Adobe FrameMaker or MS Word?

Adobe FrameMaker or MS Word?

This is the “eternal” question technical writers have been asking one another for the last twenty five years I suppose.

It’s like one of those “Coke or Pepsi?” type of challenges with each side claiming their undying allegiance to their own camp.

For disclosure: I use them both, everyday. 

When it comes to creating long technical documents with multiple indentation levels and a 3, 4 even 5-tier paragraph numbering system, there’s no contest – FrameMaker wins hands down.

The reason is simple: FrameMaker is a rock-solid product. If you’ve got a good template, things almost never go wrong with FrameMaker.

MS Word, on the other hand, is an iffy proposition. If you’ve got a 50, 100 or 900 page user’s manual, you’d better start praying because you never know when those ordered lists or headers and footers, or something else will go out of whack unannounced.

You think it’s a coincidence that there are books out there with titles like “MS Word Annoyances”? Imagine a software that helps writers make a career out of documenting its “annoyances”…

Yet MS Word is on almost every office computer across the world.

It’s everywhere. And it’s much easier to learn than FrameMaker, if not easier to master.

MS Word is more affordable, which often influences a manager’s buying decisions.

If a department’s documentation load is a 4-page installation “manual”, then MS Word will do just fine.

But if you generate a 1,000 page user and configuration guide for a mission critical instrument or industrial plant, then I’d recommend getting FrameMaker right away. It’d be worth the investment for sure.

Write tight. Stay bright. Serve right.