Re: Recommended Applications

[marcia whitmore <marcia -at- INTERCON -dot- COM>]

> The reason I asked for more
> information is I want to be able to recommend several packages for
> review, and possibly one to start off with. I also wanted to see what
> people like out there, and if there was something else I should
> consider trying out first, or if there are features I should be looking
> for now.

Although it's not clear what all of your criteria are, for the sake of a
balanced spreadsheet on DTP products, you probably ought to consider Quark
XPress. It handles color and pre-press preparation very well. I've seen it
used for long documents (up to 425 pages) as well as non-technical books,
newsletters,and marketing literature. It produces nicer looking type than
Frame, in my experience, especially when it comes to kerning. On the other
hand, it is somewhat more difficult to use than PageMaker, and it doesn't
seem to have been designed with creating and maintaining long documents in
mind, the way Frame and Interleaf were. So it lacks some features. However,
numerous extensions to the product are available, and you should be able to
obtain a list of them through Quark.

My suggestion would be to call an account rep for each major product you're
considering and obtain product spec sheets if you haven't gone this route
already.

(It's definitely interesting to get personal insight through this mailing
list, too, though!)

Marcia Whitmore
Publications Manager
InterCon Systems, Inc.
Herndon, VA
marcia -at- intercon -dot- com