How to do a Frame vs Word Demo

A picture is worth a thousand words: I have rarely won a FM argument by words alone, but I always win people over by giving them a side-by-side demo. What follows is a synopsis of a Word and FrameMaker demo you can do to really show off. (Note that it assumes you know Frame real well!) It doesn't matter that these steps are followed in sequence, or that you do them at all ... if you know Frame, you can come up with your own demo in short order.

Set up two very small files that start out the same, only one is in Word and one in FM. The docs should:

• be constucted in galley layout -- just a single, straight, column of text
• have at least two instances of a nonnumbered level 1 heading and four (two per level 1) nonnumbered level 2 headings
• have NO sideheads
• have NO cross-references
• have at two short numbered lists, one least in each body area

Then, get the docs side by side (two computers, if you can, instead of one computer with two documents). Then you and a Word expert, the best the company can find, make changes, such as:

1. Change the overall left indent to make room for what will be a sidehead.
2. Change your level 1 heads to span the sidehead and body area.
3. Take the numbered list and add some plain text between two numbers.
4. Add a second sequence of numbers to a list: 1, 2, a, b, c, 3, a, b, 4.
5. Insert a new numbered figure, then cross-reference it with a "see figure xx" reference.
6. Create a TOC. (You'll need to make a book now.)
7. Set the level 1 TOC page numbers to have a right tab (Installation <tab> 1) for that page number and the level 2 to use a comma (Power Requirements, 2)
8. Change the name of a chapter, then reorder the chapters.
9. Change the numbering to chapter-page numbering. Reflect this in the cross-reference, the folio, and the TOC.
10. Change the numbering of chapters from numeric to alphabetic.
11. Start chapter 2 to restart at page 1 (or with "next page" if it's already starting at 1).
12. Change the page numbering style. If they restart at 1, make them continuous, or vice versa..

After each change, do a quick generate (and use the keyboard, not the mouse, to really "wow" them). Show them how the changes are immediately reflected. Watch the cross-reference change (see Chapter 2, Installation, on page 45 change to see Chapter 3, Configuration, on page 56). Note the changes to the page numbers. And, of course, try to make sure you are on the golf course while the Word person is still working on it.