all of your work
done in 5.5.6 to produce HTML is lost) and replaced by WWP lite. The
alternative is to forget HTML and instead use FM+SGML to produce structured
documents that can be exported to XML using FM+SGML's built in capabilities
(which are superior to WWP 2000's XML capabilities). It's also intersting to
note that I can't find anything about the WWP Standard Edition anywhere on
the Quadralay web site.

B. If you are at all serious about producing PDF, you can't get by with just
Distiller (that's all that's bundled into the FM license), thus you need to
purchase a full Acrobat 4.0 license.

Here are the alternatives pricing scenarios for a Windows platform
(everything gets much more expensive for a Unix platform).

Prices are rounded off to the nearest $50 increment for simplicity. WWP 2000
pricing was obtained today from the Quadralay web site.

NOTE: The "International" version of WWP 2000 costs hundreds of dollars more
than the "regular" WWP 2000 version used in this cost analysis.

Case 1: You don't have FM, FM+SGML, WWP, or Acrobat, and decide to purchase
FM 6.0:
        FrameMaker license: $800
        WWP 2000 license:   $900
        Acrobat 4.0 license:$250
                          -------
                           $1950

Case 2: You don't have FM, FM+SGML, or Acrobat, and decide to purchase
FM+SGML 6.0 so you can produce XML (using FM+SGML's built-in XML export
capability) rather than HTML, thus you don't need WWP 2000, but you also
need Acrobat 4.0 for producing PDF.

        FM+SGML license:      $1400
        Acrobat 4.0 license:  $ 250
                            ---------
                              $1650
Case 3: You have FM 5.5.6, you want to upgrade to FM 6.0, you must upgrade
your current version of WWP to WWP 2000, and you must upgrade your Acrobat
licesne to Acrobat 4.0:

        FrameMaker 6.0 Upgrade  $200
        Upgrade to WWP2000      $600
        Acrobat 4.0 Upgrade     $100
                              --------
                                $900

Case 4: You have FM 5.5.6, you want to upgrade to FM 6.0, you don't have a
WWP license, and you need to upgrade your Acrobat license to 4.0:

        FrameMaker 6 Upgrade: $200
        WWP 2000 license:     $900
        Acrobat 4.0 upgrade:  $100
                            -------
                             $1200 

Case 5: You have FM+SGML 5.5.6 and you want to upgrade to FM+SGML 6.0
because you've decided you'll produce XML (using FM+SGML's built-in XML
export capability) rather than HTML, so you don't need WWP 2000, but you do
need to upgrade your Acrobat license to Acrobat 4.0

        FM+SGML 6.0 Upgrade   $350 (estimated)
        Acrobat 4.0 Upgrade   $100
                             ------
                              $450

Case 6: You have FM 5.5.6. You decide you'll purchase an upgrade to FM+SGML
6.0 and produce XML (using FM+SGML's built-in XML export capability) rather
than HTML so you don't need WWP 2000, but you also need to upgrade your
Acrobat license to Acrobat 4.0

        FM 5.5.6 to FM+SGML 6.0 Upgrade   $500 (estimated)
        Acrobat 4.0 Upgrade               $100
                                         ------
                                          $600

Case 7. You have FM+SGML 5.5.6 and you've been successfully using its
built-in HTML export capability. You realize that the built-in HTML
capability has been ripped out of V6.0, and you'll have to start all over
again with WWP 2000, which will cost you $900. So, you decide not to upgrade
to FM+SGML 6.0, but you will upgrade your Acrobat license to Acrobat 4.0: 

        Acrobat 4.0 Upgrade   $100
                             ------
                              $100

Case 8: You have FM 5.5.6 and you've been successfully using its built-in
HTML export capability. You realize that the built-in HTML capability has
been ripped out of V6.0, and you'll have to start all over again with WWP
2000 which will cost you $900. So, you decide not to upgrade to FM 6.0, but
you will upgrade your Acrobat license to Acrobat 4.0:

        Acrobat 4.0 Upgrade   $100
                             ------
                              $100

NOTE THAT:

1. Case 2 (Purchase FM+SGML 6.0 instead of FM 6.0) is cheaper if you're a
new buyer of Frame Products.

2. Case 6 (upgrade from FM 5.5.6 to FM+SGML 6.0) is the cheapest if you're
an existing license holder of FM 5.5.6.

3. Cases 7 and 8 (stand pat with V5.5.6 and just upgrade to Acrobat 4.0) are
the cheapest (and perhaps the most attractive) of all. If you decide to
stand pat with 5.5.6, you can probably get most of the new book-level
features by obtaining existing APIs or FrameScripts that are available on
the web. By standing pat, all the work you've done to successfully export
HTML using 5.5.6's built-in capability is preserved. This not only avoids
the license cost of WWP 2000, it also avoids all of the associated training
costs, tech support costs (Quadraalay has steep fees for tech support), and
all the development work in WWP.
        



     ====================
     | Nullius in Verba |
     ====================
Dan Emory, Dan Emory & Associates
FrameMaker/FrameMaker+SGML Document Design & Database Publishing
Voice/Fax: 949-722-8971 E-Mail: danemory@primenet.com
10044 Adams Ave. #208, Huntington Beach, CA 92646
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