Frame vs. Flare for My Needs

[Kevin Ryan]

Hi,

I could use the advice of some Frame veterans on whether a switch from Frame to Flare might be a delusion-inspired wrong turn for me, or possibly the right way to go.

My company's primary documentation output is PDF user/training/reference guides authored on FrameMaker 7. Not the current Frame version, I know, but sufficient with our good templates to produce solid, professional-looking documents we're proud of. Other current deliverables include context-sensitive HTML topics produced via Mif2go and a limited number of "Process Assistance" MS Word topics.  These latter are a sort of MS-Word help equivalent that our customers can download from our application, edit if necessary, and even upload back into our application for others if they want to. I create Process Assistance MS-Word topics by cutting from Frame and pasting into Word, followed by manual reformatting (ouch).

Our customers (utilities) have been requesting another MS Word output:  Editable MS Word versions of our 20-300 page PDF manuals so that they can edit them for their own purposes (such as internal training).  Unfortunately, we've been unable to find a workable Frame-to-Word conversion process to this end.  I can do manual reformatting to Word in our short Process Assistance topics, but to do it on entire manuals would give me a nervous breakdown.

So, with better MS-Word output generation as my primary goal, I've been considering a switch to Flare. Its capability to output in PDF, Word, and HTML seems as though it might ultimately streamline our processes. As I test Flare by my 30-day trial, though, I'm reminded of the many things FrameMaker does really well - things I might be losing if I made the switch:  For example, precise page layouts, complex graphics, robust tables. To its credit, Flare seems to offer output versatility, excellent documentation and support, and a lot of Marketing momentum.

Am I misguiding myself?  Barking up the wrong tree?

Thanks for any opinions or comments.

Kevin Ryan
Technical Writer
[cid:image001.jpg at 01C97FA7.A9E51B40]
Systems & Software, Inc.
426 Industrial Avenue
Suite 140
Williston, VT 05495
802.865.1170 phone
802.865.1171 fax


________________________________
Save the Date! 2015 Harris Customer Training Conference:<http://www1.harriscomputer.com/en/conference/>
October 21-23, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia - Atlanta Marriott Marquis.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers-frameusers.com/attachments/20150225/6cb203cd/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 6473 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers-frameusers.com/attachments/20150225/6cb203cd/attachment.jpg>