Professional / Prosumer Publishing Software?

[sik68]

Hi everybody!

I'm reaching out for some advice on publishing software for our small company. And since there are quite a few in the writing business around here, I'm hoping you guys can help me out.

Our engineering company writes technical specifications for port machinery / heavy equipment. Over the years, the spec has developed to about 400 pages with a lot of hierarchy (1.1 to 1.1.1.1.1 etc). Throw in pictures, figures, table of contents, and sections that need to be added/removed/edited on a per-project basis. Thus far we have made due with Word, but given that the document is so complex/dense from a content perspective, Word seems to be inadequate. I think we need software that will let us make changes more seamlessly.

Also important is the ability for us to be accomodating towards outsiders without the software, to be able to view and comment on the Specification. Perhaps through being Word and PDF compatible.

So far I have found Adobe FrameMaker, but if you have any comments on this or other software, it would be much appreciated.

Thanks!
Steven

[Damn True]

I use Adobe InDesign except when dealing with one client in particular....in Redmond, WA.... that insists all documentation in word......guess who?

InDesign is pretty powerful, good UI, good file compression. Word....not so much.

The thing I like about keeping everything in the Adobe environment is that it allows me to maintain version control. As long as your co-workers have adobe as well they can use the comment/markup function and send it back to you w/o polluting your master. Nothing worse than having to find other people's ninja edits.