FrameMaker Comparison Some Adobe reps suggested that switching to InDesign would be a good move for some Mac FrameMaker users so I decided to see just how good an alternative it really is by comparing it feature-by-feature. In the process, I also took a look at Word and Apple's Pages. Comparing the $79 iWork app Pages with the $799 FrameMaker may seem like an exercise in futility, but both apps have been described as word processors with page-layout skills, or page-layout apps with word-processing skills and, to be honest, we're desperate and will take a look at anything. Anything that will allow us to migrate to Mac OS X and say sayonara to Mac OS 9 once and for all. Comparison Summary The following table provides a summary of the main features missing from Word, InDesign, and Pages when compared to FrameMaker—plus a few cool features that it would be nice to see in FrameMaker. See also the detailed FrameMaker Feature Comparison (PDF).
Word 2004 Word first appeared on the Mac way back in 1984. The latest incarnation, Word 2004, is a highly capable word processor, but it lacks master pages, printer's marks, bleeds, and a fixed page size. Imported EPS graphic handling is poor, with a preview that's indecipherable. (EPS is the de facto standard for vector graphics in the publishing industry so this is not good.) Instead of a book model, multiple documents are managed with a master document. I wanted to test Word's ability to search and spell check all documents in a master document, but for some reason wasn't able to add previously saved documents to my test master document. I've not used Word much so can't comment on how it performs in practice, but you hear stories good and bad. Pros
Cons
One more thing that makes Word 2004 unsuitable is that hypertext links are lost when documents are saved as PDF. Interestingly, this is not the fault of Word itself, but Adobe's PDFMaker software, which is installed by Acrobat for Macintosh. Windows Word users do not have this problem, because Adobe chose to support hypertext links in the Windows version of PDFMaker. This is not the only Acrobat feature that Adobe has chosen not to offer Mac users. Tip: If you have a Mac Word document and want to create a PDF file with hypertext links, use Windows Word to save it as a PDF. InDesign CS As you'd expect from an Adobe product, InDesign is faultless in the printing and output department, but it's not really suitable for authoring long technical documents. For example, it doesn't support cross-references, paragraph numbering, can't run paragraphs or tables across columns, and doesn't automatically add a new page as your typing fills the current page. There are third-party plug-ins available and some do plug major holes in InDesign's functionality, such as auto-page addition, dynamic bullets, paragraph numbering, and cross-referencing, but they're expensive and soon add up to more the cost of InDesign itself. InDesign is not an authoring solution and there's a strong emphasis on importing from Word. Pages are displayed as a 2-page spread, which can be cumbersome when authoring. Like PageMaker, you can use the Story Editor to write and edit, but that's a step backward after working in WYSIWYG FrameMaker. The paragraph and character style options dialog boxes are modal, and have to be closed when you want to edit another style, which is inefficient. Indexing is supported and looks to be on par with FrameMaker's indexing capabilities. Indexing options set on FrameMaker's reference pages are available on a clearly arranged dialog box. The only negative I can see is that InDesign allows only one index entry per index marker so an index consisting of, say, 100 entries requires you to enter 100 index markers. FrameMaker, on the other hand, allows multiple entries per marker so depending on the index, you may only need to insert 25 markers to create an index with 100 entries. Sometimes it's handy to be able to run a paragraph or table across multiple columns without creating additional text boxes or jiggling with the layout. This is easy in FrameMaker. With InDesign, it's impossible. You can drag a table across multiple columns, but text in those columns is obscured by the table. FrameMaker is clever enough to move that text out of the way. The user interface and tools palette will be familiar to anyone who uses Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. Annoyingly, InDesign doesn't use the standard Mac shortcut Command-H for hiding apps, as it's used for something else. InDesign is usually compared to its main rival QuarkXPress, and in that context, some of my criticisms are not relevant. Some Adobe reps suggested that switching to InDesign would be a good move for some Mac FrameMaker users, which may be true if you author in, say, Word and use FrameMaker mainly for layout. However, it's not good for authoring and lacks basic document functions such as cross-references and paragraph numbering. We'll have to wait and see if Adobe addresses these issues in future versions. Pros
Cons
Update: InDesign CS2, announced in April 2005, appears to address some of these issues, including basic paragraph numbering, automated bullets, and footnotes (not table footnotes), but it still has some way to go to make it a "real" alternative to FrameMaker. As I understand it, InDesign CS2 can open and work with files produced in any language version of InDesign, including Japanese, as they share a common file format. And for the first time, InDesign is available in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean versions. Update: InDesign CS3, released in April 2007, includes "advanced bullets and numbering, running headers and footers, and synchronized master pages." Running headers and footers certainly takes it one step closer to FrameMaker, and there's table and cell styles, text variables, and advanced find and replace, too, but still no cross references. Pages 1.0 Apple's Pages shows great promise, but it's a mere infant next to granddaddy FrameMaker, although it does have some features that FrameMaker users have longed for, such as multiple undos and the high-quality display of EPS graphics. One handy feature is that it remembers the last page you were working on. One really cool feature is the real-time page updating you get when resizing or moving objects on a page. Even InDesign can't do that! Text shadow is cool, too. Pages doesn't support books, but like Word, section breaks can be used to create sections, with each section having its own page numbering sequence and style, headers and footers, and the options to restart paragraph numbering and to start the section on a left or right page. Complex multi-column layouts can be created on a page by inserting layout breaks. Apple says Pages is intended to replace AppleWorks so it's unlikely to be a replacement for FrameMaker. Pros
Cons
Update: Pages 2.0, announced in January 2006, didn't really address any of these issues. Apple could have done a lot more with Pages in the 12 months since it was first released, but for some reason chose not to. Update: Pages 3.0, released in August 2007, added change tracking. |
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