Re: Rumor about FrameMaker - is it true?

Subject: Re: Rumor about FrameMaker - is it true?
From: William Gaffga <wilg -at- gibbscam -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 08:45:05 -0800


That article is two years old ... More than half of the QXP users I personally know have dumped XPress in favor of InDesign. The big test is the next year with a new ID and Quark continuing its trend of putting out irrelevant new versions. The "features" they've added in v6 & v6.5. Here's what they're pushing for v6.5:
â Import native Adobe Photoshop documents (.psd files) into QuarkXPress and exploit the power of multi-layer Photoshop images without leaving QuarkXPress.
â Place guides on a master pageâs pasteboard and display them automatically in your layout.
â Group tables with other QuarkXPress items including other tables, picture boxes, and text boxes.
â Customize printing features such as saving output settings for custom bleeds as print styles.
â Simplify IT management with support for Citrix servers and run the application off a server instead of an individual userâs computer.

The only real change there of any magnitude is the importing and editing of PSDs ... which is nice but most designers and layout people I know won't care about that ... they want to do the work in PS, where the real changes can be made.

QXP 6 was seen as being a failure ... it took forever to come out and when it did it had a mediocre feature set:
â Layout spaces - a new way to organize documents so that all elements of a project (brochure, business card, whatever) are easily accessed from one location
â Synchronized text allows for easy updates throughout a project
â Improved tables, multiple undo, better layers
â Integrated basic PDF export & Basic Web publishing
â A Layers tab in the Print dialog box that provides control over layer output
â run under OS X

QXP has been playing catch-up to ID and at the same time they are not fulfilling the needs of their core users (better software, full OpenType support, transparency, etc), but are mis-focused on turning what was once the finest layout app into a web page development tool. The ONLY reason they are still hanging around is that a lot of large companies (newspapers, publishers) still have XP and have been waiting to see what happens before spending huge amounts of money moving their production systems to another solution. Each release causes another group of people to leave QXP behind.

Will.

On Jan 12, 2005, at 11:50 PM, Phillip St. James wrote:

"...XPress, on the other hand, is as much a standard in publishing as Microsoft Word or Excel in office computing. It has an extremely loyal user base, and, more importantly, it has proven over and over again that it is a reliable and efficient production tool, a claim on which InDesign still has to prove its abilities..." (http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-823935.html)


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References:
Re: Rumor about FrameMaker - is it true?: From: Phillip St. James

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