[digitalPhonix]

I think Publisher would be the equivalent to FrameMaker from the Office suite. Publisher from Office ~2016 could definitely do that.

Unfortunately I think Publisher has faired even worse than Word in terms of stagnation, and now looks to be discontinued?

[lateforwork]

Publisher is the equivalent of InDesign. It was meant for brochures and so on. If you want to write a long technical manual today most people use Word. In that respect we are using less powerful software today than our grandparents.

Note: Adobe bought FrameMaker and continues to sell FrameMaker. But Word has captured the market not because of its technical merit but because of bundling.

[ferguess_k]

I have never written any technical manuals, but I'm surprised that Word is the choice of tool. How does one embed e.g. code easily in the document? I feel there must be a better way to do it, maybe some kind of markdown syntax? Latex?

[WillAdams]

Correct, it is going away as of October this year.