FM9 Newbie looking for best self training tools

[Pinkham, Jim]

I second the motion for O'Keefe and the Scriptorium gang: great book,
good resources on the web site.

I'm a power user of Word, also, Corrie, and have used it for 13 years. I
just spent 23 hours this weekend mucking around in Word and Publisher to
get a manual formatted for a client. The entire thing will be less than
200 pp., but it's still a work in progress -- huge mish-mash of styles
to begin with, lots of ad hoc formatting, loads of tabular material, all
the original images embedded in the Word doc and only available there
until extracted. In some cases, it's been line by line and cell by cell
getting things right. Although I respect both Word and Publisher as
tools, and despite my familiarity and comfort with them, I have to say,
putting it as charitably as possible, that they probably weren't the
best choice for the job. 

For what I was doing, InDesign, Quark, or FrameMaker probably would have
made my life significantly easier. For what you're talking about,
FrameMaker seems like a slam-dunk.

Don't despair if Frame seems daunting at first. For the first six weeks
I worked with it (FM 6 at the time), I was ready to throw it out the
window. It took several months before I began to feel reasonably fluent.
I was still learning new things for a long while after that. For that
matter, I'm still learning things about Frame and refining my skills.
And this list is a huge resource for making the road a much smoother one
to travel. The good news is, despite the nuances, it really doesn't take
very long to get to work in Frame and start doing the things you want to
do.


-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Jeff
Coatsworth
Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 8:15 AM
To: N Collins; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: FM9 Newbie looking for best self training tools

I would recommend the excellent manual "Publishing Fundamentals:
Unstructured Framemaker 8" by Sarah O'Keefe - available through the
Scriptorium website (www.scriptorium.com) for less than $20. Even though
the interface has changed in FM9, the same actions that are described in
FM8 in the book still work in 9. It's a great starter book for beginners
(I'm one of them too).  

-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of N Collins
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2010 12:24 PM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: FM9 Newbie looking for best self training tools

Hi!

I'm still using the trial version and need to make a recommendation to a
client on if FrameMaker is the right tool for their system instruction
manuals.  Client has a job shop and sells many unique system
configurations made from standard components to private and government
clients.  The idea is to quickly assemble a unique manual for each
system order shipped.  If I recommend FM, then client will buy FM and
pay for training for several users.  The client is biased against Word,
and frankly for any document larger than 50 pages, I agree.  Word gets
tangled on itself over large files.

I've never used FM before and trying to learn 9.0.  I'm an advanced user
of Word, in Windows 7 (technical writer using Word for over 15 years).
I bought and went through most of "Classroom in a Book" for FM9, but I'm
stumbling over the vocabulary (things like Headings versus Markers don't
seem to be 1:1 meanings, for example).  Dummies books have always given
me a great head start, but the only one out there I can find is
Framemaker 5.5 for Dummies.  My thought is that Dummies/FM 5.5 could at
least help me understand how FM "works/thinks", achieve a rudimentary
glossary, so then I can use other FM training tools.

What I'm tasked to do is to create multiple individual files with unique
content, and create various manuals with different file combinations -
each manual with a table of contents and index and automatic page
numbering.  I think I'm supposed to learn unstructured first in order to
do this?  Or do I need to learn structured first and make some master
templates?  Any suggestions or perhaps anyone care to send me an example
to play with?
Maybe I should forget about FrameMaker and try something else?  I'm open
to your suggestions.

Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Corrie in Tempe, AZ
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