David, I think Deirdre, especially since she is a new user, nailed it. FrameMaker is much, much more versatile than Word for long documents. More of the underlying control is exposed and available to you. The FrameMaker documentation has never been as useful to me as having a guru on call.
My suggestions: Dive into a low-risk project. Do not hesitate to post questions to this forum. Remember that your Word skills may not transfer directly, but the general problem-solving, formatting, creative skills will. ...regards, Kelly. > -----Original Message----- > From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Deirdre Reagan > Sent: 2008-04-29 08:25 > To: Chinell, David F (GE EntSol, Security) > Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com > Subject: Re: Learning curve for FrameMaker > > Hi David: > > I'm in the same situation as you. I'm well versed in Word, and have > just started learning FrameMaker. I've been working with someone > else's FrameMaker templates for four months now. The learning curve > for me is fairly steep, but mostly because FrameMaker is conceptually > different than Word. Learning the commands is easy, but learning that > the commands exist has been much more difficult. > > FrameMaker isn't very intuitive and consists of many layers (body > pages, master pages, and reference pages, for instance) to make even > the simplest document function. > > It took me about three weeks of playing around with the templates, > reading FrameMaker information on the web, and asking questions to > this group before I felt comfortable redesigning the templates. I > still don't know how to do basic tasks, like making an autogenerated > file (TOC, LOT) look like what I want it to look like, but I can > troubleshoot the existing templates when they act up. > > So, for me, the curve is fairly steep. For what it's worth, I'm now > (four months into it) considered the office expert, even though three > other people have been using it longer than I have. > > Deirdre > > > > > > > On 4/28/08, Chinell, David F (GE EntSol, Security) <David.Chinell at ge.com> wrote: > > Listers: > > > > I apologize in advance for asking an admittedly vague question, but any > > experiences or information you can share will be appreciated. > > > > I've focused largely on MS Word for the past fifteen years of my career, > > and have become quite adept at designing templates for technical > > publications. I'm currently in a shop that uses both Word and > > FrameMaker, and have been offered "ownership" of the FrameMaker > > templates as well. I have only the slightest experience of FrameMaker. > > > > Can anyone hazard a guess as to how long it might take me to get up to > > speed with FrameMaker, to the point of being able to do more good than > > harm with the templates I inherit for maintenance, or create from > > scratch? > > > > I can only add that we're using FrameMaker 7.0 to create print > > publications. That is, we're not using SGML or XML or any of the > > features of structured FrameMaker. > > > > Sincerely, > > > > David Chinell > > _______________________________________________ > > > > > > You are currently subscribed to Framers as deirdre.reagan at gmail.com. > > > > Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. > > > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > > framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com > > or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/deirdre.reagan%40gma il.com > > > > Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit > > http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. > > > _______________________________________________ > > > You are currently subscribed to Framers as kmcdaniel at pavtech.com. > > Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com > or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/kmcdaniel%40pavtech. com > > Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit > http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
