Hey Wendy, hello from a fellow Mechanicsburg, PA framer! My general summary on structure is that it takes a lot of time and planning to set up, but once it is set up, it's much easier to use than unstructured Frame. I'll second what Scott said, you have to know that you're doing it for the right reason. So it's great that you're asking so many questions. If your superiors have clear goals in mind, that's great. But if this request is just because XML is trendy right now and they don't really know what they want to achieve, that could easily lead you down the wrong road. If you do go down this road, I'd encourage you to do it yourself, or at least learn about it as much as you can along the way. You want to be the owner of all this knowledge so you can be self-dependent and not have to rely on others to always be telling you what to do and how to do it.
A couple quick notes on other things you said: - It's easy to convert content to structured FrameMaker, provided that the original content is consistently formatted in some way. If someone sends you a Word document that strictly follows a template and uses consistent styles, you can convert that very easily by mapping Word styles to FrameMaker elements. However, if the Word source does not use styles, it's going to take a lot of time. - You can do manual workarounds in structure, but the point of structure is to not have that kind of stuff. Maybe you can refine your process in that regard, and maybe not. But manual overrides of any type are generally frowned upon when you're using structure. - I've found it easier to train people who have never used FrameMaker to use structured Frame than unstructured Frame. As I'm sure you already know, you're not going to find a whole lot of people in south-central PA with FrameMaker experience, anyway. So I just worry about the other skills I need, and not waste time looking for FrameMaker on the resume. One final note, we have a small STC chapter here in Harrisburg with a couple of real structure junkies in the membership, myself included. We've always invited non-STC members to attend our chapter events, so if you were interested, I'd be glad to put you on the mailing list. Regards, Gary This e-mail, and any attachments are strictly confidential and intended for the addressee(s) only. The content may also contain legal, professional or other privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately, by return of email, and then delete the e-mail and any attachments. You should not disclose, copy or take any action in reliance on this transmission. Please ensure you have adequate virus protection before you open or detach any documents from this transmission. Advantica, Inc. is a company incorporated in Delaware with its headquarters at 600 Bent Creek Blvd., Suite 100, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050 U.S.A. Advantica Ltd. is a company registered in England and Wales with company No. 3294136 and registered office at Holywell Park, New Ashby Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3GR, United Kingdom. ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________
