debra@salt.acc.com (Debra Tivetsky) (07/19/90)
In article <12980002@hpspdra.HP.COM> on comp.text.desktop howeird@hpspdra.HP.COM (Howard Stateman) writes: >>I'm a new FrameMaker user. The product is easy to use, but for some specific >>things (like importing troff) it's not trivial. >>My question is : is there a group (or mailing list) of Frame users ? >Me too! I'm installing FrameMaker on a SparcStation cluster, and we need to migrate a stack of existing documentation part of which is done in Microsoft Word and part of which is done in pic/tbl/troff/postscript using a homegrown macro package (extensions to -me). We are having problems getting the Frame import filters to work, and Frame's support group is *very* hard to get in touch with (like several days to call back :-( :-(). So far, the only other person I have talked to about troff import filters, had tried but given up. (1) Has anyone successfully used filters to migrate from a troff environment to a Framemaker environment? I'd be interested to hear what works and what doesn't work. (2) Would you pre-process the macros to "raw" troff, or is the filter supposed to "know" -me macros and translate them to equivalent structures ? If the translation is done AFTER the macro pass, how editable is the resulting FrameMaker document ? (3) Also, what filter packages are available and what are their merits and their problems ? (4) Are there any conversion utilities available from 3rd parties or from net.people ? (5) Same questions about Microsoft imports ? I have crossposted to both comp.text groups and also to alt.sys.sun with followups to alt.sys.sun; the choice of the latter for followups, is because as a system manager, I hardly ever get time to get down to comp.text. If you email me responses, I'll summarize to comp.sys.sun and comp.text.desktop when I've learned something. -- / Debra Tivetsky 805-963-9431 debra@ACC.COM Advanced Computer Communications, 720 Santa Barbara St, SB, CA 93101 /* Opinions ? My employer has no opinions that I'm responsible for */
scavo@spencer.cs.uoregon.edu (Tom Scavo) (09/20/90)
Many thanks to all those who took the time to share their
knowledge of FrameMaker.
Special thanks to Mark Lawrence (mark@DRD.Com) who forwarded
the original article to the FrameUsers' Mailing List
(framers@DRD.Com) which generated most of the response. If
you are a user of FrameMaker and want to subscribe, send a
request to framers-request@DRD.Com.
------------------------------------------------------------
Here's an overview of FrameMaker as seen by the respondents:
Strengths Weaknesses
auto-referencing table generation (3)
picture import by reference drawing tools
auto section numbering picture positioning
Book Building help system
FrameMath (equations, etc.) hanging indents
multiple dictionaries non-Mac user interface
multiple platforms limited file export
------------------------------------------------------------
Plus some other comments in no particular order:
- FrameMaker's user interface is nearly identical across
platforms.
- The Mac version is a full implementation of say, the Sun
version, and should be completely file-compatible with the
workstation version.
- Everyone who mentioned it was using a Mac IIcx or better.
An SE probably wouldn't cut it, although one person
mentioned that an SE/30 with a second monitor might work.
In fact, a 19" monitor seemed to be the display of choice
(even a full-page monitor is unable to accomodate all of
Frame's floating windows).
- From a practical point of view, 4MB of memory is probably
minimum, and one person reported a noticeable increase in
speed (when editing large files) on a Mac IIcx with 8MB.
- Whereas Word for example, is stable, FrameMaker on the
Mac is not. Several bugs were reported: 1) the drawing
tools; 2) search/replace; 3) importation of Word files.
- FrameMaker is generally more powerful than Word, but a
number of people commented on FrameMaker's inability to
generate tables, a feature Word users typically boast about.
One person remarked that PageMaker (on the Mac) was the
closest thing there was to FrameMaker, but that PageMaker
had nothing like FrameMath (the name given to FrameMaker's
equation typesetting facility).
- Frame Technologies can be reached by email at
comments@frame.com
and demo versions of FrameMaker 2.1 are available. Although
this offer does NOT include the Mac, a timed-out Mac version
IS available (at least for those in the educational
community) if you're willing to send the company seven
(count em!) blank diskettes.
- There is a review article in a recent issue (sometime in
the last couple of months?) of _Desktop_Publishing_ which
I've yet to get my hands on.
------------------------------------------------------------
I still haven't gotten any detailed feedback on FrameMath.
Are there any technical writers out there using this feature
who know good mathematical text when they see it? How does
Frame measure up with TeX, for example, in terms of output?
--
Tom Scavo <scavo@cs.uoregon.edu>
---------