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I'm not assuming anything about the use of Framemaker in small vs. large
companies., other than to suggest that because I've worked only for small
departments of 1 or 2 writers, maybe it's easier to get management to buy
into Frame for document production if it's a larger company with many more
documentation voices.
I also haven't run into any problems PDFing Word files, but I think I'm
anomaly there!.
I don't have the need for Framemaker for its indexing capability, because
indexing in RoboHTML works well (at least for the last 5 months I've been
using it), and converts well into Word documents. We have a moderately
large number of documents to manage, but none so far numbers over 250 pages,
so we haven't run into significant problems with Word other than the usual
culprits cited on this list. We figured out the workarounds for those long
ago, and need only to check the archives if we ever forget:).
I'd have a hard time persuading management to buy another tool, when we do
very well with what we have. And with significant changes happening so
quickly in how documents are produced and managed, I'd have a hard time
convincing them it's worth buying and learning, especially when we use XML
and HTML already.
I can't convince myself to convince management, because so far it doesn't
offer any more than our current tool set to manage our current production
levels.
I guess it's all in what you're used to!
Connie
Original message [snipped]
We use FM now that our tech writer
"department" numbers 2. Is this common? I don't know. But it belies your
assumption that F< is limited to companies with large tech writer
departments.
[snip]
We still use FrameMaker. Why? Because the input all has to be rewritten
anyway. So we use
the tool most suited to producing cross-referenced, indexed user's guides
with
page totals numbering anywhere from 350 to 1,200, and files ready for simple
conversion to PDF. And needing monthly updates and custom-coded inserts at
that.
