ls1i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Leonard John Schultz) (06/29/90)
Does anyone have a phone number I can call to get info and/or order Framemaker? I think the company is called Frame Technologies or some such thing thanks Len
ewm@mdavcr.UUCP (Eric W. Mitchel) (06/30/90)
In article <EaWYna200WBL82MkY0@andrew.cmu.edu> ls1i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Leonard John Schultz) writes: >Does anyone have a phone number I can call to get info and/or order Framemaker? > >I think the company is called Frame Technologies or some such thing > >thanks > >Len Yes, they are Frame Technologies, their address is: 1010 Rincon Circle San Jose, California 95131 phone: (408) 922-2725 fax: (408) 433-1928 I have seen their FrameMaker 2.0 product on the Sun under Sunview. They also have it out or coming out (by August) on the HP, Apollo, DEC ULTRIX, NeXT, X-Terminals, etc. compatible. Strengths: My initial impression is that Frame is a pretty good product. It is effectively a wordprocessor with many desk-top publishing features. o Excellent WYSIWYG interface. o Desk-top publishing style "text flow around" graphics. o On-screen multi-column support. Any number of columns, set in any shape and size. Multiple text flows to other pages. o Style sheets. o Index creation. o Automatic cross reference numbering for tables, formulas, graphics, etc. Nice for big documents particularly. o Hot-links to other programs (such as Mathematica). o Good multi-author support. Keeps track of revisions with time stamps and change bars. o Reasonable formulas (like Milo). WYSIWYG formula editor. o Hypertext document support. (ie: click on word to pop up text). o MacDraw-like object oriented drawing capabilities. o User interface quite consistent across platforms (Sun version is very Mac-like). o Good spelling & hypenation dictionary. o Framemaker is moving toward support of the U.S. Government CAL standard. Weaknesses are: o No site licenses available. Floating user licenses instead. o Poor support of tables. They provide a booklet with the Sun version on how they hack around this flaw. o Style sheets are not heirarchical, as with MSWORD. In other words, you cannot built styles based on previous styles. You must create each from scratch. o Formatting and resizing of formulas is a pain. In-line formulas will not resize to fit in a line, for instance - instead, the lines above and below get pushed away (not the prettiest solution). o Built-in graphics are limited. Cannot rotate text. Only 90 degree rotation of objects. o Really needs SE/30 with 4MB or better to run. You can get away with an SE, 4MB RAM, a 40MB HD and a FPD, according to Frame, but it will be slow. You HAVE to have a HD. Their Mac pamphlet recommends: "a Macintosh II with four MB of memory and a full page or two page display for building long, structured documents and producing graphics intensive project. Basic word processing editing can be done on a Macintosh SE or Mac portable with two MB of memory." - Read "little or no graphics and slow" where they say "Basic word processing editing". o No Thesaurus (sp?). ********** Overall, the weaknesses of this product are minimal. If you need better formula support, graphics or tables, you may well be able to hot link to another program which does what you need (check on whether there is an appropriate tool which can be linked, however!). This program's hardware requirements are not surprising. It is a very extensive package. Overall, I have been impressed by FrameMaker. The company has been around a few years and seems to be making a real impact. Pricing of the product is not at all bad compared to their competition in the workstation market (Frame goes for about $1500, as I remember, on workstations in single quantities). Customer service has been quite responsive to our questions (mind you, we have the potential to be a pretty big account, so I can't say how they are to individuals). Note that the above remarks are NOT the result of a comprehensive review of FrameMaker, but are rather intial impressions based on reading their documentation and playing a bit with the program. Some of the points may even be WRONG. I give no warranties. Eric Mitchell -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: The above remarks are mine. Nobody else will agree to share responsibility.