Re: Justifying FM (was About The Cloud: Quick-Read Suggestions)

Subject: Re: Justifying FM (was About The Cloud: Quick-Read Suggestions)
From: "William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2013 22:12:03 -0400

You don't say, but I bet the options at the time of the previous writer were Word or FrameMaker.

If you want everyone to mess with your document, you use Word. If you want to maintain control, you use FrameMaker.

I cannot count the number of times I have had to repair manuals that were final release ready because someone reviewing them decided to make a change using their normal template and mess up the styles.

Now I believe your desire to use InDesign is a secondary issue, and not part of the issue that the previous writer faced. So the real question is, should I stay with FrameMaker which the company is using or should I convince them to drop it and go with InDesign.

Since I haven't used InDesign, I can't comment on the advantages of FM over InDesign or the advantages of InDesign over FM.

I can say that it has been a rare event for me to get a company to change the documentation tools to what I wanted. Unless you can come up with a very good business reason, I doubt you will get them to just dump FM.


----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Morton" <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Friday, April 05, 2013 4:53 PM
Subject: Justifying FM (was About The Cloud: Quick-Read Suggestions)


Thanks again for all who replied. It was a bit of fire hose, but then what
did I expect? Good stuff!

My next question pertains a small startup and their very basic
documentation. Their former techwriter used FrameMaker, which truly seems
to be overkill for their needs. I think it may have been initially chosen
because that's what the engineering veep thought was required for "real"
documentation. He doesn't use it himself. Or perhaps the original
techwriter (who I'm doing to replace) chose it because it thought it would
impress, or else he just wanted to be able to put that on his resume. Who
knows?

I last used FrameMaker 7 five years ago and found its UI to be very
unfriendly.Yes, I know the application's genesis and also know that Adobe
isn't about to retool FM to be more like other Windows apps (I see the
same
issue with other Adobe apps). If I am forced to comply, FM it is. But if I
have a choice, I'd rather use InDesign. The company is not a manufacturer
and is not affiliated with the gubmint, so I don'tt see them repurposing
document elements anytime in the next several years (if then).

So what's the case *FOR* FM?

Chris

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References:
Justifying FM (was About The Cloud: Quick-Read Suggestions): From: Chris Morton

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