Any up to date comparisons of Word and Frame

[Martinek, Carla]

You need to come up with a matrix of YOUR specific documentation
requirements, and work from that, as every comparison I'm aware of is
woefully out of date. You may want to start here for a list to work
from: 

	http://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker/comparison.html

"Because everyone else in the company uses Word" is not a good reason to
switch, but if you have to share files/content with other writers, that
would be a valid reason. (If your content is in XML, Word claims to
handle XML just fine, so that negates the need to switch.)

Just like engineers and programmers, you need the correct tools to do
the job efficiently. Programmers can write code using MS Word, and
engineers can create graphics in MS Word's graphic window, but there are
better ways to do it, and they are provided the proper tools. Emphasize
that you are also a professional with specific requirements to complete
your job.

One thing that seems to have remained consistent with Word is its
...quirky... numbering capabilities. Every Word document I've ever had
to work in eventually has numbering issues (and I've worked in it since
back in the DOS days...) This is a REAL problem in technical
documentation, where you often have complex numbering schemes, such as
substeps, numbering for tables and figures, etc. I can make it work in
Word, but I can guarantee it will take more time as you are continually
"fixing" things that shouldn't have had issues to start with. I estimate
that Word docs take 25-30% longer just because of the inherent issues.
Maybe the new version is better, but the version we have here at work is
just as annoying as ever.

I remember an anecdotal comment on the list a while back about Microsoft
using FrameMaker to publish their printed Word User Guide...  not sure
if that's true, but if it is, that's rather telling in my mind that even
MS recognizes that Word is not suitable for long technical document
publishing.


-Carla