Framemaker vs XMetal for structured authoring

[Scott Prentice]

Just to repeat what Yves said .. if you're using DITA-FMx 1.1, you *can* 
actually use graphic overlay objects (callouts etc.) .. and this 
provides you the same level of DITA support in FM7.2, 8, and 9.

If you're interested in seeing DITA-FMx and a CMS (XDocs) .. check out 
the webinar tomorrow ..

    http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/webinar.php

Cheers,

...scott

Scott Prentice
Leximation, Inc.
www.leximation.com
+1.415.485.1892



Writer wrote:
> I haven't used XMetal, but we do use FM9 to author DITA XML, and 
> ePublisher (XML adapter) to create online help. We author XML files and 
> ditamaps in FM9. To create PDFs, we save our ditamaps as composite FM 
> books, which works fine. After the books are generated, we apply 
> templates to the FM files to make them look the way we want. From there, 
> we generate our PDF files. However, WebWorks (ePublisher) says that it 
> plans to create a PDF output that you can format from within ePublisher. 
> If this works the way that I expect, we can generate all of our outputs 
> through ePublisher.
>
> If you choose FM, do get FM9. It handles DITA much better than FM8.
>
> You cannot use callouts in graphics, but I think this is true of any 
> DITA XML.
> We use attribute values and ditaval files instead of conditional text to 
> perform conditional filtering.
> DITA/FM has its own "paragraph styles", but you can make them look 
> however you want by editing the underlying templates and EDD files.
> CMS is not a consideration for us (yet), so I cannot answer to that.
>
> Nadine
>
> Andersen, Verner Engell VEA wrote:
>   
>> Hi
>> I currently use unstructured Framemaker for pdf output. I single-source
>> my content - and via Webworks Publisher I output to context-sensitive
>> help in Webworks help format.
>>  
>> My 5 colleagues use Word and output to pdf for printing. We plan to go
>> structured and are considering whether we should use Framemaker or
>> XMetal.
>>  
>> Do any of you know where I can find an unbiased comparison of the two
>> tools?
>>  
>> I have been told that the major disadvantage of using Framemaker is that
>> you are required to save in binary format to keep the
>> Framemaker-specific XML processing instructions (pls). If you store in
>> xml-format you cannot retrieve and maintain conditional text. Callouts
>> on drawings (the graphics tool in Framemaker) will be rasterized, and
>> even paragraph styles can be discarded if you save a document as XML.
>>  
>> What are the implications of sacrificing saving documents as XML? 
>>  
>> Another advantage in favor of XMetal should be that it has
>> vendor-supported integration with most content management systems (CMS).
>> Apparently XMetal seems to be the best choice. 
>>  
>> What are your comments?
>>  
>> Thanks,
>>  
>> Verner
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