[Framers] Framers Digest, Vol 187, Issue 7-. Re: Why so many of us feel the way we do about Adobe

[Orly Zimmerman]

HI All, 
I've been monitoring this conversation and just wanted to chime in... 

I don't mean to disregard your complaints at all - but, I personally haven't had any serious problems with FM. 
I had a very annoying FM-to-PDF problem a few months ago.  The Adobe engineers reached out to me  and helped me solve it. 

I only recently returned to using FM about 2 years ago after about a 4-yr hiatus. My company bought it based on the engineers requests - before I even got there. 
 Prior to those 4 years, my company dealt with all installation problems and they obviously footed all upgrade bills. 

Now that I'm at a startup I had thought about using LaTeX for a bit - since it's free and the engineers like that as well as Markdown. LaTeX would be a learning curve. That is, I would need to learn how to create a book from a number of files, use X-refs, variables and conditions the way we use in FM, if they exist at all. 

While I don't think it's worth my time, it might be worth my time if we needed online help - because those same LaTeX files would be able to be used as the files for the basis of a static site generator for online help.

For now - our customers are used to getting PDFs and are happy with the output. So I'm happy with FM - it's still the simplest, yet most robust and stable option I have for creating books. 

Regards, 
Orly 
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2021 00:00:20 +0000
From: Syed Zaeem Hosain <Syed.Hosain at aeris.net>
To: An email list for people using Adobe FrameMaker software.
	<framers at lists.frameusers.com>
Subject: Re: [Framers] Why so many of us feel the way we do about
	Adobe
Message-ID:
	<BYAPR18MB2983FEA2608D16081FF8479CF0BA9 at BYAPR18MB2983.namprd18.prod.outlook.com>
	
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Well ... I don't bash FrameMaker because of its capabilities, but I do bash them for the upgrade pricing changes over the years.

For me to see the benefits of stability that Reng Winfried says is now available (since FM 7), would require paying for a full FM license - eek!

Of course, I do not like subscription models ... this last evolution guarantees that I will not update from FM 12. When that stops working for whatever reason, *good*! I am not using it much anymore anyway ...



To answer your other question, yes, I have an alternative ... works "for my purposes". I emphasize "for my purposes" since it is not for everybody, of course!

My current flow is LaTeX using the TeXStudio editor. 

Not WYSISYG, but ... one click gets me PDF output in a window on the side. *And*, I can click on the PDF, and TeXstudio opens the *specific* file with the LaTeX source, and puts my cursor right where I need it!

Consistent output? Yes. Many people have provided all the necessary add-ons for just about any standardized technical format that you might ever want.

Large books? Yes. No issues with multiple-hundred-page documents for me. I keep my chapters and re-usable text paragraphs in separate source files, so they can be re-used in other "books" too.

Variables? Of course! Defined at the top level or wherever, and these can be over-ridden in a given source file for local use. 

Equations? Beautiful! but you do have to spend a tiny amount of time learning how. After that curve (it is not tough), LaTeX and TeX have better equation output than *any* other tool I have ever seen ... for technical documents, this is perfect!

Tables? Yes. But you do have to get used to doing them without WYSIWYG ... the rapid PDF generation is what makes it work for me!

Help files? I do not know. I have not tried creating these from LaTeX at all (since I don't need them), but I would be surprised if this is difficult to make happen!

And, best of all, the price is right: my current flow is FREE ... ?

Z

P.S. My latest infuriating issue is Acrobat Pro. Which seems to want to check its license status with Adobe far too often, does not "get through" to whatever system it is trying to reach, and stops working till I restart my computer or reboot my router or stop using it for a while! 

This is helping me move to FlexiPDF faster ... frankly, the next time that Acrobat Pro stops, it will no longer be the default tool selected in Windows for PDF files.