The STC Toronto chapter swung into its 2005-2006 season at the September meeting with a flourish of news heralding this year’s upcoming Technical Publications, Online Communications and Technical Art competitions. Rob Hanna, our chapter’s newest President, announced that judges are needed once again, and among the proposed changes to the competitions is the shortening of the judging period to one day. Please contact Rob if you would like to lend your judging talents to this season’s team!

Bernard Aschwanden, our chapter’s newest Vice-President and an internationally- recognized expert on electronic publishing, next tantalized us with a sneak peek into Adobe FrameMaker 7.2, due for official release in mid-November. Anyone considering switching to InDesign or Word in the meantime – hold on! Adobe’s friendly Product Manager will probably convince your company otherwise. Following are highlights from Bernard’s presentation:

• Adobe has focused most recently on its Acrobat software as that product’s use and popularity has grown, and the result may have led to slower development in other Adobe products.
• Adobe pitches its products in suites rather than as single programs, concentrating on Acrobat and the Creative Suite. This bodes little change in these products over the next few years.
• Currently, Adobe is focusing on developing Frame, extending the planning period from about three months to one year.
• Adobe will announce a number of improvements to Frame - for instance, the pre-imposed processing of XML and its ability to convert to HTML and to PDF formats. In these cases, an XML file can be popped into Frame and opened with all the formatting visible. After desired modifications are made, the file is saved and presto! – it saves as an XML file.
• The Frame environment is better structured, allowing for more consistent content.
• Earlier versions of Frame supported DocBook and DITA , providing openness and flexibility. The drawback was that other authors could add their own content to the original author’s content.
• Frame 7.2 can be used out of the box, or tweaked as desired. With the addition of templates for DITA, this version uses fewer resources, and allows multiple “undo” operations to eradicate any multiple “don’ts”.
• A DITA document can also be opened in Frame as a Frame file.

• Outstanding Chapter Rookie: Sheldon D’Cunha
• Pacesetter: Joan Janes
• Rennie Charles Award: Kim Van Rooy

Finally, take a look at the 2004 - 2005 STC Toronto Regional Competition Results STC website on the Competition page. Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to all those who lent their time to judge the entries!

Susan Webb is an STC chapter award-winning technical writer and editor who works on privacy compliance and related documentation. She is also an STC Toronto tutor, teaches Adult ESL with the Toronto District School Board and designs novelty Webb pages, as well as exquisite, carefully-documented jewellery.