Re: InDesign and Frame

[Tom Regner <tom_regner@xxxxxxx>]

Here in the Silicon Valley, any technical writer worth his or her
salt has to know FrameMaker, and know it fairly well.  Nearly all
companies, big or small, are currently using FrameMaker for
their manuals.  Sure, there is some resistance within some
Engineering environments, for example, where the need for
robust, large-document software is poorly understood, but
in such cases I simply send them the "Word-vs-Frame" PDF
file that someone pointed to on these list some months back
and it invariably stops the argument in its tracks.

As with any major software, the people who learn it will creeb
and complain about its shortcomings, but let's face it, there is
no substitute for FrameMaker, and from what I gather, Adobe
knows this.  It might not be the cash cow they'd hoped for,
but that's partly a marketing problem in that Adobe seems
reluctant to compare FM directly with other document
creation programs, especially the Fisher-Price inspired
MS Word.

Two steps forward, one step back.  'Twas ever thus.

In the meantime, any technical writer around these parts
who goes online or searches ads for writers from any source
will see FrameMaker expertise as an ubiquitous prerequisite
for gainful employment.  That can't be a bad thing, can it?

-- Tom

(A copiously edited) Kevin McLauchlan wrote:

>         I'm currently using FrameMaker for exactly one reason:
>         Before this little company decided they needed a full-time
>         techy writer, their most frequently contracted writer happened
>         to use FM.
>
>         That's it.  Period.  If not for that, I'd be using Word and asking
>         for Ventura. FrameMaker is practically an underground cult fetish,
>         invisible to those who don't already know the passwords and
>         the secret handshake.
>
>         Given the intensity and visibility with which Adobe markets all
>         its other products, the FrameMaker vacuum is absolutely
>         pregnant with meaning.  The inescapable conclusion to draw,
>         from the fact that one needs to DIG to find mention of Frame
>         on the Adobe web site, is that we should all be stepping up our
>         efforts to find a replacement/successor product.  FM version 6
>         is an unlikelihood, looking for a place not to happen.


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