Re: OT: Word (was Re: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs)
Hi Steve Very amusing, but only to those observing. I'm sure we all have similar horror stories. Mine was a 75-page RFP that Sales said has to go out this afternoon. The future of the known universe depended on it. The sales guy had fiddled, and it had blown up, so he passed it to me. By about 4.30 pm I had saved the world. I later found out that Sales used the same RFP document for everything, just changing the specifics and re-saving it. Who needs templates? You are right on the money. It's a nightmare scenario. The OP's need for training versions sounds like just the job for conditional text, or for attribute filtering if the content is structured. Roger On 26/02/2015 11:36 AM, Steve Rickaby wrote: I do not think I have posted this story to this group before, so, as Word is being discussed... This really happened: I was there, I watched. Long time ago, I worked as a contractor for a small but upwardly mobile company. At that time the staff occupied a single floor of an office block in West London, a couple of directors, a secretary and a bunch of very bright and highly-paid engineers. One of the senior staff came in with the words 'This memo is urgent: can you get it out quickly.' (Probably a strategic error, triggering a local perturbance in the Universal Murphy Field). The secretary set to work typing up the one-page memo in Word. Something went wrong, she struggled with it, and got nowhere. So she called over one of the very bright and highly-paid engineers to help. He struggled with it and got nowhere, so he called over another very bright and highly-paid engineer. I don't know what they were struggling with, but the words 'I've never seen it do that before' occurred more than once. After a while most of the company's technical staff were helping the poor girl to lash Word into producing this one-page memo. Finally they succeeded, and the print command was issued. The printer jammed. One of the highly-paid engineers unjammed the printer. The print command was issued again... and again the printer jammed. I cannot remember how many times this happened, but I do distinctly remember that at the very point when the printer was finally coaxed into life, just as I thought 'Surely, nothing else can go wrong'... the toner cartridge exploded. I am not making this up. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
Both native RTF from FM12 and Mif2Go Word export will work to a certain extent, but unfortunately both can have major shortcomings depending on the nature of your content. 1. FM12’s save as RTF drops all index markers that have been placed in footnotes. An absolute deal-killer if you index citations. 2. I have not been able to get Mif2Go to be able to produce “real” footnotes in Word. What you get is text that looks like footnotes but really is not, e.g., if someone were to insert or delete footnotes, the faux footnotes do not automatically renumber, and the in-text footnote references are just raw text for appearance’s sake. Converting these faux footnotes to real ones and deleting out the text simulations prior to handing off the document is a cumbersome time-consuming process. I have tried all the permutations of WriteAnums and SeqAnums in _m2rtf.ini, but to no avail. -Dan From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Art Campbell Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 4:10 PM To: John Sgammato Cc: framers@lists.frameusers.com; Kevin Ryan Subject: Re: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs I'd second John. Current FM output ain't bad, and if you want better, MIF2Go RTF is really good. I'd stick with FM and upgrade to a non-antique version (speaking with 4 year's Flare experience) because that conversion isn't really what Flare does better. Art Campbell art.campb...@gmail.commailto:art.campb...@gmail.com ... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a redheaded girl. -- Richard Thompson No disclaimers apply. DoD 358 I support www.TheGrotonLine.comhttp://www.TheGrotonLine.com, hyperlocal news for Groton MA. On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 3:39 PM, John Sgammato john.sgamm...@actifio.commailto:john.sgamm...@actifio.com wrote: FM12 has very good output to Microsoft Word. I use it all the time for internal use. On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 3:21 PM, Kevin Ryan kevin.r...@systemsandsoftware.netmailto:kevin.r...@systemsandsoftware.net wrote: 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:image001.jpg@01C97FA7.A9E51B40] Systems Software, Inc. 426 Industrial Avenue Suite 140 Williston, VT 05495 802.865.1170tel:802.865.1170 phone 802.865.1171tel: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. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as john.sgamm...@actifio.commailto:john.sgamm...@actifio.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.commailto:framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr
Re: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
