Re: I may have a window to bring in FM

[Lin Sims <ljsims -dot- ml -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Where I work, my coworker (before I was hired), was in the office one night
until about 3 a.m. trying to get a Word document updated and published.
Word kept crashing and corrupting. His (now our) boss was there and
couldn't believe how unstable things were. My coworker mentioned that Frame
handled large files much better and wasn't prone to corruption. I think
they got Frame a week or so later, which was just before I was brought in.

Off the top of my head:

   - ability to handle large files without crashes and corruptions
   - ability to output to multiple formats (PDF, HTML, etc.)
   - ability to reuse source files to create multiple documents (Word has
   exactly ONE condition, Frame can have dozens, although it gets ugly after
   10 or so ...).

At my last job, I had a single set of source files that output documents
for 4 versions of a product for 3 different customers with information that
was also only visible to internal personnel. I learned how to write
complicated FrameMaker conditional expressions to handle that, but it meant
that instead of maintaining 10 or 12 or so (I lose track) documents *for
each chapter, *meaning having to update all of them when the common
information changed, I had *one document for each chapter* with multiple
conditions controlling what was visible. Try *that *in Word!


   - ability to create your own variables for a document set; much more
   flexible than Word's variables
   - ability to use standard variables for running header and footer
   information; much easier and far more flexible than the field codes Word
   uses

In all fairness, I've been told by true Word power users that there are
ways to do all this and keep Word stable. I think it involves a lot of VBA
macros though (which I can't write) and the ability to customize ribbons
and ... there's a lot of knowledge and time investment required to do all
that. I didn't have it, and I've yet to work at a company that was willing
to contract someone to do that work.

On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 3:52 PM Debra Kahn <kahndebra -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> Hi John,
> I was just on the FrameMaker 2019 web page, and it does advertise a 30-day
> free trial. (I searched on "adobe framemaker price" on Google.)
>
> Would love to know more about how you pitched FrameMaker to your client.
> Please share what worked well for you.
>
> Thanks,
> Deb Kahn
>
> *Debra Kahn**, MA, PMP*
> debra -at- dkconsultingcolorado -dot- com
>  *or *kahndebra -at- gmail -dot- com
> Business Phone: 970-541-0888
> Website: http://dkconsultingcolorado.com
> Twitter: @dkconsultco
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 2, 2019 at 11:13 AM John Posada <jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
> > Good afternoon, everyone.
> > I gently brought up the subject of introducing FM to my new gig and it
> went
> > better than expected.
> >
> > The two clinchers were multiple outputs (print and html) and being able
> to
> > share content in more than one location (troubleshooting content in a
> > Trouble Shooting book and in the product book)
> >
> > Does Adobe still making trials available?
> >
> > --
> > John Posada
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-- 
Lin Sims
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