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Subject:Re: Which software to use? From:Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 6 Jun 1997 15:54:33 -0700
Carol -
Of the three packages you're considering
>
> 1. PageMaker
> 2. FrameMaker
> 3. Interleaf
I would pick Frame way over the other two. The criteria I've used to
evaluate software like this are (a) compatibility with other packages,
(2) ease of use, (3) the learning curve, (4) cost per seat, and (5)
technical features including ability to handle multi-file projects.
Pagemaker is not a document construction package. It is essentially a
page layout program into which you import text and graphic files from
other programs. However, my experience with Pagemaker lead me to limit
the number of pages per file to 20 or less - which is an unreasonable
limit for most documents with multiple chapters. Pagemaker is
relatively easy to use and to learn, and doesn't cost as much as the
others.
Framemaker has been designed to be easy to use and to handle multifile
projects with relative ease. Its learning curve is notoriously slower
than that for Word, for instance, but if you've learned one word
processor, you've learned most of *any* word processor - the rest is
mostly icing anyway. It's easy to import just about anything into
Frame, although exporting from Frame has been more difficult until
recently. Frame is not cheap, but network licensing arrangements can
make the per-seat cost more affordable.
Interleaf, however, has the equivalent of urban legends about crashing
in the middle of multi-file projects, being difficult to learn, and
being extremeley expensive. Importing is about as easy as Frame but
exporting is somewhat easier. I've heard pros and cons about its ease
of use, but most of the positive comments have come from people who have
been using it for a long time.
You can probably get a very good idea of performance of these packages
by doing a search on the web for benchmarking articles. These should
give you statistics about the strengths and weaknesses of each of the
programs in a particular environment, running a specific set of tasks.
Good luck!
Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems
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