[Framers] Long-time FM Unstructured User Needs Structured Advice

[Jay Mahler]

Hi, All,

I've been using FM since Version 3, but I haven't had to use it much lately (as a matter of fact, I'll need to sign up for a new license). When Structured FM first came out, I checked it out but decided that the steep learning curve wasn't worth it for the documents I was writing. Now, I have a document need that looks perfect for Structured, and I need to ask the experts some questions. I'll be preparing some manufacturing process sheets that have a standard format with a couple of images and limited, standard text fields. I'd like to create a document that's easy for manufacturing engineers to maintain, so I'm thinking that the appropriate approach is to create an Access database with required text fields and links to the images using a form for MEs to update/add process sheets (currently, the MEs have an Excel spreadsheet with each process sheet as a separate worksheet). If I remember correctly, Structured FM can easily generate pages based on database rows. My questions are:

  *   Does this sound like an appropriate plan?
  *   Are there templates available that I can modify?
  *   Any suggested learning tools for me?

Thanks,
Jay Mahler
734-645-6298