Again, thx for the replies - this is all very interesting to me. One quibble from experience - with Frame, when you set it up right in the beginning (and I pretty much use the same template once I get something I like), you pretty much get to focus on just content. If I need a new Header1, I slam F9, "H", and <Enter>. Viola! Instantly formatted. And it's not like I'm writing all the time anyway. I often find myself doing other things while I'm trying to chase down the latest thing that's percolating. Sure, it looks like I'm wasting time, but I'm really sorting things out. At any rate, it's *Word* I find myself endlessly fiddling with. ;) But that's a difference between a Word Processor and a true Desktop Publishing app. johne (phy) cook wisconsin, usa personal blog: http://breezeway.blogspot.com aerie blog: http://aeriepress.blogspot.com/ stormfort list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stormfort/ "Almost any act of (creative) expression is an act of courage. Whenever you write (something) and you show it to someone else, it's an act of courage because it's your life, it's who you are and you're laying it out on the table and you're either going to be rejected or accepted." Terry Scott Taylor >Emacs will wrap paragraphs; perform search and replace; cut and paste; >and allow multiple windows containing either the same file or >different files to be displayed. Since it does not fancy formatting, >it performs well on underpowered hardware. It's available for free. > >FrameMaker is definitely a publishing tool, and it handles long, >complicated material (with figures, footnotes, cross references, >tables of contents, fancy paragraph styles) well and consistently. >(I would much rather use Frame than Microsoft Word for almost >anything.) > >If you focus on the simplest possible formats (perhaps three paragraph >types: Chapter Title, Chapter First Paragraph, Other paragraph), you >could Frame to be out of the way enough for the writing task. Later >you could do the formatting. > >Sometimes I think of programs like Frame as, "What You See Is What You >Fiddle With." When you are fiddling, you are not writing. > >escargo > > >David S. Cargo (escargo at skypoint.com) _________________________________________________________________ Add MSN 8 Internet Software to your current Internet access and enjoy patented spam control and more. Get two months FREE! http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/byoa