CompuServe Messages

Framemaker is an extremely powerful and detailed _documentation_ maker. However I can't compare it with other "desktop publishing" software, because I've never had to work with the others (outside of Word Perfect, which is really a word processor, and Microsoft Word, which I consider a handy tool, but not really a professional documentation/desktop publishing app.). There are some shortcomings in Framemaker that drive me crazy (please don't ask for specifics), but since Autodesk uses it, and I'm not prepared to spend time and $ on a comparison survey, I'll continue to use it until someone convinces me that a better solution is out there. I believe that the Windows version has all the features of the SPARC, but I have only used a beta version of the Windows Framemaker. The main problem with Windows over the SPARC is my 1024×768 PC is not really a high enough resolution to deal with the page display, and I suspect the SPARC station is faster than Windows — though I haven't tested the Windows beta on large documents. An advantage to the Windows version is that it handles a wider variety of graphics formats, whereas the SPARC Framemaker is hopelessly stuck on its own format and you have to run Unix filters to convert to their format. – J