Tools: MS Office Binder files (oh no!)

[kanerb -at- concentric -dot- net]

I recently started working for a small company whose main writing tool is MS
Office Binder (obd files). I never heard of it before I worked here, and it
ain't pretty, folks. Binder brings separate Word and Excel files together
into one "book" with continuous page numbering (theoretically). If you look
up what MS Office expert Woody Leonhard thinks about it, he says little more
than "Don't use it." I can't even find instructions for using it; the online
help is incomplete.

I'm having pagination problems and lack-of-features problems. I'm wondering
if you can suggest a replacement tool for a company that likes to pass
around docs and have everyone edit them online.

Frame is too expensive and has too high a learning curve for the others,
though _I'd_ love to use it. But how about THIS idea: the others work in
Word files, I put it into Frame, and when they need to edit a file again, I
do a Save As RTF (works great), give it back to them, and then I
reincorporate their changes into Frame. Does that sound realistic?

One of the reasons they chose Binder is it allows Excel docs to be
incorporated into the "book," complete with all Excel features -- the tabs,
wide format, etc. How would one incorporate an Excel file into a Frame book?
I know Frame pretty well, but I've never been challenged to do that.

Thanks for any advice you might have,

Beth Kane
Senior Communications Specialist
PersonalGenie Inc.
Tucson, Arizona
kanerb -at- concentric -dot- net