Framemaker Lifespan?

FrameMaker versus InDesign is a red herring. The more important question is "layout tool or completely automated formatting"?

Sarah O'Keefe

Scriptorium Publishing

FrameMaker is not going to be rolled up (or out) and replaced by InDesign. This is a rumor started by folks who are clueless about the technical communication software market. The best --and most commonly used -- sturctured XML authoring tool for large document sets in the technical communication industry is Adobe FrameMaker. Do yourself a favor and get the new version and appropriate training. You'll be good to go for years ahead if you do it right.

Scriptorium Publishing just released a new book on publishing fundamentals and Adobe FrameMaker. This is a good place to start. http://www.scriptorium.com/books/unstructured-framemaker-11/

Scott Abel

The Content Wrangler

If FrameMaker and InDesign were ever to merge, I would expect it to be

in the very distant future-- not in the not-too-distant future. While I

have seen the two products becoming more alike over the years in certain

ways, I have also seen them diverge more and more in other ways at the

same time.

That's kind of like saying Toyota is going to roll the Tundra into the Camry. They're designed for different work and workflows. ID may beat FM hands down in the making things pretty department, but try to use it solely as an authoring/content creation environment and you'll quickly see the sleek sporty model may not be up to the task.

Adobe's has spent a lot of effort in the last few releases of FM to improve the Structured, XML & DITA environments in the product. If you're considering going to structured publishing, check out the various groups on XML &  DITA to see which publishing/output engines are being used. You'll be very hard pressed to find places where ID figures into the workflows.

All who've been told if and when FrameMaker and InDesign will combine, have then been brainwashed and placed into author-protection programs with new identities.

Seriously, FM's improving in epublishing. FM's offered structured authoring since version 4, while it's just beginning in ID. As Matt says, ID's typographic controls are hands-down better than FM's, but it doesn't sound like typographic superiority is a top item on your list of considerations.

IMO, the real question is "what do you expect to accomplish by migrating from unstructured FM to structured FM? The benefits of structured authoring tools are mixed with the pain of learning to use them, learning to write structured content, learning to convert existing FM unstructured documents to structured FM.

Search Google for terms like "compare FrameMaker to InDesign," "structured FrameMaker vs unstructured FrameMaker," "migrating from unstructured FrameMaker to structured FM," "value of structured FrameMaker authoring," "structured authoring tutorial," without quotes for lots of links. Also, consider posting your questions to the unstructured and structured FrameMaker forums, as well as here on the InDesign forum.

If you've found that your writing team folks resist using FrameMaker paragraph and character formats consistently, and they treat documentation style guides as mild suggestions, getting them to embrace structured authoring will not come easily.

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

jmw_ashrae wrote: I'm looking for others better acquainted with InDesign and Framemaker to weigh in on the probability of InDesign supplanting Framemaker in the not-too-distant future. My company is mulling a switch to structured authoring and XML-based content management to more easily control source documents for different print applications (mobile, web, print). We've long used unstructured Framemaker as a traditional DTP program due to several advantages it has over InDesign for the kinds of documents we publish. In the process of researching structured authoring and trying to determine whether Framemaker was adequate to our needs, several people have mentioned they suspect Framemaker will eventually be folded into InDesign, and the single program will be marketed to both the quick-to-print folks and the technical documentation audience. As I understand, one of the key strengths of Framemaker is the native XML support and structured authoring tools, so I find it hard to believe that these features could or would be easily added to InDesign. Thanks, M

I've been using each product since v1, certified expert/instructor for both, just finished an FM11 reference book, love (and "love to hate") both products.

I don't see FM folded into ID in the near future. There's too much that ID needs to address in terms of long document support and the ability to author structured content.

But if I could only get ID's typography inside of FM!!!!!!

-Matt

Matt R. Sullivan
co-author Publishing Fundamentals: Unstructured FrameMaker 11
P: 714.960.6840 | C: 714.585.2335 | matt@mattrsullivan.com

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