What version of Frame to Get Started ?

[Alan Houser]

If you learn with FrameMaker version 5.5 and migrate to FrameMaker 8, 
the concepts, commands, dialogs, and user interface will remain largely 
familiar for unstructured authoring. You will miss various bells and 
whistles that have been added, and will lack experience with structured 
authoring and DITA. This may or may not be an issue. Although the 
conventional wisdom may be that "structure/DITA is the future", I'm 
seeing as many new unstructured deployments as I ever have in the past.

Adobe has a very liberal upgrade policy for FrameMaker. Any previous 
version is eligible for the current upgrade price of $299USD. I would 
second Rick Quatro's recommendation to purchase an upgrade, if 
economically feasible for you. If not, go with 7.2.

-Alan
---

Alan Houser, President
Group Wellesley, Inc.
412-363-3481
www.groupwellesley.com



Peter Courlis wrote:
> Good Morning,
>
> I want to learn more about Framemaker,
> I have Ver. 5.5 and have fooled with that but 
> need more experience...
>
> The prices of the latest version scare me, unless
> I had a contract or revenue input from writing...
>
> Recognizing that ver. 5.5 has basic functionality,
> what would be a next step?
> Is it worth searching EBay for ver. 6.0 or try
> to find ver. 7.1 at a reasonable price?
>
> On occasion, I find late versions of "Upgrade" packages
> available on EBay... Would some version of Upgrade 7.0
> (or 7.1) bring my ver. 5.5 up to the next current level?
>
> The recent List discussion on Jahred's "Beyond the Basics" 
> has stirred my curiosity,  therefore I have found a copy 
> of that text to read and review...
>
> Any comments appreciated
> A (latent) newbie Writer.
>
> -pc
>
>
>