[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next]
[Date Index] [Thread Index] [New search]

Re: FrameMaker Replacements

Our group was instrumental in creating and delivering an SGML, then an XML, solution for the writers in our division. We evaluated FrameMaker+SGML and ArborText with Epic. In the end, we decided upon FrameMaker+SGML (and now FrameMaker 7.0 Structured). ArborText cost WAAAAAY too much, was harder to use (because all of our writers were already familiar with FrameMaker), and there was not a clear conversion path from plain, unstructured FrameMaker to ArborText.

Our group had one dedicated engineer to develop the FrameMaker SGML/XML solution. As my manager was fond of saying, he "SDKd the h*ll out of it" using a FrameMaker developer's license. However, we can do a lot in FrameMaker now. The conversion process, while time consuming, was not difficult, and we've added a bunch of new features that our writers really like.

The other division is currently developing a solution in ArborText. I think it's been 2-3 years now. When I saw ArborText, I did like how powerful it was. But I don't think anyone's thought about a FrameMaker-less future.

-Robyn

balson wrote:

OpenOffice (OO) vs Frame. I did an evaluation and found OO to be lacking in several areas, and I'm not even a professional writer, although I do write as part of my profession.

2 things were killers for me when doing this comparison and both had to do with PDF creation.

- OO does not do PDF bookmarks (at least not in the version I am using)
- OO could create PDF files with clean graphics in them. Very unprofessional.

As an example of this, I have created a one page web site that provides examples of the bad graphics conversions when using OO.


	
	http://home.comcast.net/~xperf//frame/OO_vs_Frame.html


OO looks and feels more modern. But Frame just gives me more control with what I am working with. It was a no brainer to go with Frame.


Jim (long time listener, but this is my first post to the group)






X-Originating-IP: [161.58.11.94]
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 15:13:34 -0800
From: Chuck Hastings <cwh2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 0.9 (Windows/20041103)
X-Accept-Language: en-us, en
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Rick Quatro <frameexpert@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
CC: framers@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: FrameMaker Replacements
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mail-Loop: 1

Hello Framers,

My expertise is modest compared to that of many of you. I will report on my experience so far with
two authoring tools that I've recently tried out: Open Office 1.1, and LyX. Both are open-source
and may be downloaded FREE, and may not be well-known to Windows users.

Open Office, as I understand it, was originally developed by Sun but was released by Sun into the
freeware world as competition for Microsoft Word. It handled a 2Mbyte novel as a single file, quite
well, for me recently. It is much more like Word than like FrameMaker. It can deal well with .doc files
and with .rtf files, so there's more than one path from FrameMaker to Open Office and back. I'm
running it under Ubuntu Linux, a recent South African import (and also freeware) which is designed
to be friendlier and less geekoid than some other versions of Linux, and more similar in some ways
to Windows in its look and feel. Open Office has a somewhat different look and feel than Word, but
it can do most of the same things except for Word Count. It comes with a somewhat restricted set of
fonts, but (after some expert advice) I was able to greatly expand its fonts repertoire.

LyX is a more human-friendly/less-geekoid front end for LaTeX, which is in turn a more human-friendly/
less-geekoid front end for TeX (the typesetting program created by Donald Knuth). Shockingly, the
LyX community seems utterly ignorant of the existence of FrameMaker, and LyX tutorials are full of
annoying geekoid putdowns of Word and of WordPerfect. LyX is most of the way to word-processor
convenience, but not quite all the way; and an author's freedom is severely restricted with respect to
such matters as spacing, which the geekoid contingent touts as an ADVANTAGE!. On the plus side,
the LyX/LaTeX/TeX machinery WORKS. And it's very strong in its ability to handle math and equations.


My comments: I can foresee FrameMaker being thrust into the freeware domain by Adobe, as Open
Office was sent out into the world by Sun. I'd love to see Linux FrameMaker revived, and consider its
abandonment by Adobe to have been a classic business booboo comparable to VW abandoning the original
Beetle, AMC abandoning the Javelin, and now GM abandoning the Camaro. (All of these were cars with
a ferociously loyal cult following.)

Most of the things claimed by LyX partisans as extra capabilities, beyond those of Word and WordPerfect,
are things that FrameMaker DOES. The astonishing zero overlap between the FrameMaker community and
the LyX/LaTeX community is partly sociological; FrameMaker is largely used in the for-profit world, and
LyX/LaTeX is mostly (and very widely) used in academia.

But both Open Office and LyX/LaTeX do have two huge advantages: (1) They're FREE, and once you have
either of them no company can try to take it away from you. (2) They run under Linux, like Mozilla Firefox and
Mozilla Thunderbird which shield you against viruses and spyware incomparably better than do Windows and
Internet Explorer respectively.

The original question was about handling long documents. FrameMaker of course does this without even
breathing hard; I used it for most work on my novel, and I didn't even bother separating chapters into files
and using the slick FrameMaker 'book' feature. I realize that perhaps some of you may not consider a
2Mbyte novel as a 'long document,' but it's long enough to have occasioned some hiccups when edited using
Microsoft Word.


Chuck Hastings Vintage Silicon Logic, Seattle cwh2@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


=============================================================================


Rick Quatro wrote:



Hello Framers,

With the recent discussion about the future of FrameMaker, perhaps a
FrameMaker Replacements thread may be useful. Is anyone experimenting with
other long-document programs out there? Can you give any information on
pros, cons, features, etc., especially as they relate to FrameMaker?

One particular interest I have is how other programs support scripting and
automation.

Note that this post is not meant to be an anti-Adobe rant or to further
speculate on FrameMaker's future.

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing
585 659-8267
rick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.frameexpert.com


** To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxx **
** with "unsubscribe framers" (no quotes) in the body.   **






** To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxx **
** with "unsubscribe framers" (no quotes) in the body. **



-----------------------
Jim
balson AT comcast DOT net



** To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxx **
** with "unsubscribe framers" (no quotes) in the body. **



--
- Robyn
robyn.chittister@xxxxxxxxxx

*******************************
Robyn Chittister
Oracle DocTools
office: 925.755.3622
*******************************

The above are the opinions of one Robyn Chittister. Had they been the opinions of Oracle, the i's and g's would have been lowercase and italicized, and maybe some of the other letters would have been miXeD CaSE, italicized, and in Century Gothic, because the Century typefaces are renowned for their readability and the word Gothic is just plain cool.


** To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxx **
** with "unsubscribe framers" (no quotes) in the body.   **