I currently create manuals in FrameMaker for the products that are manufactured at this location. Deliverable is pdf and printed matter.
I've been using unstructured FrameMaker 7.1 on Win XP and the marketing department has been using InDesign CS2 on Win XP. They're planning to upgrade to CS3. I've been asked by the Marketing Manager to investigate whether InDesign CS3 would meet my needs as a replacement for FrameMaker for product manuals so we could all be on the same platform. I think if I made the case that there would be serious functionality lost, he wouldn't have a big problem with me staying with Frame, but I think he's leaning toward standardizing on ID unless I can make the case otherwise. Things of concern to me that I can do in Frame but not sure about ID: cross-references, conditional text, auto-numbering. Conditional text isn't a deal-killer for me; I've used it in a few manuals, but it's not something I couldn't do without if it wasn't available. Cross-references (see figure x on page x, see heading on page x) are currently used extensively. Wouldn't want to do without those. Auto numbering (esp. of figures (x+1): currently used extensively. Wouldn't want to do without that either. I've done some google searching and the closest I've come to a comparison is this, but it's a little dated (and refers to OSX) http://www.fm4osx.org/comp.html There was a discussion of this a while back (last Feb, I think) here on the frameusers forum, but I don't think it covered any new features that may have been included in ID CS3 as opposed to CS2. The version comparison chart on the Adobe site (there's a link to a pdf here: http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/upgrade/) lists automated bullets and numbering, but I don't know if that will accommodate what I currently accomplish in Frame with a "Figure" paragraph format for the figure label which inserts the next consecutive figure number automatically. Has anyone used InDesign CS3 and can give me any insights? If not available in ID, are there 3rd-party plug-ins for ID that would accomplish any of these with some kind of elegance and ease? Thanks, Lise Bible _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to Framers as [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send list messages to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/archive%40mail-archive.com Send administrative questions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.