RE: getting experience with expensive tools

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Tom Johnson wrote:
 
> As long as you're not using it for commercial purposes, I don't see
this
> reformatting option as particularly dishonest. More than anything it
would

Some companies have "lite" versions of programs that are free for
personal (non-commercial) use. Most do not. Unless the terms of the
software license permit free use of the software for an unlimited time
for non-commercial purposes, what you're proposing _is_ particularly
dishonest. 

> be time-consuming and tedious. Do the legal "I agree" options of
software
> prevent this kind of action? Maybe they do. Not sure.

Umm, those legal "options" are the license agreements -- legally binding
contracts you agree to accept. They don't "prevent" software piracy, but
they do prohibit it. But you're apparently not much interested. 

There's one help authoring tool that _is_ available for free (no limits)
to unemployed tech writers (and some other categories, IIRC, like
students) -- Mif2Go (www.omsys.com). It creates of a bunch of different
help outputs from FrameMaker source files (it also exports to Word far
better than FM itself). 

Becky seemed to suggest she has access to FM, so Mif2Go would be worth
looking into. Because it's much cheaper than RH and other HATs, it might
be an easier sell to clients who have FM, but don't want to commit to an
expensive HAT.

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------






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