I haven't used Flare actively in a year or so... but after several years daily experience, I'd say: - Fewer bugs -- nope - Better conversion -- depends. I use MIF2Go to get to HTML/RTF/XHTML. Flare isn't better than that. FM 12 is pretty good for exporting. Flare is adequate or better -- better than early native FM export, but not up to MIF2Go, and maybe not as good as FM 12 -- I haven't tried a direct comparison. - Better support -- yes, definitely, *if you pay for it*. You can get someone on the phone and they'll work on the problem until you have a fix. If you don't pay for support... you're relying on peer users, pretty much. Art Campbell art.campb...@gmail.com ... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a redheaded girl. -- Richard Thompson No disclaimers apply. DoD 358 I support www.TheGrotonLine.com, hyperlocal news for Groton MA. On Thu, Feb 26, 2015 at 4:44 AM, Reng, Dr. Winfried wr...@tycoint.com wrote: Hi, In my company there are also discussions to choose MadCap Flare as a common authoring tool. I see different requirements among us. Some need HTML or CHM, others only PDF. The arguments from MadCap Flare users here are: o Less bugs. o Better conversion to CHM and HTML. o Better support. (I do not know if all these are also valid for FM 12 or upcoming FM 13!) Can those who use or used Flare comment on these? Are these arguments valid? What other experiences do you have? Which features do you miss? I see that Flare does not allow text on top of graphics. I could not find out whether you can enter simple tabs. I have problems adjusting table column widths. I have even problems to zoom in when I have the print layout selected. Flare does not support separate DTDs. Best regards Winfried *From:* framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] *On Behalf Of *Kevin Ryan *Sent:* Wednesday, February 25, 2015 9:21 PM *To:* framers@lists.frameusers.com *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* [image: cid:image001.jpg@01C97FA7.A9E51B40] 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. -- This e-mail contains privileged and confidential information intended for the use of the addressees named above. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that you must not disseminate, copy or take any action in respect of any information contained
RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
Thanks for the warning, Steve. I know Word files can be difficult to manage and easy to abuse. For example, my experience has been that many if not most Word users don't use Word styles properly (assuming they even know they exist). My company provides large-scale Customer Information Systems for individual utility companies. The requestors of Word content in our case are typically reasonably Word-savvy educators/trainer's in either the utility or in partner companies with which we work closely during the project management phase. Your warnings of possible backfires are well noted, though. If I can reach the point of being able to provide Word-equivalent manuals alongside our primary deliverable — Frame-to-PDF guides — I will make a point to qualify that the Word version is being provided as a courtesy, that Word may be inferior to the PDF in some ways, and that my company is not responsible for how the Word content is used. Kevin -Original Message- From: Steve Rickaby [mailto:srick...@wordmongers.demon.co.uk] Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2015 6:13 AM To: Kevin Ryan; framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: Re: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs At 20:21 + 25/2/15, Kevin Ryan wrote: 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). This has been an interesting and informative discussion, but I think there is a tangential issue. Please forgive me if this is inappropriate to your specific circumstances, but I think what is being requested here is a Very Bad Thing. I have been through this sort of loop in the past, with customers requesting manual content in Word 'so that it can be updated by our engineers'. The problems are (at least) fourfold: . Word is unforgiving, and despite a popular belief outside of documentation engineering that anything in Word is easy, requires a high level of Word skills to produce professional output. Word lacks the tightness of control of FrameMaker, and can often behave in an unpredictable fashion, particularly with long and/or complex documents. . Development engineers generally lack documentation engineering skills (a sweeping statement, I know, and not always true, but something to be aware of). They will almost certainly lack advanced Word skills. . It is not impossible that the end result will be poor quality output after editing that still carries your company's details, reflecting badly on you. . Should this occur, it is also not impossible that you maybe called in to sort out the resulting mess, landing you in an unsupported FrameMaker - Word - FrameMaker scenario. Way a ways back, Interleaf used to offer Word round-tripping, but that is all ancient history now afaik. I am only advising caution. -- Steve Save the Date! 2015 Harris Customer Training Conference:http://www1.harriscomputer.com/en/conference/ October 21–23, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia - Atlanta Marriott Marquis. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
