Frame vs InDesign vs. alternatives??

[Rick Quatro]

Hello Framers,

I am going to chime in here regarding InDesign scripting. InDesign offers
several scripting options: AppleScript for the Mac version, Visual Basic for
the PC version, and JavaScript for both. Since these languages have other
applications, there are plenty of resources for learning them.

In my experience, however, performance can be a major issue. Well-written
JavaScript scripts can be painfully slow in InDesign, especially on long
documents. For most scripting tasks that I have tackled, a
FrameMaker/FrameScript workflow runs circles around a similar
InDesign/JavaScript workflow. If your documentation process can benefit from
automation, and you can do without InDesign's unique features, you are
usually better off staying with FrameMaker and FrameScript.

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing Inc.
rick at frameexpert.com
585-659-8267