Re: Is Word Formatting in End-User docs important? [was:Word Help (problem solved)]

["Sharon Burton-Hardin" <sharonburton -at- earthlink -dot- net>]

My point still stands - at least for our clients. We are an outsourcing
company, which means that clients hire us to do their docs because they
don't want to do them in-house. Our job is to deliver the best docs possible
for the least amount of money. That makes our clients happy and they let us
do more docs. That lets me make some money, which makes all concerned very
happy. To make matters worse, we mostly do software, where the RAD method is
killing all writers because schedules are so bizarre.

Since we are working with the best docs/least cost issue, I (and out
clients) cannot afford to work with your docs. I cannot afford to pay
someone to tweak and fight that level of unmaintainable docs. We would
strongly recommend that the first thing we do is fix them so that they use
all the stuff they should. Then we can add info, etc. In the long run, it
will cost less for all concerned. Accurate or not, docs etched on rocks are
not maintainable and thus cost a lot of money when changes are needed.

Obviously, this does not hold if this is the only time this icky doc will
ever be updated. Then we live with it and hope for the best. And hate every
moment we are in the doc.

Remember, folks, your resume is an example of your work. For those of us who
ALWAYS have hidden characters on in Word, we can see how you use the tool.
That is VERY important information for me to have.

sharon

Sharon Burton-Hardin
Anthrobytes Consulting
909-369-8590
www.anthrobytes.com
Vice-president, Programs of the Inland Empire chapter of the STC
www.iestc.org

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Hanson" <PHanson -at- Quintrex -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Wednesday, 29 November, 2000 6:20 AM
Subject: Is Word Formatting in End-User docs important? [was:Word Help (pr
oblem solved)]


| Jo and Sharon,
|
| In the 2nd case though, if the document is useful, I don't care how it's
| formatted. Case in point, the legacy Word docs here are horrendous. The
| people that wrote them:
|
snipped here -
|
| The information in these docs, though, was up-to-date when they were
| originally sent out. I used to think like you did, and think, "What a
| frickin' mess of a document!" but now, I think, "What a frickin' mess of
| a document, but it works."



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