[Framers] FrameMaker vs Flare

[Robert Lauriston]

The $360-per-year FrameMaker subscription includes upgrades, so that's
significantly cheaper than Flare.

On Wed, Jun 27, 2018 at 12:03 PM, Robert Lauriston <robert at lauriston.com> wrote:
> Comparing Flare and standalone FrameMaker, HTML output is more customizable
> and it's probably a better single-sourcing tool, except as regards PDF
> targets.
>
> Comparing Flare and FrameMaker plus RoboHelp or WebWorks ePublisher Pro,
> hard to say. I'd probably take unstructured FrameMaker and WebWorks over
> Flare if I had to choose.
>
> The learning curve for FrameMaker is plenty steep if you've never used it
> before.
>
> Flare is $1648 with a year of email support and upgrades. You can add a year
> of support and upgrades for $400 or two years for $325 each. If you let your
> support expire, upgrades are $799, which I believe includes a year of
> support and upgrades.
>
> FrameMaker is $999 perpetual or $360 a year for a subscription that includes
> upgrades. Are upgrades included in the subscription price or do you have to
> pay for them?
>
> A FrameMaker perpetual license seems like a bad deal since Adobe now
> supports only the current version. In the long run, it would be cheaper to
> subscribe.
>
> On Wed, Jun 27, 2018 at 4:53 AM, Shmuel Wolfson <shmuelw1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> It seems that the benefits of Flare over Frame are:
>> - More customizable/better HTML output
>> - Better support
>> - Better single sourcing than unstructured Frame
>> - They don't charge an arm and a leg to pay for upgrades
>>
>> The benefits of Frame over Flare are:
>> - Better PDFs
>> - Less of learning curve for unstructured Frame, and possibly for
>> structured Frame
>>
>> I don't believe that Adobe has abandoned Frame, but they do charge an
>> insane amount for upgrades and the support is not so great, which is similar
>> to abandoning their users. Having said that, since I mainly produce PDFs, I
>> have no plans on switching to Flare any time soon.
>>
>> --
>> Shmuel Wolfson
>> Technical Writer
>> 058-763-7133
>>
>>
>> On 27-Jun-18 7:59 AM, Alan Litchfield wrote:
>>>
>>> I don't think the issue in this conversation is about Adobe abandoning
>>> FM, but that the corporate model Adobe chooses to use has effectively driven
>>> a lot of us old timers out the door, into the arms of its competitors. Yes,
>>> there have been a bunch of new features and added support for functions that
>>> required external plug-in support previously, but the interface is actually
>>> quite hard for me to navigate now, especially now that so many keyboard
>>> commands have disappeared or changed.
>>>
>>> For me, my last favourite version was 7.2 on the Mac (which I still have
>>> running by the way, on a G5 tower). Sure it lacked all the fancy mod-cons of
>>> later versions but I could run that application for months at a time
>>> (without shutting down the computer or program) without issue. Can't say the
>>> same for the current version, I'm afraid. And as I said earlier, part of the
>>> reason was being locked out of the application due to licensing problems.
>>>
>>> Version 5.5.2 on Linux was fun while it lasted. Of course, one does miss
>>> the hominess of Frame Corp, but that was a long time ago now.
>>>
>>> Alan
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dr Alan Litchfield
>>> AlphaByte
>>> PO Box 1941
>>> Auckland, New Zealand 1140
>>>
>>> On 27/06/18 13:42, ideaslists at ideastraining.com wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I've been hearing rumors of Adobe's abandonment of Frame for years, if
>>>> not
>>>> decades. The timing of these rumors is almost as regular as an atomic
>>>> clock...
>>>>
>>>> Abandonment hasn't happened yet. Oddly, I find the rumors tend to peak
>>>> before Adobe announces a new version. This list, or any public list, is
>>>> not
>>>> a good way to make a decision about FrameMaker. Those that know can't
>>>> say;
>>>> those that say usually don't know.
>>>>
>>>> David Creamer
>>>> IDEAS Training
>>>> ______________________
>>>> All of these posts regarding Adobe's poor support/abandonment of FM are
>>>> one
>>>> of the reasons why my company decided to focus on another tool and
>>>> migrate
>>>> away from FM.  All of the technical publications staff (including me)
>>>> are
>>>> now using Madcap Flare and we have just completed a 2 year migration of
>>>> all
>>>> FM documents into Flare.   It was a bit sad to say goodbye to FM, but
>>>> the
>>>> handwriting was on the wall.
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
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>
>