At 12:58 PM 6/7/2009, you wrote:
>Spehro Pefhany wrote:
> > Nah, you used Word, but both Microchip and Xiafan's company use Adobe
> > Framemaker,

Sorry for the typo in Xiaofan's name.

>Yes, I too should have checked the document properties, before posting. :)
>
>
> > which is probably better suited than the other top "professional page
> > layout"
> > choices (such as Indesign and Quark Xpress) for long documents, and
> > for a large
> > organization that wants to maintain consistent look and feel. Microchip
> > seems
> > to now be using PCs, BTW- they used to use Macs. Also, P&F uses more Type
> > 1
> > fonts as opposed to TT, Microchip uses more TT than Type 1.
>
>So what would we gain, by using FrameMaker?

I don't use it, but I think it would involve too steep a learning curve
to be efficient for part-time creation of relatively short documents 
where look and
feel is either not very important or can be managed manually.

>I have access to high-end publishing tools, but decided to use Word on
>purpose. I think everyone who works on the project, should be able to edit
>the datasheet, instead of having to go through a FrameMaker czar.

You don't have a workflow? ;-)  I currently use Indesign, but I've 
used Quark a lot,
and played with Pagemaker. No MS Publisher experience.

I don't like Word for this kind of application. IME, Word just does 
too many strange
and unpredictable things like re-formatting when you change the 
printer, to be a
reliable page layout tool. The text looks better too with Indy or Xpress, it's
better kerned and so on. Guides that can be precisely positioned and objects
can be snapped to them, arbitrarily fine nudging of objects and so on lets
you create a precise layout.

Nothing wrong with Word for something like a programmer's reference, and
if that's standard in your office, that certainly could have advantages.
Just about anyone can use it, at least the superficial features.
Heck , I see a lot of promotional stuff coming in using Excel format,
which is pretty inappropriate IMHO but it seems to work for them.

I agree with Gus- making sure that the information is complete, correct and
organized so that the users can find it efficiently is the most 
important thing.

Best regards,

Spehro Pefhany --"it's the network..."            "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com



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