Hi, In my company there are also discussions to choose MadCap Flare as a common authoring tool. I see different requirements among us. Some need HTML or CHM, others only PDF. The arguments from MadCap Flare users here are: o Less bugs. o Better conversion to CHM and HTML. o Better support. (I do not know if all these are also valid for FM 12 or upcoming FM 13!) Can those who use or used Flare comment on these? Are these arguments valid? What other experiences do you have? Which features do you miss? I see that Flare does not allow text on top of graphics. I could not find out whether you can enter simple tabs. I have problems adjusting table column widths. I have even problems to zoom in when I have the print layout selected. Flare does not support separate DTDs. Best regards Winfried From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Ryan Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 9:21 PM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com 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:image001.jpg@01C97FA7.A9E51B40] 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. This e-mail contains privileged and confidential information intended for the use of the addressees named above. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that you must not disseminate, copy or take any action in respect of any information contained in it. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately by e-mail and immediately destroy this e-mail and its attachments. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
OT: Word (was Re: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs)
I do not think I have posted this story to this group before, so, as Word is being discussed... This really happened: I was there, I watched. Long time ago, I worked as a contractor for a small but upwardly mobile company. At that time the staff occupied a single floor of an office block in West London, a couple of directors, a secretary and a bunch of very bright and highly-paid engineers. One of the senior staff came in with the words 'This memo is urgent: can you get it out quickly.' (Probably a strategic error, triggering a local perturbance in the Universal Murphy Field). The secretary set to work typing up the one-page memo in Word. Something went wrong, she struggled with it, and got nowhere. So she called over one of the very bright and highly-paid engineers to help. He struggled with it and got nowhere, so he called over another very bright and highly-paid engineer. I don't know what they were struggling with, but the words 'I've never seen it do that before' occurred more than once. After a while most of the company's technical staff were helping the poor girl to lash Word into producing this one-page memo. Finally they succeeded, and the print command was issued. The printer jammed. One of the highly-paid engineers unjammed the printer. The print command was issued again... and again the printer jammed. I cannot remember how many times this happened, but I do distinctly remember that at the very point when the printer was finally coaxed into life, just as I thought 'Surely, nothing else can go wrong'... the toner cartridge exploded. I am not making this up. -- Steve ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
Hi Kevin, If you are using Mif2Go for HTML, you can set it up to output RTF as well. This should satisfy the MS Word requirement and allow you to stay wit FrameMaker. Rick Rick Quatro Carmen Publishing Inc. 585-366-4017 r...@frameexpert.com From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Ryan Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 3:21 PM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com 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:image001.jpg@01C97FA7.A9E51B40 Systems Software, Inc. 426 Industrial Avenue Suite 140 Williston, VT 05495 802.865.1170 phone 802.865.1171 fax _ http://www1.harriscomputer.com/en/conference/ Save the Date! 2015 Harris Customer Training Conference: October 21-23, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia - Atlanta Marriott Marquis. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
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:image001.jpg@01C97FA7.A9E51B40] 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. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Re: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
FM12 has very good output to Microsoft Word. I use it all the time for internal use. On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 3:21 PM, Kevin Ryan kevin.r...@systemsandsoftware.net wrote: 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* [image: cid:image001.jpg@01C97FA7.A9E51B40] 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. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as john.sgamm...@actifio.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/john.sgammato%40actifio.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. -- http://www.actifio.com/*John Sgammato, Documentation Architect* *e* john.sgamm...@actifio.com *c* 508.927.2083 *t* @actifiodocs http://twitter.com/actifiodocs 333 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451 http://twitter.com/actifiohttp://www.linkedin.com/company/399246 https://plus.google.com/102870897962348937868/posts http://www.youtube.com/user/actifiohttp://www.actifio.com/ *Radically simple copy data management * *.* ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Re: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
