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Re: replacing Word - Framemaker vs Indesign?

Subject: Re: replacing Word - Framemaker vs Indesign?
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2005 09:23:38 -0800


T K wrote:

The company I work for is considering a move to a tool
other than MS Word for creation of documentaion (user
guides, manuals, service bulletins, operator and setup
guides etc.) primarily because Word becomes unstable
when document size gets large - the inclusion of
complex AutoCAD drawings increases our file size
greatly.

Have you considered OpenOffice.org or StarOffice? They're based on the same code, the difference being that OpenOffice.org is open source software and StarOffice costs (last time I checked) about $75 per seat. There's really no strong functional reason to use StarOffice, but possibly your company's Powers-That-Be prefer to pay for support and licences.

Although most people automatically assume that the application for text documents is equivalent to MS Word, in fact it's much closer to FrameMaker in features and stability. Apparently, when the program was originally being developed, the developers used it for documentation, so they included many writer-friendly features in it.

Specifically, unlike MS Word, OpenOffice.org and StarOffice have a reliable Master Document feature. It's possible to crash it, but that doesn't happen often. Just as importantly, in four years of use, I've yet to have a document corrupt as a result.

If you're interested in how OpenOffice.org and StarOffice compare to FrameMaker, have a look at:

http://software.newsforge.com/software/04/10/04/150207.shtml

--
Bruce Byfield
http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield

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