Indexing recommendations
Rick Quatro
frameexpert at truevine.net
Wed Oct 4 08:49:44 PDT 2006
IXgen used to be the gold standard for manipulating FrameMaker markers, and
one that I used to heartily recommend. There are two things that soured me
on IXgen:
1) Upgrade prices are quite high, especially if you only use it
occasionally.
2) IXgen may alter your marker contents, for example, by adding a ] to
balance an opening [. This may be fine for Index markers, but may be
inappropriate for other marker types. For example, if you use IXgen with
TimeSavers, you will not want anything added to your Hypertext markers. Many
TimeSavers Hypertext markers have a [ in them that should not be balanced.
IXgen should have a setting to prevent modification of your marker content,
but it doesn't.
For these reasons, I hesitate to recommend IXgen to my clients.
Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing
585-659-8267
www.frameexpert.com
Hi all,
I'm at the indexing stage of a 400 page book for a product I hadn't worked
with for about 3 years (so no memory of what I indexed before). The manual
has also been totally restructured, and many features superseded by
different ones. Now I'm looking at building the index, and the 'old', manual
way is probably not going to work for me too well.
The minimum I'd like is to see index entries inline. Anything extra is
gravy, but I'm not convinced I do need much extra, so if I can see and work
with entries inline (a View option?) for cheap/free, I'd start there. But if
I have to pay for this feature, can you all recommend a product that has the
best combination of other, extra features for the price?
I've so far found:
http://www.fsatools.com/ - IXgen (comparatively more costly, lots of
features, but would I use them all?)
http://www.leximation.com/tools/info/markertools.php - Leximation marker
tools, less costly, but I have more trouble seeing the usefulness of some of
the features
http://www.siliconprairiesoftware.com/Products.html -Silicon Prairie index
tools, cheapest, but doesn't seem to link directly into the frame marker
system, does some other kind of marker?
Anyway, I realize this is a regular question, so I do appreciate any time
taken to send suggestions. Succinct, bulleted lists would be sufficient.
Thanks,
Kevin Hunter
ESDI, Victoria BC
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