I need a Frame crash course!

[Nina Rogers]

Hi all!

 

I learned of this list through techwr-l and have just joined because I
am pretty much going to need to give myself a crash course in FM within
the next couple of weeks. My tech-writing experience is in Word, but I'm
thrilled that I'll be able to learn FrameMaker (finally), since it's
supposed to be so much better in layout and other areas. Unfortunately,
there is no one in my immediate office who knows FrameMaker, so I'm more
or less on my own in learning this. I am pretty good at picking up new
software and have worked through the "Classroom in a Book" (which was
somewhat helpful) and am waiting with bated breath for Publishing
Fundamentals: FrameMaker 7 to arrive at my doorstep in hopes that it
will provide the key to the FM universe. Because I've just discovered
the Framers archives, I've also started looking through them. 

 

Are there any other good resources that I should be using? I have been a
tech writer for 10+ years and am very familiar with the word-processing
environment (Word), but not with FrameMaker. I need guidance on how to
start a document from scratch-do I decide the format up front and focus
primarily on figuring out master and reference pages? The whole concept
of master and reference pages is quite new to me, though I'm slowly
starting to "get it." I've gained some understanding, but if my boss
were to walk into my office and tell me to produce a formatted
document/user guide on some small software utility, I'm not sure I would
know where to start, layout-wise.

 

I'm sure this topic has been covered here before, so if someone can give
me a link to one or more threads in the archives, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks!

 

Nina Rogers