Re: Recommendations?

anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com
Date: 03/24/04 

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 02:28:16 -0800

Honest! I downloaded the trial and started working with
it! But, maybe I haven't dug deep enough. From what I
see, Filemaker is mailny for text driven databases. You
can design page layouts and update pages through
publications through the master files, but what I'd
really like to, or need to do is to be able to group all
objects on a page and update them as one object. as I
mentioned before, some pages have multiple text boxes and
clips. I went through all the documentation (manual,
pdfs,help, forum) for Filemaker and found nothing about
linking graphics or liknig objects as a group. Yes, with
out the ability to do that it would be a pain in the @$$
to set up. I would have to redo all the page layouts as
form fields. Maybe... I could deal with just the text as
form fields and keep them up to date that way, and just
keep the graphics on the actual textbook pages. Then, if
a page vaires from the template, I could further
customize it in itself.

This is from the Quark site
 Layout spaces redefine the work area. The
QuarkXPress "document" is now a "project," which is a
collection of layouts that might include print pages, Web
pages, or different versions of either, in varying sizes
and orientations. Because several layouts can reside in
the same project, you can easily share specifications
such as style sheets, colors, hyphenation settings, and
lists among them. You can even share content between
layouts with the Synchronize text feature. Edit text in
one place and corresponding text elsewhere in the project
will be changed simultaneously.

QuarkXPress offers several ways to arrange your document
pages. You can create multiple-page spreads, specify
facing pages, and use master pages to make global changes
to the document. Palettes and menu options make it simple
to add, delete, or rearrange pages.

You can control text flow by creating text boxes that
automatically flow the text to the next page; you can
also manually specify text flow from one text box to the
next, no matter how far apart the text boxes are.

Improved long-document publishing features include
indexing and default character style sheets for cross-
references. You can also specify character style sheets
when defining a list, making the List feature more
versatile and powerful.

Adobe:
Flexible master pages
Set up multiple master pages; even base one master page
on another for streamlined updating.
  
 Long-document support
Group related documents into a book list to easily number
pages sequentially. Add hyperlinks and bookmarks, and
generate tables of contents, cross-references, and
indexes.

There was some other info about linking info from other
documents, but i can't find it now.

Anyway, Thanks a lot for your advice. I'll do some
digging before I open my wallet. Certainly, Filemaker Pro
is a bargain, with Quark and Adobe packages over a
grand!
 

      
>-----Original Message-----
>You see that is why I recommended FileMaker to you.
>You have not bothered to research my recommendation as
imagine it would do
>your job admirable.
>Forget about Quark, Publisher, PagePlus as your job is
unique.
>With a decent database like FileMaker you can select the
components that you
>wish to be automatically placed in each file.
>There is no quick or easy way to achieve your needs.
>To set-up Filemaker is going to be a big job or you
carry on doing it the
>way you do now.
>
>--
>
>
>.
>