Framemaker vs. Flare

[Charles Beck]

Hi A.J. (et al.),

We have not *used* Flare, but we *have* recently been engaged in an
indepth exercise to analyze and evaluate a wide variety of help
authoring tools. We found Flare to be deficient in a number of areas
(which I will spell out briefly). 

But in summary (for those of you ready to move on to the next email), I
would have to agree with Fred Ridder's statement that it is like
comparing power drills to monkey wrenches. Different types of tools with
different purposes. 

Specifically, we found that Flare:
   --Advertises itself as a help authoring tool (whereas Frame is
considered more of a desktop publishing tool, which requires [as others
have pointed out] additional tools to convert to online help).
   --Apparently does not allow you to import Frame content, not even as
.MIF files (if that is an issue for you). 
   --Does not offer advanced search features, only simple text searches.
   --Does not support the ability to directly create PDFs of modular
units of documentation. 
   --Does not yet support DITA, though it "is coming in a future
release".
   --Requires MS .NET Framework version 2.0.
   --Is still relatively green (new), thus largely unproven and of
questionable stability. This goes along with what others on this thread
have also said. 
   --Is VERY expensive, both to purchase and to support downstream.

For these and other reasons, we are looking elsewhere for tools to meet
our planned strategy. There are other tools out there that we feel will
get the job done better.

HTH,
Chuck Beck


-----Original Message-----
Subject: Framemaker vs. Flare

Let me re-phrase the question:  Has anyone here used Madcap Flare? 

 
A.J. Coots
Documentation Specialist