As I recall, Mif2Go should output pretty darn spiffy Word documents, although you may have to fiddle with it a bit to get what you want. Acrobat 10 (I think) and later will save PDFs to Word format, although everything will be in modified Normal (no style-name information is carried through, but the document WILL look the same as it does in PDF). Depending on what they want to do, that might be sufficient. Are the customers going to sign something legally binding that says, we edited it, so any mistakes are our responsibility? On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 3:21 PM, Kevin Ryan kevin.r...@systemsandsoftware.net wrote: 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* [image: cid:image001.jpg@01C97FA7.A9E51B40] 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. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as ljsims...@gmail.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/ljsims.ml%40gmail.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. -- Lin Sims ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Re: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
Have you given Mif2Go a try at converting your Frame docs to Word?You use it now for HTML, it will also handle Word conversions. Dave Spreadbury On Wednesday, February 25, 2015 2:23 PM, Kevin Ryan kevin.r...@systemsandsoftware.net wrote: !-- _filtered #yiv8354266681 {font-family:Calibri;} _filtered #yiv8354266681 {font-family:Tahoma;} _filtered #yiv8354266681 {font-family:Verdana;}#yiv8354266681 p.yiv8354266681MsoNormal, #yiv8354266681 li.yiv8354266681MsoNormal, #yiv8354266681 div.yiv8354266681MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;}#yiv8354266681 a:link, #yiv8354266681 span.yiv8354266681MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv8354266681 a:visited, #yiv8354266681 span.yiv8354266681MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv8354266681 p.yiv8354266681MsoAcetate, #yiv8354266681 li.yiv8354266681MsoAcetate, #yiv8354266681 div.yiv8354266681MsoAcetate {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Tahoma, sans-serif;}#yiv8354266681 p.yiv8354266681MsoListParagraph, #yiv8354266681 li.yiv8354266681MsoListParagraph, #yiv8354266681 div.yiv8354266681MsoListParagraph {margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:6.0pt;margin-left:.5in;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;}#yiv8354266681 span.yiv8354266681BalloonTextChar {font-family:Tahoma, sans-serif;}#yiv8354266681 span.yiv8354266681EmailStyle20 {font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;color:windowtext;}#yiv8354266681 span.yiv8354266681EmailStyle21 {font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;color:#1F497D;}#yiv8354266681 .yiv8354266681MsoChpDefault {font-size:10.0pt;} _filtered #yiv8354266681 {margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}#yiv8354266681 div.yiv8354266681WordSection1 {}--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 RyanTechnical WriterSystems Software, Inc.426 Industrial AvenueSuite 140Williston, VT 05495802.865.1170 phone802.865.1171 fax | Save the Date! 2015 Harris Customer Training Conference: October 21–23, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia - Atlanta Marriott Marquis. | | | ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as dspre...@yahoo.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/dspreadb%40yahoo.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Re: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
Have you tried MIF2Go's Word output? It worked great for me. RoboHelp can also convert FrameMaker to Word, but I think MIF2Go is better. You might also try FrameMaker 12 (you could just use one copy as a conversion tool). If your outputs are PDF and Word, I think switching to Flare would cause more pain than it would alleviate. WYSIWYG preview of PDF is a huge advantage. On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 12:21 PM, Kevin Ryan kevin.r...@systemsandsoftware.net wrote: 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. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
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.comhttp://www.analogicultrasound.com T 604-279-8550 ext 127 | F 604-279-8559 From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Ryan Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 12:21 PM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com 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:image001.jpg@01C97FA7.A9E51B40] 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. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
I'll second that. Mif2Go produces decent Word output right out of the box, and you can customize it to a fare-thee-well. BTW, hi everybody. I'm working again, and back on the list. Richard From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Rick Quatro Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 1:36 PM To: 'Kevin Ryan'; framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs Hi Kevin, If you are using Mif2Go for HTML, you can set it up to output RTF as well. This should satisfy the MS Word requirement and allow you to stay wit FrameMaker. Rick Rick Quatro Carmen Publishing Inc. 585-366-4017 r...@frameexpert.commailto:r...@frameexpert.com From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.commailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Ryan Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 3:21 PM To: framers@lists.frameusers.commailto:framers@lists.frameusers.com 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:image001.jpg@01D0510C.92499E60] 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. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
