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Understand up front, I am not knocking Framemaker, just pointing out an
assumption that could very well be in error.
Is Framemaker really that commonly used? Perhaps in well-established
companies with larger than lone tech writer departments. Apparently on this
list. But not in my experience. I've been doing this for seven years now,
and have yet to work somewhere where they were even considering using
Framemaker. Frame vs Word wars aside (since never having had to use it I
can't vouch for it), most companies I work with use Word, and don't want to
spend the money on a tool that only a few staffers will ever use. They'll
agree to a HAT, sometimes even a multimedia/CBT tool, but so I've never had
enough justifiable evidence of productivity improvements to move to the
Framemaker world.
Perhaps it's because in many software companies, developers, programmers,
and bus. analysts are contributing information to the documentation
products, and who has the time to teach them something like Framemaker when
they can do a basic job with Word.
It makes me wonder whether it's worth it to consider a full-blown tools
course on Framemaker vs Pagemaker, when many folks will end up in an Office
environment, frustrated because they can't have the tools they've learned to
want.
Connie Giordano
-----Original Message-----
From: Brierley, Sean
[SNIP]
In short, FrameMaker is a tool that is commonly used in tech writing. I
recommend if you are considering teaching a class on FrameMaker, that you
buy the software, get Adobe's Classroom in a Book for FrameMaker and
FrameMaker for Dummies, and get comfy with the software create some
documents. After that, I recommend you wrap up by taking a beginner and
intermediate class in FrameMaker from an Adobe certified trainer. After all
of that investment, I think a teacher would have enough information to
determine what students could learn in how much time.
