Is my beloved tool withering on the vine?

[Harro de Jong]

Grace wrote:

> I have been a user of Framemaker since version 5.0..time flies.  I would like to
> get feedback from the group to see what your thoughts are regarding the
> tool.  I actually use Framemaker with both PatternStream and Mif2go. Given
> this tool set I am wondering if new tools like AuthorIt and Flare are worthy
> replacements.  Is it time for me to go back to school and learn yet another
> tool?
> 
> My use of frame maker is primarily for the creation and management of
> polices, procedures, training documents for multiple facilities. There has been
> a big push to get out documents standardized as much as possible. Any
> feedback would be appreciated.

In my opinion FrameMaker isn't 'withering on the vine'. It's better than ever (barring some problems with the user interface) and it's still in active development. If it meets your needs, I wouldn't change a thing. 

If reuse of content between documents is a requirement, you may run into Frame's limitations. If you reuse small blocks of text via text insets, cross-referencing to those insets is a problem. If you use conditional text, there comes a point where the conditions are no longer manageable. 
If FrameMaker's reuse options no longer meet your needs, Author-it (and Flare presumably, although I've no experience with it) is a possible replacement. By putting content fragments in a database, Author-it allows fine-grained reuse of sections, paragraphs or individual sentences. 



Kind regards, 

Harro de Jong
Triview Technical Communication
disclaimer: we're an Author-it reseller