[Framers] Frame vs InDesign

[Hanson, Dan (BWFS-MPLS)]

We are facing the same situation; most info in Frame, but several 20-30 page manuals in InDesign.  I've not used InDesign, but over the last year have been re-creating everything in structured Frame (DITA).  Have not worked single-sourcing into my workflow yet, but I really like not managing paragraph tags and the Publish to HTML5 & PDF options work well.

Dan Hanson 

-----Original Message-----
From: Framers <framers-bounces+dan.hanson=bwpackagingsystems.com at lists.frameusers.com> On Behalf Of Alan Houser
Sent: Friday, November 19, 2021 9:11 AM
To: An email list for people using Adobe FrameMaker software. <framers at lists.frameusers.com>
Subject: Re: [Framers] Frame vs InDesign


[EXTERNAL E-MAIL] 




Instead of “migrating to a new tool to do the same thing”, I can’t help but wonder whether this is an opportunity to redesign your authoring and publishing workflow. You may have regulatory requirements for PDF. But if not, I might consider an HTML-centric, instead of a PDF-centric, publishing workflow.

Addressing your InDesign question directly — on a very quick sampling of the public-facing technical documentation on your website, I don’t see anything that would be problematic in InDesign (or even — gasp! — disciplined use of MS Word). I acknowledge that it’s not possible to tell how or whether you are using FrameMaker’s reuse features like variables and conditional text.

But you may have an opportunity here to more tightly integrate with your organization’s development processes, better align with your customers' expectations, and improve the efficiency of your authoring and publishing workflow. And migrating to InDesign won’t do any of these things.

Just my thoughts, which may be totally inappropriate for your situation.

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



> On Nov 18, 2021, at 6:28 PM, Frank Ripp <fripp at pacificbiosciences.com> wrote:
> 
> New management is pushing for the overall use of InDesign for marketing collateral and technical documentation at my company.
> I'm a long time Frame user, producing a set of software documentation ranging from release notes, installation guides, API guides, and a 160-page user guide. All are delivered as PDF files.
> 
> I've been asked to figure out whether or not InDesign will fit my documentation needs, and have many questions.
> 
> 
>  *   Most importantly: Can InDesign generate good PDF files, with working links?
>  *   Is InDesign good for large documents (100-160 pages), with TOCs, and lots of internal and external cross-references?
>  *   Can I transfer my existing paragraph and character styles from Frame to InDesign?
>  *   Can I import a Frame book into InDesign?
> 
> Has anyone out there successfully switched from Frame to Indesign?
> Is this a non-starter for the type of documents I produce?
> 
> Any advice, thoughts or pointers are greatly appreciated!
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Frank Ripp
> SR. Technical Writer
> Pacific Biosciences
> 1305 O'Brien Drive,
> Menlo Park, CA 94025
> (650) 521-8315

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