Re: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.

["Paul Pehrson" <paulpehrson -at- gmail -dot- com>]

I recently had to make the InDesign/Frame decision, and I agree with what
Joe said.

For my company's needs, Framemaker is a better solution than InDesign for
the following reasons:

1. Cross-Reference capability. Framemaker allows me to cross reference to
other locations in my book file, and updates the text and page numbers as
they re-flow. So, if I'm documenting Widget X, but I want my users to refer
to other documentation on Widget Y, I can enter some conditional text that
will say "For more information on Widget Y, see <heading> on <page>" and
Frame replaces <heading> with the heading I specify, and it replaces <page>
with the page that heading is found on. When that heading moves to a
different page, the cross reference updates automatically. InDesign does not
provide this functionality.

2. Conditional Text. Framemaker does a good job with conditional text. This
is something you might really appreciate, since you have 16 guides with
basically the same content. Using conditional text, you tag text for a
specific condition. At my company, we produce our guides for some government
contracts, and for some private sector clients. In my government docs, I
have to include their contract number on the back of the title page. I have
this marked as conditional text. When I print a government version, I set
that condition to "visible" and it prints. When I am printing for the
private sector, I set the government condition to "hidden" and the
government contract information doesn't print. It's only one guide, but I
basically have two different outputs from it.

With your guides, you could have 16 conditions; The text they all share in
common is not marked conditionally. The text that appears in only one
version you mark with a condition. Then when you get ready to print, you
just hide the conditions you don't want to see. One guide with 16 different
outputs. Very powerful functionality that InDesign doesn't have.

3. Running Headers and footers. My company style guide dictates that the
heading level 1 should always appear in the footer of verso pages. My
heading level 2 should always appear in the footer of recto pages. With
Frame, I can set this up. As pages re-flow, the footers are updated
automatically. With InDesign, I would have to set up these footers manually
for every page. If my document re-flowed at the last minute, I'd have to go
back in and re-check every page to ensure my heading levels were
appropriately reflected in the footers.

4. Variables. Framemaker allows me to use variables. I have the company name
and the product name and the product version as variables. Every time I
reference the company, product, or version, I update the variable once, and
it is changed for the whole file I'm working with. I can then import the
variable into the other book chapters. Change it in one place and then
import. No more hunting through all pages of the documentation simply to
change the version number of the product.

Based on these four reasons, I decided to go with Framemaker for my
technical publications. Is InDesign a great product? Sure. It just isn't the
tool that best fits my needs at my current employer. These four areas were
deal breakers for me, and there are ways that Frame blows InDesign out of
the water.

If you are more interested in a great layout tool, go with InDesign. If you
are more interested in a tool designed for technical publication, I suggest
you give serious consideration to Framemaker. Especially if any of the four
features listed above are "must-haves" for you.

Best wishes. Hope you make the right decision for your company's needs.

-Paul Pehrson


On 9/6/06, Joe Malin <jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com> wrote: