Need Advice on Upgrade Strategies for FM and Acrobat

[Graham, Jasmine S]

Hello Fellow Framers,

I need your advice on how to best recommend a strategy for new Frame and Acrobat software purchases/licensing/upgrades/maintenance contracts, etc. I apologize for the lengthy email with many questions, but I'm sure I'm still overlooking some important points.

SOME HISTORY
I currently have the TCS1 package FM 8 (structured), Acrobat 9, Robohelp, Captivate, on Windows XP SP3. For 2+ years, I've been the only FM user here (everyone else uses Word). Frame's strong points are helping me to develop and maintain large amounts of new technical documentation. So, I've won some support for it, which I am really thrilled about.

THE OPPORTUNITY
Now there is an interest in purchasing FM for possibly 3-4 SMEs who will be drafting documentation for my project. These folks perform engineering and testing functions (writing is not their primary task), but their manager sees value/potential in using Frame vs. Word and wants to gain momentum with it.

THOUGHTS / QUESTIONS

-- We should all use the latest Frame (10). Should I upgrade Frame only on my PC, or should I really consider the full TCS3 upgrade?  I already have Photoshop. The other folks don't need Robohelp/Captivate, so TCS3 is overkill for them.

-- All of us need a compatible Acrobat (I have no idea what to expect if we install Frame 10 on one of these laptops with an older version of Acrobat). Should I recommend the latest Acrobat for everyone just to be safe?

-- Are there some reliable, yet also fairly reasonable licensing/upgrade/maintenance strategies to keep us all in sync?

-- What's beneficial to do now in case we should add Frame users again down the road?

-- What gotchas, headaches, and other things must I think about before I jump into the deep end??

Since day one, I've not had any problems with my TCS1 setup, so I'm quite nervous about introducing new software versions without introducing unwanted special effects. :-)

I also know that there will be a learning curve and I'll have to train the others, create cheat sheets, and so forth. And, I must get familiar with the new interface, too. I'm confident I can manage these things. Also, I've made every effort to keep the template streamlined and simple, so hopefully, that will help, too.

THANKS IN ADVANCE for all words of wisdom and experience in this area!! :)

Jasmine Graham
Technical Writer, Research and Development
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