RE: The case against M$ Word

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Chris Morton quoted himself:

> > Like I tried to imply, this isn't a Boeing or Exxon. It's a small
> > enterprise with moderate needs, where a tool such as FM would be
total
> > overkill.

Well, it's not a bad idea to use what you're familiar with, and you said
that was ID, so have at it. 

But, all other things being equal (IMHO), a "small enterprise with
moderate needs" doesn't need sophisticated graphics placement and
design-intensive, page-by-page layout. It needs a _document-oriented_
tool, not a _page-oriented_ tool, so that the tech writer spends more
time on content and less on tweaking pages. 

> > And as has been noted, Adobe's lack of attention to FM, coupled with
> added
> > muscle in IDCS4, would serve to indicate that ID is the future
direction
> of
> > these tools AFA Adobe is concerned.

That's absolutely false. As several of us have pointed out, significant
development work went into FM 8 and the new Technical Publishing Suite,
and work on major upgrades of both is proceeding apace as we speak. 

I'm growing pretty tired of the recurring claims (every few months for
years now) that FM is dead/dying -- in the absence of any evidence
thereof and in spite of significant evidence to the contrary. 

Harrumph! ;-)

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------






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