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A
Anonymous
March 6, 2011
Question

Is Framemaker a better option than InDesign for footnote-intensive reports?

  • March 6, 2011
  • 1 reply
  • 771 views

We currently used InDesign to layout our reports and briefings, and are exploring it's XML capabilities with a view to output in multiple formats: high-res PDFs, web pages within our CMS, and e-Pubs. We are unable to tag our hyperlinked footnotes for XML output in InDesign, and wondered if Framemaker would be a better tool. Our layouts are in colour, in a 2-column format, contain charts and tables and occasional exhibits, and we adhere to a strict template with both paragraph and character styles.

Any direction or insights would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Andrea

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    1 reply

    Michael_Müller-Hillebrand
    Michael_Müller-Hillebrand
    Legend
    March 6, 2011

    Andrea,

    Yes, FrameMaker supports footnotes and allows them to be tagged for XML output. But some people are not happy with the layout options, because footnotes are placed completely automatic. The footnote text always appears in the column with the footnote, you cannot control any beautifying column or page breaks.

    Setting up a working XML template in FrameMaker is not an easy task, but you were not expecting this after your experience with InDesign’s limited XML features, were you?

    But before going this way, you should consider saving your INDD documents to IDML (or the stories to ICML) and then using XSLT to extract whatever you want. This would save you from XML-tagging the documents and as long as you follow your template strict it should be possible to extract the required data from the XML representation of your InDesign documents.

    - Michael

    A
    Anonymous
    March 7, 2011

    Hi Michael,

    Thanks very much for your helpful answer. And the automatic footnote placement you are describing in Framemaker sounds very similar to our experience in InDesign. BTW, I was hoping to attach a PDF of one of our briefings, in case there are elements that we use in our InDesign layout that Framemaker can't handle, but don't see an option within this forum to do that...is it possible, and if so, would you be receptive to providing that kind of feedback?

    Andrea

    Michael_Müller-Hillebrand
    Michael_Müller-Hillebrand
    Legend
    March 7, 2011

    Andrea,

    Please make one or more screenshots, you can add them to your post. This would be helpful.

    - Michael

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