FrameMaker is the product to use for content heavy technical documents or books that especially need to be updated easily and frequently. FrameMaker has the capability of creating indexes, tables of content, and other types of cross referencing. It can export files in PDF, HTML, XML, SGML, MIF, and RTF.
InDesign is for creating complex documents that rely heavily on graphics such as magazines, brochures, etc. It is basically a prepress program although it will export PDF, HTML, and EPS files as well as prepress.
PageMaker, until InDesign was created, was the layout product that was used for all prepress type of products. While it still is, it is mainly geared toward the simpler types of production, newsletters, flyers, reports, etc. It can export HTML, PDF, and prepress files.
Thus it can be seen that FrameMaker still is the product geared toward technical and long content rich documents. Since companies often need to print these documents as well as prepare them for the web, be it intranet or internet, FrameMaker comes loaded with options to do this as well as a program from Quadralay called "WebWorks Publisher - Standard Edition" which is used to take FrameMaker files from print format to web format without losing any of their styles. The CSS (cascading stylesheets) files will travel along with the FrameMaker files. In addition, the CSS files can be modified in a web editing program such as Adobe's GoLive.
The system requirements for windows users are: a pentium or faster processor; win 95, NT 4, win 2000 or later; 32 MB of available ram; 90-145 MB of available hard-disk space; CD-ROM drive; and Adobe PostScript, PCL or GDI printer (recommended.).
A large document that includes many parts can be organized in the form of a book. This is true of past versions of FrameMaker as well. Many new and improved options have been added to version 6 in the area of producing and editing books. Files can be added to the book through an improved book interface. These can be added through the drag and drop function. Non- FrameMaker files can also be added to the book and documents belonging to the book can be paged through in a more streamlined fashion than previously.
The process of generating and updating tables has been simplified as well as the process of "search and replace" for both contiguous and non-contiguous files.
The options for volume and chapter numbering have also been extended and more information can be entered in the footers and headers.
Not all of the improvements have to do with "Books." PDF documents can be generated more easily. I was extremely impressed with this addition and the new distiller PostScript driver 4.4. In addtion there is a new ATM version, 4.1 on the FrameMaker CD. Both the PostScript Driver and the ATM can be found on the CD under the folder English. I created a PDF from a file that contained graphics, tables, and footnotes very quickly and easily. The addition of importing (placing) Acrobat 4 PDF files, direct support for Adobe PDF document information, and other enhanced features increase the capabilities of creating PDF's directly from FrameMaker.
A whole new area has been added to FrameMaker 6 with the addition of Quadralay's WebWorks Publisher Standard Edition. This software program adds XML export abilities. Cascading Stylesheets can be automatically generated and then modified in Adobe GoLive. I will not address this aspect of FrameMaker since I do not use or know much about XML. The information from Adobe states that the form and structure of XML can be tightly controlled so that it can be used effeciently in interactive electronic manuals and e-commerce applications.
In addition to all the above, the help function in FrameMaker 6 is now the same as in other window based products. For more intense help, one can access the Adobe website directly from within FrameMaker 6 in order to download patches, read technical documents, etc.
While no one uses even a majority of the features of any program, I found this version of FrameMaker to work in a much smoother fashion than did the previous version.
Many documents addressing the new features of FrameMaker 6 are available on the Adobe website of http://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker/main.html.
Having not had very good luck importing images into FrameMaker 5.5 and then creating PDF's from these files, I was happy to see that, in my opinion, FrameMaker 6 did a better job. It was easy to both import JPG, graphic PDF's, and EPS files as well as to drop and drag native AI (Adobe Illustrator) files and PSD (Adobe Photoshop) files. The resulting PDF file looked extremely good, especially since the PSD graphics were created using the keyboard "print screen" command. However, I did have trouble creating HTML documents using the Quadralay WebWorks Publisher that came with FrameMaker 6 as well as the standard FrameMaker 6 HTML conversion filter. The problem occurred with the placement of graphics. Graphics would not retain their position when placed either in anchored frames or when placed separately. Also, some styles, example Headings1, did not appear in either HTML document in the same position as they did in the FrameMaker 6 document even though they were tagged properly.
Since I do more PDF conversions from FrameMaker than HTML, it is possible that I created the problem even though I did follow the automatic conversion process step by step according to the Quadralay manual.
I always suggest that readers check out the documents on the appropriate websites for more information before they either upgrade or purchase any new software. Also, Adobe has the added bonus of having product forums. These I have found to be extremely useful. For more information on these forums go to http://www.adobe.com/support/forums/main.html
Except for my problem converting FM documents to HTML, the new features that I used and the added smoothness of the product, are in my opinion, a good addition to this already powerful product.
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