Frank Stearns wrote:
"Neil Gould" writes:
(snips)
IIRC, my first copy of FM was 3, prior to Adobe's acquisition of
Frame, Inc. At that point, it was no match for VP technically, but
its cross-platform abilities were a big plus. Then, Corel acquired
VP and managed to screw it up for a few years, during which time
Adobe improved FM's ability to handle type and color properly, among
other things. Today, FM is the most viable app for technical
documents, IMO, largely because Corel dropped the ball. Although
some folks complain about FM's UI (it isn't anywhere near as
flexible as VP's), it has not been a problem for me, and I
appreciate that fact that it has remained "familiar" for decades.
That's rather atypical for Adobe apps, which shuffle their UI with
regularity.


I used VP for a couple of client projects. Can't remember if it was
Corel or not.

I initially liked what I saw and was looking forward to using it --
until things started going wrong in small and large ways at every
turn. Made me crazy as hell, and the usual issues with support. "Oh,
yes, sorry; that is a known problem;" or, "don't know about that;"
and the classic "Please reinstall" with the classic response, "I've
done that 10 times, no change..."

Sounds like Corel's VP5 thru 7... they were major screw-ups. I've never had
to reinstall xerox's VP 1.1 thru 4.1, nor Corel's VP8+.

FM conquered with FM4, and the introduction of their fabulous Table
Editor -- still from what I've seen the best thing out there for
tables.

Both VP and FM handle tables exceptionally well, which is one reason that
QuirkXPress, InDesign and other apps are not well suited for tech docs. It
isn't uncommon to have tables that run 20+ multi-column pages, and most apps
just can't do that. Other "must haves" include equations as typographic
text, mulitple cross references, and indexes, which both FM and VP do well.

Combine that with FM's very powerful numbering system, their book
system, long-document capabilities, and now multiple delivery paths,
and it is likely still a "best buy" -- assuming you need that kind of
power.

VP is also strong in long-document and multi-chapter functionality. I can't
say that there is much of a difference in capability between those two apps
in that regard. If by "mulitple delivery paths" you are referring to FM's
"conditional text" capabilities, I agree, but that isn't new, FM4 had that!

For me, one of the best features of FM is its MIF format. I've built 500
page technical products catalogs completely by programs written to parse
databases and create the pages without intervention using that feature.
--
best regards,

Neil