Maxwell Hoffmann wrote: > I have 3 potential customers who are rejecting FrameMaker in favor of > AuthorIt. All 3 accounts are in e_Learning. Does anyone have an experienced > opinion on what areas AuthorIt may have any advantages over FrameMaker? > > I want to make sure that these accounts are making an informed opinion. I > have gone over AuthorIt's website fairly thoroughly, and a comparison with > FrameMaker is not obvious, based on their data.
I have evaluated AuthorIT on a couple of occasions but not built a production system with it (yet). AuthorIT is very attractive for users because it is based on Word, but offers a template-controlled environment (within Word's templating abilities), good-enough content management and repurposing, decent access to translation tools, and import/export to XML, Frame and other formats including online help. It's not a tool you would use if print is a key output format for you, unless you are prepared to put up with Word's limited abilities in this area. Many documentation professionals (and all designers/typographers) are appalled by aspects of AuthorIT, which is crude in many ways compared with Frame. But it has a fairly shallow learning curve for authors and editors, and is relatively inexpensive. It suits organisations because it imposes a documentation workflow model which may replace a fairly disorganised existing documentation 'system'. It is proprietary and locked to Microsoft workstation and server solutions. -- Mark Barratt Text Matters Information design: we help explain things using language | design | systems | process improvement ______________________________________________________ phone +44 (0)118 986 8313 email markb at textmatters.com skype mark_barratt web http://www.textmatters.com