Full Acrobat has Save As options to .docx and doc that are not too bad. You wouldn't want to try to round-trip docs in and out of FrameMaker using that kind of workflow, however. Craig ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Welcome back! (Was: RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs)
Thanks, Lea! It's nice to be working again, and among people I know, like, and respect. Although I do miss those afternoon naps with my cat. :) From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Lea Rush Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 3:38 PM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: Welcome back! (Was: RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs) Welcome back to the fray, Richard! Lea Rush Software and Documentation Specialist Astoria-Pacific www.astoria-pacific.comhttp://www.astoria-pacific.com/ P: 800-536-3111, +1-503-657-3010 Please consider the environment before printing this email. `·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸ º`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸º NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY This communication is from Astoria-Pacific and is intended to be confidential and solely for the use of the persons or entities addressed above. If you are not an intended recipient, be aware that the information contained herein may be protected from unauthorized use by privilege or law, and any copying, distribution, disclosure, or other use of this information is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please contact the sender by return email or telephone (503) 657-3010 immediately, and delete or destroy all copies. Thank you for your cooperation. From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.commailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Combs, Richard (CW) Sent: February 25, 2015 2:06 PM To: 'Kevin Ryan'; framers@lists.frameusers.commailto:framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs I'll second that. Mif2Go produces decent Word output right out of the box, and you can customize it to a fare-thee-well. BTW, hi everybody. I'm working again, and back on the list. Richard ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
Thank you to everyone who commented on my question. Looks like I may have been underestimating the Mif2go program I have already! I did a quick, non-scientific convert to Word comparison two or three years ago of FrameMaker 11 demo vs. Acrobat save as Word vs. Mif2go, and none of them really floated my boat at the time. But having configured Mif2go to generate our online help quite nicely from FrameMaker I did gain a lot of respect for its capabilities. The book describing how to use it is a bit daunting though! Thank you for purchasing a Boeing 747; here are your operating instructions. I'm looking for a Word conversion that's not a Word house of cardsI need something that can be editable and won't frustrate the editor with thousands of extraneous chewing gum formats whose sole purpose is surface look and not re-usability. The Acrobat save as word output was laughable in that it seemed to duplicate the look of our FrameMaker documents perfectly, but simple things like word wrap from line to line and page to page were apparently not thought necessary by Adobe. The documents would explode if you actually tried to change anything in Word. We have a lot of complex graphics in our Frame files: For example, frames containing a screen shot, arrows, text boxes, cross references, etc. (the works). Flare conversion seems to ignore or mishandle any graphic in which the screen shot is not alone in its Frame. My memory is these other programs may also have trouble converting complex graphics. Still, there are a lot of configurable variables in Mif2go that I have not researched deeply. So I will. My Mif2Go version is from 2010. Might an upgrade to Jeremy Griffith's last produced version be beneficial? Is it even available anymore now that Jeremy Has passed? Thank you again everyone! Kevin Ryan Technical Writer [cid:image001.jpg@01C97FA7.A9E51B40] 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. Save the Date! 2015 Harris Customer Training Conference:http://www1.harriscomputer.com/en/conference/ October 21-23, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia - Atlanta Marriott Marquis. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Re: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
I'd second John. Current FM output ain't bad, and if you want better, MIF2Go RTF is really good. I'd stick with FM and upgrade to a non-antique version (speaking with 4 year's Flare experience) because that conversion isn't really what Flare does better. Art Campbell art.campb...@gmail.com ... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a redheaded girl. -- Richard Thompson No disclaimers apply. DoD 358 I support www.TheGrotonLine.com, hyperlocal news for Groton MA. On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 3:39 PM, John Sgammato john.sgamm...@actifio.com wrote: FM12 has very good output to Microsoft Word. I use it all the time for internal use. On Wed, Feb 25, 2015 at 3:21 PM, Kevin Ryan kevin.r...@systemsandsoftware.net wrote: 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* [image: cid:image001.jpg@01C97FA7.A9E51B40] 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. