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joeb52841174
Participating Frequently
September 14, 2015
Answered

Adobe FrameMaker seems like a very difficult program to learn. Should I buy?

  • September 14, 2015
  • 4 replies
  • 1921 views


Every time I've tried to explore Adobe products I get discouraged because the written material and video clips are confusing. I tried using Photoshop on a trial basis once and could not even get into creating something simple - it is not intuitive at all.

Now, I am exploring the possibility of adopting a program to import all our training manuals and PowerPoint presentations in order to make updated versions and create new material. The ease of use and confidence is not flowing toward me with FrameMaker even though the website and YouTube videos trash Microsoft Word.

Who's going to convince me that I should pursue FrameMaker?

Joe

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer FieryPantone

    Who's going to convince me that I should pursue FrameMaker?

    From what you say, only you :-}

    OK, so the support material for this large, powerful product may not be up to scratch … but if you see a possible match after considering Error 7103's more specific questions then at least give FM a try. I'll not be the only person in this forum who persisted after the initial shock and now finds FM as comfortable as a third hand – a tool that lets me concentrate on the job I'm doing, rather than battle with the software I'm using.

    My first exposure to FrameMaker was arriving at my desk one Monday morning and finding the box (CDs, yet, and the pretty good hard-copy manual) for 5.5 – with a post-it from my manager "Niels: install … use … learn", and I didn't manage to get any training until FM 7. Later, I was lucky to pick up the task of guiding a colleague who had never used FM before and was suddenly given the task of producing a 600+ page regulatory manual that required many cross-references, referenced graphics, thoughtful use of conditional text … question by question, we managed it, and it wasn't long before the questions changed from "Can FM …" to "How do I …" as my colleague realised he had the tool for the job and could trust it.

    This forum is an excellent place for "how do I …" questions, once you decide you want to learn. But tell us a bit more about what you need/hope to achieve first, and the conclusion might be that another environment would suit you better.

    4 replies

    S
    Stefan Gentz
    Legend
    January 10, 2016

    I'm not sure, if FrameMaker is the right choice here, to be honest. The point is, FrameMaker is more for "structured" information (based, or based not on XML). I'm confident that you will not become happy with FrameMaker when it comes to creating new pieces of training when you come from PowerPoint. PowerPoint and FrameMaker are simply completely different tools with completely different approaches.

    But maybe you want to have a look at the new Adobe Captivate Prime.

    You can get a first idea of it here:

    Cheers,

    *Stefan.

    J
    joeb52841174Author
    Participating Frequently
    September 15, 2015

    Thanks Bob and Fiery for responding. I have 5 volumes of training material that has been created on PowerPoint. The printed material that I assemble the manuals with are found on the "Notes View" of each slide presentation. Each page has a small window of the slide that is on the screen when presenting and the content of what is being presented appears on the same page. I went this direction because Word was too frustrating to work with for what I wanted to do. I need to update and revise all the material now and I thought that perhaps this would be a good time to bring it all over into a better platform which FrameMaker appears to be. However, like other Adobe products that I've tried to use or have seen other people use I feel that the learning curve is huge and the support to learn it is lacking.

    I signed up for an Adobe Creative Cloud account where I became totally frustrated and cancelled it because I had no guidance or support from Adobe to learn it. Thus, my hesitation to take on FrameMaker.

    Joe

    Jeff_Coatsworth
    Community Expert
    Jeff_CoatsworthCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 15, 2015

    FM is designed for long document management – it came out of the book industry. From what you’re describing, you have little snippets of content attached to your slide decks. How are you wanting to present this? What have you done in the past?

    J
    joeb52841174Author
    Participating Frequently
    September 15, 2015

    Hi Jeff, I have 5 different training manuals and the "pages-in-the-binder" content has been created using the Notes View of PowerPoint. I project the slides on the screen which basically highlights what is on each page of the manual. I have multiple sentences, paragraphs, activities, pictures... anything that would go into a manual. I'm not convinced that my solution is the best way to create, store and revise manuals. I'm looking for something that FrameMaker seems to offer but I have no idea if I'm going to be happy with it. The sell job has left me with more questions than answers. I will go back to the Adobe website and ask for a representative to take me through it but if they regurgitate from their YouTube tutorials and reading material I will not be a happy camper.

    Thanks, Joe

    F
    FieryPantoneCorrect answer
    Legend
    September 15, 2015

    Who's going to convince me that I should pursue FrameMaker?

    From what you say, only you :-}

    OK, so the support material for this large, powerful product may not be up to scratch … but if you see a possible match after considering Error 7103's more specific questions then at least give FM a try. I'll not be the only person in this forum who persisted after the initial shock and now finds FM as comfortable as a third hand – a tool that lets me concentrate on the job I'm doing, rather than battle with the software I'm using.

    My first exposure to FrameMaker was arriving at my desk one Monday morning and finding the box (CDs, yet, and the pretty good hard-copy manual) for 5.5 – with a post-it from my manager "Niels: install … use … learn", and I didn't manage to get any training until FM 7. Later, I was lucky to pick up the task of guiding a colleague who had never used FM before and was suddenly given the task of producing a 600+ page regulatory manual that required many cross-references, referenced graphics, thoughtful use of conditional text … question by question, we managed it, and it wasn't long before the questions changed from "Can FM …" to "How do I …" as my colleague realised he had the tool for the job and could trust it.

    This forum is an excellent place for "how do I …" questions, once you decide you want to learn. But tell us a bit more about what you need/hope to achieve first, and the conclusion might be that another environment would suit you better.

    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    Bob_NilandCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 15, 2015

    What do you need to do?

    How many books/documents are involved? What is their support life and what future edits are anticipated?

    What is the workflow (print, web, Help, PDF, and do you need color management)?

    Multi-lingual? Might be translated?

    What DTP/WP apps are you already competent with?

    Since FM9 or so, FM has not had a printed manual, which used to be pretty comprehensive and well indexed; and neither of those are true for the later PDFs I've seen, The best user manual for the product is now a third-party product not even sold by Adobe. I've remarked in the past that this might be consistent with an objective of selling the product only to people who already know how to use it.

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