Here is a summary of the responses I received regarding advantages/disadvantages
of FrameMaker and IslandWrite. In general, people felt that Frame was a
better choice for more complex document preparation, while Island* was better
for painting/drawing and simple documents:
Stephen Pace (pace@shell.com) writes (of Frame):
>Once you get past a few quirky little things like "paragraph tags," you'll
>see that Frame is very powerful. It's more than a simple word processor...
>
>Nice cross reference features.
>
>Nice equation editor.
>
>Binary compatible between platforms (we move files from PC to Sun all the
>time). Adding an HP or IBM RS-6000 to your Suns? No problem... Frame
>runs almost anywhere.
>
>VERY NICE floating license manager. You can see who is using the licences
>and it manages licenses across hardware platforms.
>
>Full hypertext capability.
>
>Lots more stuff.
>
>Anyway, I like Frame... but it really depends on what you want to do. If
>you never have a need to do any fancy layouts, hypertext, or file transfers
>between Sun <-> PC <-> RS/6000 <-> anything else, you may be able to get by
>with Island Write.
David B. Chorlian (davidc@panix.com) writes:
>I've used IslandWrite occasionally and I've found it very easy to
>crank up and produce a nicely formatted document. Menus are
>well done but take up too much space.
>
>I spent a little time looking at FrameMaker--more complicated and
>more powerful than IslandWrite.
Leonard Mills (len@contec.com) writes:
>Island's much better for sketching and painting. Maker's much better for
>large (and much, much better for complex) documents. If your primary
>application is painting, forget Maker for that purpose. However, Maker
>can _import_ many types of graphics. Also, equation handling is far
>better in Maker.
Leonard Hermens (lhermens@eecs.wsu.edu) writes:
>As a new user of FrameMaker, I am impressed by the quality of the product
>and the documentation (although novices to desktop publishing my be confused
>at times by the manual).
>
>The only thing I haven't yet found in FrameMaker is an easy way to do
>citations in theses and reports. I am still looking through the manuals,
>but this seems to be the *only* shortcoming.
Ronald Guest (ron.guest@rss.dl.nec.com) writes:
>So based on our experience, I would pick Island* for casual/small
>usage and Frame for formal documentation. The biggest advantage
>of Island* is price.
Jonathan B. Horen (horen@netcom.com) writes:
>If [you want to create memos, letters, proposals, newsletters and
>documentation] then I suggest FrameMaker (as a 3-year FrameMaker user, and
>3-year FrameMaker Administrator, and 17-year TechWriter). If [you want to
>create small business bulletins, handouts, quizzes, diagrams, flowcharts,
>orgcharts, etc.] then I suggest IslandWrite/Draw/Paint.
--- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Daniels (Email:mike@raf.atd.ucar.edu, Phone:(303) 497-1037) RAF/ATD/National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Sep 28 2001 - 23:06:54 CDT