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Subject:FrameMaker / Frame vs. Word From:Patrick O'Connell <patricko -at- EICON -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 8 Sep 1994 09:04:00 PDT
I started out hating it with a passion, and have slowly gotten less
prejudiced about it.
Why did I hate it? I use the Windoze version of Frame and it simply does NOT
follow the Windows "keyboard paradigms" -- like Shift-End selecting from
"here" to the end of the line, rather than the whole line. I used WinWord
long before I ever used Frame and I'm hopelessly spoiled for it. Especially
the drag-and-drop text editing as of version 2.0...
Also, if Ventura is a world unto itself, FrameMaker is in another galaxy
entirely. I've used both and I used to think *Ventura* was idiosyncratic --
well, it is, but Frame makes VP look like the ultimate conformist. At least
Frame's peculiar in a highly consistent way...
Frame vs. Word? Kind of like comparing apples and oranges. I'd say it all
depends on the length of the document you want to publish, and precisely how
much control you want/need over things like inter-line spacing. In Frame you
can change EVERYTHING, and usually by small fractions of a point or
percentage point.
You have far less precise control in Word (at least in Word 2 -- I'm not
using Word 6 on a daily basis yet) but the trade-off is Word is ACTUALLY A
USABLE WORD PROCESSOR. IMHO, Frame fails miserably at this, and RTF export
& import options notwithstanding, you really have no choice but to edit Frame
documents *in Frame*. The original composition of text material can be done
in Word or an ASCII editor, but in my experience the composition consumes a
very small fraction of the total development time for any document. It's the
rewrites and corrections ad infinitum ad nauseam that kill you!
Pat O'Connell
Intermediate Writer, Eicon Technology Corporation
patricko -at- eicon -dot- com
I know, I know -- where's my fancy signature? Next time.
