Will Pagemaker help me meet my deadlines?

[Jill Burgchardt <jburgcha -at- PESTILENCE -dot- ITC -dot- NRCS -dot- USDA -dot- GOV>]

Hi,

Yesterday on the holy wars topic I moaned about Word not being
the right tool for my work. Despite justification, Framemaker
is not an option. However, I just discovered that Pagemaker IS
an option. In fact, the box is sitting on my desk. Should I
regard this as a minor miracle?

When I researched DTP software before, Frame seemed the best
choice because of its indexing and TOC features. (Also, I know
it well.) But hey, I'm flexible. If I can generate an index in
it without my system crashing, I won't have to spend two weeks
manually indexing. If it's going to be helpful, however, I
need to get up to speed very quickly (by Monday). I'm ready to
dive in and try it this weekend, but I have a few questions.

1. Should I set up templates and then place Word files into
them or just place the Word documents and hope Pagemaker reads
the styles from them?

2. I plan to set up several files into a book. The manual says
to put the book list in a chapter--TOC or index. Does one work
better than the other?

3. According to the archives, Pagemaker has a problem with
tables. Our tables are simple grids, will I encounter any
problems with those?

4. If I buy one book about Pagemaker, what should it be? Why?

5. Are there any lists for Pagemaker users?

6. Any 'You really need to know this before you start'
comments?

Please reply directly to me, I'll summarize for the list.

Thank you,
Jill Burgchardt
jburgcha -at- pestilence -dot- itc -dot- nrcs -dot- usda -dot- gov