Learning curve for FrameMaker

[Deirdre Reagan]

Hi David:

I'm in the same situation as you.  I'm well versed in Word, and have
just started learning FrameMaker.  I've been working with someone
else's FrameMaker templates for four months now.  The learning curve
for me is fairly steep, but mostly because FrameMaker is conceptually
different than Word.  Learning the commands is easy, but learning that
the commands exist has been much more difficult.

FrameMaker isn't very intuitive and consists of many layers (body
pages, master pages, and reference pages, for instance) to make even
the simplest document function.

It took me about three weeks of playing around with the templates,
reading FrameMaker information on the web, and asking questions to
this group before I felt comfortable redesigning the templates.  I
still don't know how to do basic tasks, like making an autogenerated
file (TOC, LOT) look like what I want it to look like, but I can
troubleshoot the existing templates when they act up.

So, for me, the curve is fairly steep.  For what it's worth, I'm now
(four months into it) considered the office expert, even though three
other people have been using it longer than I have.

Deirdre






On 4/28/08, Chinell, David F (GE EntSol, Security) <David.Chinell at ge.com> wrote:
> Listers:
>
> I apologize in advance for asking an admittedly vague question, but any
> experiences or information you can share will be appreciated.
>
> I've focused largely on MS Word for the past fifteen years of my career,
> and have become quite adept at designing templates for technical
> publications. I'm currently in a shop that uses both Word and
> FrameMaker, and have been offered "ownership" of the FrameMaker
> templates as well. I have only the slightest experience of FrameMaker.
>
> Can anyone hazard a guess as to how long it might take me to get up to
> speed with FrameMaker, to the point of being able to do more good than
> harm with the templates I inherit for maintenance, or create from
> scratch?
>
> I can only add that we're using FrameMaker 7.0 to create print
> publications. That is, we're not using SGML or XML or any of the
> features of structured FrameMaker.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> David Chinell
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