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My department switched several years ago from Word to FrameMaker because
of similar problems with long documents. I find FrameMaker 4.0 extremely
easy to use for my longest documents--as many as 30 chapters and over 500
pages. I use a Macintosh Quadra 800 with 16 Mbytes of RAM. You definitely
need a more powerful computer for these tasks. FrameMaker 4.0 uses what
they call a book to allow you to work with many files (I have used up to
40) simultaneously. I seldom have a problem with the autonumbering of
chapters or sections not working, or with the cross-references being
incorrect. As a bonus, every heading and index entry is automatically
hypertexted so you can jump to it with a single key combination. To
update everything--chapter numbers, cross-references, index enteries--
take one ommand on a menu, and to print an entire book--title page,
front matter, all chapters, index--takes one other command in a menu.
I don't work for Frame Technology (it sounds like I do!), but I sure
like their product. I have used word processors and editors since they
first came out in the 1970s (or was it earlier), and I think FrameMaker
is the best yet for technical writing.
Jim Welch, Supervisor, Technical Publications, Varian NMR, Palo Alto, Calif.