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as john.sgamm...@actifio.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/john.sgammato%40actifio.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. -- http://www.actifio.com/*John Sgammato, Documentation Architect* *e* john.sgamm...@actifio.com *c* 508.927.2083 *t* @actifiodocs http://twitter.com/actifiodocs 333 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451 http://twitter.com/actifiohttp://www.linkedin.com/company/399246 https://plus.google.com/102870897962348937868/posts http://www.youtube.com/user/actifiohttp://www.actifio.com/ *Radically simple copy data management * *.* ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as art.campb...@gmail.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/art.campbell%40gmail.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit
Welcome back! (Was: RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs)
Welcome back to the fray, Richard! Lea Rush Software and Documentation Specialist Astoria-Pacific www.astoria-pacific.comhttp://www.astoria-pacific.com/ P: 800-536-3111, +1-503-657-3010 Please consider the environment before printing this email. `·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸ º`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸º NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY This communication is from Astoria-Pacific and is intended to be confidential and solely for the use of the persons or entities addressed above. If you are not an intended recipient, be aware that the information contained herein may be protected from unauthorized use by privilege or law, and any copying, distribution, disclosure, or other use of this information is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please contact the sender by return email or telephone (503) 657-3010 immediately, and delete or destroy all copies. Thank you for your cooperation. From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Combs, Richard (CW) Sent: February 25, 2015 2:06 PM To: 'Kevin Ryan'; framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs I'll second that. Mif2Go produces decent Word output right out of the box, and you can customize it to a fare-thee-well. BTW, hi everybody. I'm working again, and back on the list. Richard ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs
Mif2Go is free now - courtesy of Jeremy's will and his family supported us in this effort. There is a small team of people getting the courage up to continue supporting it for future releases. The Omni Systems site has the info necessary to use Mif2Go. With FrameMaker 12, there is one upgrade required to the latest Mif2Go download to make it work - one or two of the DLL's need to be updated. I forget which, but the information should be there at the site. If not, please let us know and I will dig for it. Z From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Kevin Ryan Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 2:34 PM To: framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: RE: Frame vs. Flare for My Needs Thank you to everyone who commented on my question. Looks like I may have been underestimating the Mif2go program I have already! I did a quick, non-scientific convert to Word comparison two or three years ago of FrameMaker 11 demo vs. Acrobat save as Word vs. Mif2go, and none of them really floated my boat at the time. But having configured Mif2go to generate our online help quite nicely from FrameMaker I did gain a lot of respect for its capabilities. The book describing how to use it is a bit daunting though! Thank you for purchasing a Boeing 747; here are your operating instructions. I'm looking for a Word conversion that's not a Word house of cardsI need something that can be editable and won't frustrate the editor with thousands of extraneous chewing gum formats whose sole purpose is surface look and not re-usability. The Acrobat save as word output was laughable in that it seemed to duplicate the look of our FrameMaker documents perfectly, but simple things like word wrap from line to line and page to page were apparently not thought necessary by Adobe. The documents would explode if you actually tried to change anything in Word. We have a lot of complex graphics in our Frame files: For example, frames containing a screen shot, arrows, text boxes, cross references, etc. (the works). Flare conversion seems to ignore or mishandle any graphic in which the screen shot is not alone in its Frame. My memory is these other programs may also have trouble converting complex graphics. Still, there are a lot of configurable variables in Mif2go that I have not researched deeply. So I will. My Mif2Go version is from 2010. Might an upgrade to Jeremy Griffith's last produced version be beneficial? Is it even available anymore now that Jeremy Has passed? Thank you again everyone! Kevin Ryan Technical Writer [cid:image001.jpg@01D0510C.F3B7C9B0] 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. Save the Date! 2015 Harris Customer Training Conference:http://www1.harriscomputer.com/en/conference/ October 21-23, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia - Atlanta Marriott Marquis. ___ You are currently subscribed to framers as arch...@mail-archive.com. Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.