Kevin: When I absolutely have to provide someone with an RTF or Word version of a Frame manual, I use BCL easyConverter Desktop (Word Version) (http://www.pdfonline.com/easyconverter/).
It's $20 and produces better output than the Frame12 to RTF option - although it's definitely not perfect. Alison Alison Craig | Technical Documentation Lead Ultrasonix | 130-4311 Viking Way | Richmond, BC V6V 2K9 | analogicultrasound.com<http://www.analogicultrasound.com> T 604-279-8550 ext 127 | F 604-279-8559 From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kevin Ryan Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 12:21 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs Hi, I could use the advice of some Frame veterans on whether a switch from Frame to Flare might be a delusion-inspired wrong turn for me, or possibly the right way to go. My company's primary documentation output is PDF user/training/reference guides authored on FrameMaker 7. Not the current Frame version, I know, but sufficient with our good templates to produce solid, professional-looking documents we're proud of. Other current deliverables include context-sensitive HTML topics produced via Mif2go and a limited number of "Process Assistance" MS Word topics. These latter are a sort of MS-Word help equivalent that our customers can download from our application, edit if necessary, and even upload back into our application for others if they want to. I create Process Assistance MS-Word topics by cutting from Frame and pasting into Word, followed by manual reformatting (ouch). Our customers (utilities) have been requesting another MS Word output: Editable MS Word versions of our 20-300 page PDF manuals so that they can edit them for their own purposes (such as internal training). Unfortunately, we've been unable to find a workable Frame-to-Word conversion process to this end. I can do manual reformatting to Word in our short Process Assistance topics, but to do it on entire manuals would give me a nervous breakdown. So, with better MS-Word output generation as my primary goal, I've been considering a switch to Flare. Its capability to output in PDF, Word, and HTML seems as though it might ultimately streamline our processes. As I test Flare by my 30-day trial, though, I'm reminded of the many things FrameMaker does really well - things I might be losing if I made the switch: For example, precise page layouts, complex graphics, robust tables. To its credit, Flare seems to offer output versatility, excellent documentation and support, and a lot of Marketing momentum. Am I misguiding myself? Barking up the wrong tree? Thanks for any opinions or comments. Kevin Ryan Technical Writer [cid:[email protected]] Systems & Software, Inc. 426 Industrial Avenue Suite 140 Williston, VT 05495 802.865.1170 phone 802.865.1171 fax ________________________________ Save the Date! 2015 Harris Customer Training Conference:<http://www1.harriscomputer.com/en/conference/> October 21-23, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia - Atlanta Marriott Marquis.
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