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Question

Adobe Framemaker V Indesign

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
September 7, 2010
4 replies
6415 views

Hi,

Probably a daft question, but:

What can Framemaker do that cannot be done in Indesign?

Reason I ask is that I am proficient in Indesign for years now, and I am doing a Masters degree at the moment.

The application that is being used in the course is Framemaker, so I am simply wondering what is the difference between them?

I have installed the trial version of Framemaker and I cannot see what the target audience would be for this application.

Any insight into the intended users of Framemaker would be appreciated so I can understand it better.

Regards

This topic has been closed for replies.

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

In general terms, they can do the same thing--it comes down to the feature-by-feature details.

Frame:

Book features are much better than InDesign's.

Setting up the TOC/lists is more complicated but has more features.

Multiple indices.

Variables are more flexible.

Conditional text has more features.

XML-based features are much better than ID's.

InDesign:

Stronger typographic features.

Better table features, inclding importing/linking to Excel files.

More third-party plugin support.

The list goes on...

I've attached an old PDF that compares the various DTP apps (I stopped with Frame 11), but many of the comparisons are still valid. One of these days, I'll have to update it...

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

SelectingDTPprogram_vCC1110.pdf

F

FrameMaker-dk

Community Expert

I believe InDesign can do all of FrameMakers stuff and better and less buggy, but two features is where my choice always goes to FrameMaker. The Book file and speed. InDesign has a book file feature which is super detailed and can handle really complex features, but it is slow. And generally operating long documents/books in InDesign is slow. It works, but slooowly!

I for one, really wish to have the excellent type rendering, handling of images, pdf quality, hyperlinking and lots and lots of really nice features in FrameMaker.

Bjørn Smalbro - FrameMaker.dk

K

kim_toronto

New Participant

This is a good comparison by feature to an ongoing question.

FrameMaker vs. InDesign Product Comparison by Adobe

P

peter minneapolis

Participating Frequently

Macnimation wrote:
Hi,
Probably a daft question, but:
What can Framemaker do that cannot be done in Indesign?
Reason I ask is that I am proficient in Indesign for years now, and I am doing a Masters degree at the moment.
The application that is being used in the course is Framemaker, so I am simply wondering what is the difference between them?
I have installed the trial version of Framemaker and I cannot see what the target audience would be for this application.
Any insight into the intended users of Framemaker would be appreciated so I can understand it better.
Regards

No problem with the question. However, it raises others you may want to look into:

* If you're very comfortable in InDesign, why consider changing to a product you're unfamiliar with?

* Does your project (thesis in this case) require anything that your current version of InDesign can't do with built-in features, free or inexpensive scripts, free or inexpensive plug-ins? If you find that InDesign CS5 lacks features, you'll have to wait for a new release that might offer them; if you are using an earlier release, CS5 may have them already.

Have you searched with Google? Here are some good starting points:

* Search for "framemaker's market" without quotes.

* Search for "framemaker thesis" without quotes.

* Search for "framemaker <specific feature name>" without quotes for more information on a feature that's present or missing.

* Search for "compare framemaker indesign <specific feature name> without quotes.

* http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=convert+InDesign+to+FrameMaker

* http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=convert+FrameMaker+to+InDesign

* http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=differences+between+FrameMaker+and+InDesign

* http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=compare+FrameMaker+to+InDesign

After you do your research, if you have questions about specific features present or missing in one or the other application, please start a new thread with the specific question as the topic.

HTH

Regards,

Peter

_______________________

Peter Gold

KnowHow ProServices

D

DarrenFMc7241336Author

Known Participant

Hi

thanks for the response.

I have indeed googled Framemaker etc and even purchased the VTC Video Training on Framwemaker 9.

That program simply seems to explain the working of the Application and how to use the toolbars etc, but does not explain who would use it or why.

The reason why I cannot use Indesign, is that the projects must be done through Framemaker, as this is the application being used in the Course.

I did ask if I could use Indesign but was told no, it must be Framemaker....

Unless of course there is a way to save Indesign files as .fm??

I asked the question to ask why would someone use Framemaker over Indesign as they both seem to be Desktop Publishing tools.

Framemaker seems to target Technical Writing, would that be correct (from what I deduced since I started this thread)?

Regards

R

rcook1

New Participant

Macnimation wrote:
I asked the question to ask why would someone use Framemaker over Indesign as they both seem to be Desktop Publishing tools.
Framemaker seems to target Technical Writing, would that be correct (from what I deduced since I started this thread)?

This is what can currently be found on the web:

http://www.adobe.com/ap/products/framemaker/comparison.html (old, FM8 vs. ID CS3)

http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers/2009-October/018297.html (newer, FM9)

Actually both comparisons aren't complete and/or still completely correct. With about two major InDesign version updates for each FM version update, ID comes closer. Often with features former FM (Mac) users requested . Each new version of ID has some features which were "taken" from the FM feature set (this time headers spanning columns, in previous versions there were cross references, variables, paragraph numbering, automatically adding new pages when required, etc.).

In my personal experience FM is still faster, more stable and reliable for really big documents/books with many graphics, a better and more complete index/list generation, is better supported by translation memory applications. But in the end the gap gets smaller, as far as only DTP is required. And FM has its quirks, too.

Bernd

IMHO, the difference is largely in the presentation of the UI, and the complexity of the software.

After all, they're both Adobe products and they're both tending to acquire each other's clever features more and more with each release.

I used PageMaker 5 for a couple of years (hated it), then we ditched it in favour of FM7, which I have used daily for about 7 years, for producing technical manuals of 200-300 pages.

Recently, we bought CS5 with ID and FM9. I only use the most basic functionality of ID (long story...).

I still find FM a joy to use - it does exactly what we want, and all the important tools are right there on my panels.

ID has enormous capability for precisely customising stylish, colourful layouts, but for technical, text-heavy books it's a case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. On my 5-yr old PC, it's slow, crash-prone, and unforgiving. The file sizes are much larger.

FM on the other hand was always very slick, quick, lean and clean, and version 9 seems bomb-proof so far.

FM is the cure for Microsoft Word-induced stress (but don't get me started on that subject ...)

Roger Cook

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