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In case this message violates Eric's posting rules, I ask that you
e-mail me privately. If enough people are interested in the responses, I
will post a summary to the list.
I need your advice. Here's the situation: I am charged with writing
hardcopy user's guides and online help for a product written for Windows
95.
I am taking over a user's guide originally done in Word 2.0, which has
since been imported into Word 7.0 by my predecessor. He also turned the
hardcopy version of the manual into online help using RoboHelp (version
3.0?).
Because FrameMaker is reportedly better for producing big docs than
Word, I am considering importing the user's guide from Word 7.0 into
FrameMaker 5.5, then saving the FrameMaker files to RTF and bringing
them into RoboHelp. (The other reason to go to FrameMaker is that the
rest of my company is already using it, and they want to streamline
document production from one authoring package.)
I have several technical questions:
1. Do you think I am wise to consider FrameMaker for producing online
help in RoboHelp, or would I be better off to stick with Word (and why)?
2. Can I import Word 7.0 docs directly into FrameMaker 5.x? Adobe tells
me I have to say Word 7.0 files to Word 6.0, then import into FrameMaker
5.5.
3. What components of the Word 7.0 files will be lost in the import into
FrameMaker (graphics, paragraph styles, etc.)?
4. What modifications will I have to make to my Word docs before
importing into FrameMaker?
5. What components of the FrameMaker files will be lost in the import
into RoboHelp?
6. What modifications will I have to make to my FMaker docs before
importing into RoboHelp?
I'm grateful for your help.
Cheers,
Linda
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