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Re: Absence of FrameMaker from your skill set -- what does it say?
Subject:Re: Absence of FrameMaker from your skill set -- what does it say? From:beelia <beelia -at- gmail -dot- com> To:Kat Kuvinka <katkuvinka -at- hotmail -dot- com> Date:Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:52:39 -0700
I used Frame exclusively for twelve years (almost always on UNIX) before
migrating to help authoring - RoboHelp for 2 years, then Flare for 3.
In the 80s and 90s, you couldn't get hired as a tech writer in Silicon
Valley unless you knew Frame. But now many companies are phasing it out
because they are implementing DITA, and XMeTaL and associated DITA tools are
becoming very popular.
If I were starting today, that's where I would put my self-training efforts.
Bee
On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 12:47 PM, Kat Kuvinka <katkuvinka -at- hotmail -dot- com>wrote:
>
>
> At another job, we were heavy into FM. We hired a contractor who *said* she
> knew FM, but didn't. I spent many hours answering her questions about how to
> do basic stuff.
>
>
>
> When I learned FM, it was brand new and we used it on Unix (Sun/SGI)
> workstations. The whole team used it, s/w developers, managers, testers,
> etc. Nobody used MS DOS or Windows! It was cool. And nobody was trained. We
> all learned it on our own.
>
>
>
> By the way, why are there no FrameMaker sessions at the Adobe MAX
> conference?
>
>
>
> kat
>
>
> >
> > Whether to list FrameMaker skills as a requirement or a "plus."
> > You need to decide what you want from a new writer. Do you want someone
> who has
> > skills comparable to your current team (some FM users and some not) who
> either
> > knows FM or could learn it along with the rest of your current non-users,
> or do
> > you want someone who knows FM well enough to jump right in without a
> learning
> > curve and possibly assist your current non-users in making their own
> > transitions?
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Windows Live™ Hotmail®: Celebrate the moment with your favorite sports
> pics. Check it out.
>
>http://www.windowslive.com/Online/Hotmail/Campaign/QuickAdd?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_QA_HM_sports_photos_072009&cat=sports
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
> Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
> 2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
>http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
>
> Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
> authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
> once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control!
>http://www.helpandmanual.com/
>
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-