First Time Framer!

[Shmuel Wolfson]

Out of all the reasons to switch to FM, the layout was never an issue by 
me. All you have to do is select the correct print driver in the Print 
dialog box, and view the doc in Print Preview, not Page Layout view.

Regards,
Shmuel Wolfson




Mark Lawrence wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I hope you don't mind me introducing myself to the list and then asking
> a question straight away.  My name is Mark, I am based in Oxford, UK,
> and I write reports that assist pharmaceuticals with their marketing
> authorisations - at least that's the interesting part of my job. 
>
> I've been looking at Framemaker for some time now, basically as an
> alternative to grappling with changing layouts in Microsoft Word and
> Publisher.  The bottom line is that I enjoy writing content but I loathe
> the fiddling around with layout.  The fiddling always seems to involve
> 1) thinking that everything looks ok 2) printing a hardcopy, and then
> realising that it doesn't look so good so editing it until my waste bin
> is, well, full of waste.
>
> My first step into Framer-dom (other than watching the Adobe demo and
> downloading some whitepapers) was buying a cheap sealed copy of
> Framemaker 5.5 in March on Ebay, which I plan to upgrade, either to 7.2
> or 8 (when it's available).  The reason I am being so hesitant to just
> go out and buy the software and subsribe to every training course
> available (other than cashflow) is that I am basically unsure whether
> Framemaker will do the job I want it to, hence I will try to describe
> what I need as follows in the hope that someone can advise me.
>
> My job involves producing 40 page reports in Microsoft Word.  These
> reports are  nearly identical.  I use the mailmerge feature in Word to
> import variables such as the date of the report, the name of the product
> on which the report is based, the final score that the product achieved
> and so on.  These are inserted at the relevant points in the text using
> mailmerge.  Tables and graphs from an Excel spreadsheetare are then
> copied and pasted into the report manually.
>
> Is this something that I can do better using Framemaker?  Please bear in
> mind that I am something of a perfectionist and would like to make my
> reports look beautiful, but easy to produce.  Would listees please share
> their experiences in terms of how long it took them to get to grips with
> this kind of functionality (I speak of mailmerge type things)?
>
> I hope I have expressed myself clearly.  If there is any further
> information I need to provide please let me know.  I really appreciate
> your attention and look forward to making your acquaintances,
>
> Best wishes, Mark 
>
>
>
>
> Mark Lawrence
> Director
> First Read This
> +44 01865 30 40 52
> www.firstreadthis.com
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