[Framers] Arbortext v Frame

[Alan Houser]

I've seen this before. The sales staff at PTC (parent company of 
Arbortext) are _very_ good. They reach exactly the right people, at the 
right level in the organization, to make the sale. They are likely 
selling Arbortext as a companion to PTC's other enterprise product data 
management products (namely, Windchill). Writers are typically not 
involved in the enterprise sale.

I've seen organizations create and deliver effective documentation with 
any number of tools, including Arbortext. For certain applications 
(writing to MIL-Specs, for example), Arbortext will be substantially 
easier out-of-the box than FrameMaker.

Migrating structured FrameMaker content will be a big challenge. 
Customer-specific EDDs and templates will be problematic. Although, in 
fairness, Arbortext's formatting tools are far better than when FOSI 
knowledge was a requirement. And it's probably a Good Thing from an 
efficiency perspective to minimize or avoid customer-specific 
customizations.

This only tangentially addresses your questions, but I wanted to provide 
some perspective about your situation.

-Alan


On 11/19/18 7:33 PM, ROSS, Chris wrote:
> My company is thinking of changing from Framemaker to Arbortext. I have been asked to attend a meeting, consisting mainly of managers and accountants, to represent the Tech writing population.
> I have never used Arbortext before and am finding it very difficult to download a trial version to make any viable comparison. I would appreciate any input from other writers who have used Arbortext.
> Currently:
>
> *        We use Frame for all our technical documentation and deliver usually as PDF.
>
> *        Use structured Framemaker 17.
>
> *        Have EDDs and templates for each customer which can be modified if required.
>
> *        Use defence standards.
>
> *        We use Sharepoint for our configuration management but have to either Zip the frame files or PDF them to put them in Sharepoint.
>
> *        All graphics are referenced and are in JPEG, TIFF, WMF or PNG.
>
> *        Conditional text is often used.
> The main questions I have are:
>
> *        Is Arbortex easy to use and intuitive?
>
> *        Can Frame documents be imported into Arbortex easily and work?
>
> *        How easy is it to create templates/EDDs (equivalent) in Arbortext and modify them?
>
> *        Can conditional text (or equivalent) be used in Arbortex?
>
> *        Can JPEGs, TIFFs etc. be imported into Arbortex?
>
> *        Are Arbortex and Sharepoint compatible?
>
> *        Anything that Frame can do that Arbortex wont?
>
> I am very happy using Frame and would like any valid reason for not changing over.
> Thank you.
>
>
> Chris Ross
> Senior Technical Writer
> Sustainment and Engineering Solutions
> BAE Systems Australia
>
>
<snip>

-- 
Alan Houser
Group Wellesley, Inc.
Consultant and Trainer, Technical Publishing
arh on Twitter
412-450-0532