Re: Advice on systems

[Michael McClatchey <mmm -at- AISINC -dot- COM>]

Karen Kay wrote:
>I use WordPerfect for Windows, and am trying to learn FrameMaker, so I
>decided to import some documents from WP and edit them in FM.  It's
>*very* difficult to edit imported documents in FM.  I am by no means
>an expert on FM, but I have finally given up.  It's 100% easier to
>retype a document in FM and format it there.  So if you are considering
>changing formats, I think ease of re-editing should be a major consideration.

The formatting problem is significant, and I've had my troubles with filters,
etc., myself. I still can't see how it's easier to *re-type* a document rather
than import it in ascii. I write computer documentation, and I often get email
or text editor files to add to documents. They've been formatted in ascii by
programmers who are used to using hard returns and tabs for *everything*, and
the files need massaging before they're real FrameMaker documents. I search for
tabs and paragraph markers and delete them, change the paragraph tags to the
ones I want, and I'm in business. Sure beats re-keying it all in...

I'd like to use something easier in a page layout program, but it would have to
have most of the features that FrameMaker has, or it wouldn't help. That's not
possible yet, but I would *never* go back to using a word processor like Word
or WordPerfect. They just don't do it for me.

Michael McClatchey
Senior Technical Writer
Applied Intelligent Systems, Inc.
110 Parkland Plaza,

313-995-2035 / FAX 313-995-2138 Ann Arbor, MI 48103

(NeXTMail welcome)
(opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer)