Cage Match: InDesign vs. FrameMaker

InDesign easily won the DTP wars of the early 21st century, so why do “other” layout programs still exist? Join Matt Sullivan, Adobe Certified Professional in InDesign, FrameMaker, and many other Adobe applications to confirm InDesign’s strengths, and point out where InDesign may not reign supreme.

Takeaways. After this session you’ll:

• Have a working familiarity with FrameMaker.
• Understand that complete and total freedom in a layout tool isn’t always a good thing.
• Have an appreciation for localization, structure, and the cost savings that come with consistency.
• Know where InDesign went when it needed guidance for long document features and publishing.

Facility and Parking

The March meeting is being held at the Los Angeles offices of Gensler, the worldwide design and architecture firm. In addition to designing the room in which LAIDUG will hold its meeting, Gensler has designed the JetBlue Terminal at JFK, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Dubai, and Shanghai Tower—a few little projects like that.

Sorry no free parking. This is DTLA, you know. For $7 you can park underground at the Los Angeles Central Library located east of the Gensler building across the street. For $15 you can park underground in the Gensler building. Plus there is Metro, Uber and Lyft.

Meeting Notes

By Alvin Takamori

The Los Angeles InDesign User Group assembled in downtown L.A. at the office of international architectural design firm, Gensler, for its March 21, 2019 meeting. It was an attractive presentation space with stadium seating and a backdrop of huge windows looking out on the downtown skyline and a full moon.

To accompany this awesome space, the group had an awesome door prize. Everyone who attended the meeting received a free FrameMaker T-shirt.

The speaker for this setting was Matt Sullivan, founder of Tech Comm Tools and an Adobe Certified Trainer for over ten different products. That evening he discussed the use of FrameMaker versus InDesign.

Adobe FrameMaker is not part of the Adobe Creative Cloud. It is part of the Technical Communications Suite. It's a document processing, layout program that has been surpassed in the marketplace by InDesign. However, it has some capabilities that make it a better choice for certain situations.

Matt pointed out that InDesign is the clear choice for commercial marketing. But if you have a thousand page document with technical information like those used in aerospace and government documents, FrameMaker is the better option. A typical FrameMaker documents has a consistent format where numbering and references are important, and content and data mean more than appearance. Matt equated FrameMaker to a truck and InDesign to a sports car.

Unlike InDesign, graphic objects in FrameMaker automatically anchor to their position in amongst the type. So if the type changes, the graphics move and maintain their relative location. This can be good for control buttons, which can be set inside the text. FrameMaker is really a template-based software, as opposed to a desktop publishing program. So, editing changes have a more universal effect. For example, change a heading and you can change all the headings in the document.

InDesign is far more versatile when it comes to creating and handling fonts. The FrameMaker type engine is limited. On the other hand, it is very good at creating conditional text. If a document needs to be output in multiple versions with slight changes, those variations are easier to create in FrameMaker. A good example is government documents where you have one version for one state or country, but different versions for other states or countries. FrameMaker can generate these changes from a single template.

Translations are also easier to create using FrameMaker. Translations for repeated phrases can be stored in memory. Also RTF languages are supported.

Another advantage FrameMaker has over InDesign is the ability to easily convert files to HTML 5. With responsive HTML content can react and reflow to fit the size of the screen it appears on. Also navigation and controls can change according to the output device. FrameMaker can also publish documents as EPUB or mobile apps.

For online tutorials about using FrameMaker go to techcommtools.com

Farthest Attendee

The bona fide LAIDUG member who travels the farthest specifically to attend the meeting will receive her or his choice of any one deal at MightyDeals up to $50.00. You need to prove to us that you traveled farthest to attend this meeting. Having recently moved to the area from somewhere else won't cut it. Be prepared to show us indication of your current residence—perhaps a driver's license or a utility bill. Decision of the administrators of the Los Angeles InDesign User Group is final. Winner — Waverly Reed

Raffles

LAIDUG meetings are free. The group is supported by raffles of donated prizes. No one is required to participate in the raffles. Raffle tickets are: 1 for $3, 2 for $5, 5 for $10, 11 for $20, 24 for $40, 32 for $50 and 65 for $100. All major credit cards are accepted.

Special Raffle Prize

KC 32" LED TV, model KC32V2, 16:9 aspect ratio, 3D comb filter, 1366x768, 60 Hz, PC audio input, VGA input, Energy star certified, 1 USB and 3 HDMI inputs. Winner — Rocie Carrillo

Raffle Prizes and Winners

GoProof from Oppolis Software. 3 month subscription for 2 users. Value $300.00 Winner — Rick Torres
Proofing add-on for Adobe Creative Cloud. Version history tracks what has been changed and by whom.

Markzware. Any single product. 12 month subscription. Value $199.00 Winner — Mark Giffin (PDF2DTP)
Choose one from the list below:
Q2ID (Quark to InDesign), Convert and open QuarkXPress files in InDesign.
PDF2DTP (PDF to InDesign), Convert PDF files to InDesign.
ID2Q (InDesign to Quark), Convert and open InDesign documents in QuarkXPress.
MT (Markzware), Convert InDesign documents to IDML files readable by InDesign CS4 through CC 2017.
FC (FlightCheck), Check native and PDF files for printing quality.

Expo Creative Asset Manager for Mac from Insider Software. Value $149.00 Winner — PDF2DTP
Digital asset manager that allows you to view, tag, search and manage images, icons, fonts, audio, video, app documents.

Suitcase Fusion 8 from Extensis. 12 month subscription. Value $119.95 Winner — Rick Torres
Font management program that allows you to organize your fonts from one plane—including system fonts, purchased fonts, fonts synced from Adobe Typekit, Google fonts, etc.

Font Agent Pro 8 from Insider Software. Value $99.95 Winner — Mark Giffin
Windows font management that allows you to organize, distribute and control your fonts.

InMotion Hosting. Web hosting and free domain. Value $90.00 Winner — Waverly Reed
Web hosting company.

DTP Tools Cloud for InDesign. 6 month subscription. Value $77.40 Winner — Mark Giffin
Suite of 14 different InDesign productivity tools.

Multi-Find/Change 3.0 from Automatication. Value $49.95 Winner — David Meza
Extension for InDesign and InCopy that allows you to manage and execute Find/Change queries in batches rather than one at a time.

Adobe Stock. 15 image licenses. Value $44.00 Winner — Dave Snow
Royalty-free, high-quality photos, videos, and illustrations.

InDesign Magazine. 6 month subscription. Value $30.00 Winner — David Meza
Monthly PDF publication devoted to InDesign how-tos, in-depth features, and quick tips.

LA Web Professionals Group meeting tickets.Value $7.99 (four raffles) Winners — Jesse Fregozo, David Meza, Henry Poon, Hazel Rider
Adobe user group that meets monthly with an emphasis on web design, marketing and the latest internet trends.

About the Presenter

Matt Sullivan

Matt Sullivan is the founder of Tech Comm Tools, an Adobe Authorized training resource. He holds Adobe Authorized Training certifications for over 10 different products, including everything in the Technical Communication Suite. He is a champion for mobile publishing, structured authoring, localization, and content experience.

Matt has also been at the forefront of online course design, having developed seven different online courses, two of which are completely underwritten by Adobe. His webinars are sponsored by STC, Adobe, and of course, Tech Comm Tools. Each year Matt presents at multiple technical communication conferences and local STC community events in Orange County and San Diego, as well as occasionally presenting at chapters in Colorado, Texas, and Minnesota.

When not in front of a computer, you’ll find Matt at the beach, the mountains, or brightly dressed as a referee for his daughters’ soccer games.