Comparing Flare and standalone FrameMaker, HTML output is more customizable and it's probably a better single-sourcing tool, except as regards PDF targets.
Comparing Flare and FrameMaker plus RoboHelp or WebWorks ePublisher Pro, hard to say. I'd probably take unstructured FrameMaker and WebWorks over Flare if I had to choose. The learning curve for FrameMaker is plenty steep if you've never used it before. Flare is $1648 with a year of email support and upgrades. You can add a year of support and upgrades for $400 or two years for $325 each. If you let your support expire, upgrades are $799, which I believe includes a year of support and upgrades. FrameMaker is $999 perpetual or $360 a year for a subscription that includes upgrades. Are upgrades included in the subscription price or do you have to pay for them? A FrameMaker perpetual license seems like a bad deal since Adobe now supports only the current version. In the long run, it would be cheaper to subscribe. On Wed, Jun 27, 2018 at 4:53 AM, Shmuel Wolfson <shmue...@gmail.com> wrote: > It seems that the benefits of Flare over Frame are: > - More customizable/better HTML output > - Better support > - Better single sourcing than unstructured Frame > - They don't charge an arm and a leg to pay for upgrades > > The benefits of Frame over Flare are: > - Better PDFs > - Less of learning curve for unstructured Frame, and possibly for > structured Frame > > I don't believe that Adobe has abandoned Frame, but they do charge an > insane amount for upgrades and the support is not so great, which is > similar to abandoning their users. Having said that, since I mainly produce > PDFs, I have no plans on switching to Flare any time soon. > > -- > Shmuel Wolfson > Technical Writer > 058-763-7133 > > > On 27-Jun-18 7:59 AM, Alan Litchfield wrote: > >> I don't think the issue in this conversation is about Adobe abandoning >> FM, but that the corporate model Adobe chooses to use has effectively >> driven a lot of us old timers out the door, into the arms of its >> competitors. Yes, there have been a bunch of new features and added support >> for functions that required external plug-in support previously, but the >> interface is actually quite hard for me to navigate now, especially now >> that so many keyboard commands have disappeared or changed. >> >> For me, my last favourite version was 7.2 on the Mac (which I still have >> running by the way, on a G5 tower). Sure it lacked all the fancy mod-cons >> of later versions but I could run that application for months at a time >> (without shutting down the computer or program) without issue. Can't say >> the same for the current version, I'm afraid. And as I said earlier, part >> of the reason was being locked out of the application due to licensing >> problems. >> >> Version 5.5.2 on Linux was fun while it lasted. Of course, one does miss >> the hominess of Frame Corp, but that was a long time ago now. >> >> Alan >> >> -- >> Dr Alan Litchfield >> AlphaByte >> PO Box 1941 >> Auckland, New Zealand 1140 >> >> On 27/06/18 13:42, ideasli...@ideastraining.com wrote: >> >>> I've been hearing rumors of Adobe's abandonment of Frame for years, if >>> not >>> decades. The timing of these rumors is almost as regular as an atomic >>> clock... >>> >>> Abandonment hasn't happened yet. Oddly, I find the rumors tend to peak >>> before Adobe announces a new version. This list, or any public list, is >>> not >>> a good way to make a decision about FrameMaker. Those that know can't >>> say; >>> those that say usually don't know. >>> >>> David Creamer >>> IDEAS Training >>> ______________________ >>> All of these posts regarding Adobe's poor support/abandonment of FM are >>> one >>> of the reasons why my company decided to focus on another tool and >>> migrate >>> away from FM. All of the technical publications staff (including me) are >>> now using Madcap Flare and we have just completed a 2 year migration of >>> all >>> FM documents into Flare. It was a bit sad to say goodbye to FM, but the >>> handwriting was on the wall. >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> >>> This message is from the Framers mailing list >>> >>> Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com >>> Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com >>> Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/fr >>> amers%40lists.frameusers.com/ >>> Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/li >>> stinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com >>> Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >> >> This message is from the Framers mailing list >> >> Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com >> Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com >> Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/fr >> amers%40lists.frameusers.com/ >> Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/li >> stinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com >> Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com >> >> > _______________________________________________ > > This message is from the Framers mailing list > > Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com > Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com > Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/fr > amers%40lists.frameusers.com/ > Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/li > stinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com > Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com _______________________________________________ This message is from the Framers mailing list Send messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com Visit the list's homepage at http://www.frameusers.com Archives located at http://www.mail-archive.com/framers%40lists.frameusers.com/ Subscribe and unsubscribe at http://lists.frameusers.com/listinfo.cgi/framers-frameusers.com Send administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com