Re: Rumor about FrameMaker - is it true?

[William Gaffga <wilg -at- gibbscam -dot- com>]

That article is two years old ... More than half of the QXP users I 
personally know have dumped XPress in favor of InDesign. The big test 
is the next year with a new ID and Quark continuing its trend of 
putting out irrelevant new versions. The "features" they've added in v6 
& v6.5. Here's what they're pushing for v6.5:
â 	Import native Adobe Photoshop documents (.psd files) into 
QuarkXPress and exploit the power of multi-layer Photoshop images 
without leaving QuarkXPress.
â 	Place guides on a master pageâs pasteboard and display them 
automatically in your layout.
â	Group tables with other QuarkXPress items including other tables, 
picture boxes, and text boxes.
â	Customize printing features such as saving output settings for custom 
bleeds as print styles.
â	Simplify IT management with support for Citrix servers and run the 
application off a server instead of an individual userâs computer.

The only real change there of any magnitude is the importing and 
editing of PSDs ... which is nice but most designers and layout people 
I know won't care about that ... they want to do the work in PS, where 
the real changes can be made.

QXP 6 was seen as being a failure ... it took forever to come out and 
when it did it had a mediocre feature set:
â 	Layout spaces - a new way to organize documents so that all elements 
of a project (brochure, business card, whatever) are easily accessed 
from one location
â 	Synchronized text allows for easy updates throughout a project
â 	Improved tables, multiple undo, better layers
â 	Integrated basic PDF export & Basic Web publishing
â	A Layers tab in the Print dialog box that provides control over layer 
output
â	run under OS X

QXP has been playing catch-up to ID and at the same time they are not 
fulfilling the needs of their core users (better software, full 
OpenType support, transparency, etc), but are mis-focused on turning 
what was once the finest layout app into a web page development tool. 
The ONLY reason they are still hanging around is that a lot of large 
companies (newspapers, publishers) still have XP and have been waiting 
to see what happens before spending huge amounts of money moving their 
production systems to another solution. Each release causes another 
group of people to leave QXP behind.

Will.

On Jan 12, 2005, at 11:50 PM, Phillip St. James wrote: