Re: what should I say?

Subject: Re: what should I say?
From: "Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher5 -at- cox -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2002 12:13:07 -0700


kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com wrote:

If the doc is out of your hands at that point, does it matter what they
use? If it's something that YOU will be stuck maintaining and updating in
Quark, that's another issue. Maybe I misinterpreted your post, but it
didn't sound like YOU need to work in Quark, but that they want to use it
for final production. So let 'em...
Sounds like they have a system they're accustomed to using...

No, the client isn't experienced at anything and I'm not
entirely sure that the layout person is experienced in
tech manuals. I think Ms. Layout has a day job. I know that
the client is a start-up with a staff of <10.

And no, I won't have to maintain it. I have not even approached
the client about online help of any kind, much less how he's
going to interface help with his web interface. And if push
comes to shove, I can just as easily create a look-and-feel
template for Word and convert to html from my end, letting Ms.
Layout do paper and pdf from hers. (the drafts are in Word,
because that's what the engineers use)

It's a good thing that TECHWR-L exists, because it lets us vent our
spleens about tools. Because believe me, nobody else is interested.

Well, in this case, I think the client might be interested,
because if my hunches play out, they'll be planning to reflow
the document into Quark for every release and those are dollars
that he doesn't need to spend.

He's hired me for my expertise. My expertise and experience tells
me that he's about to march down a very expensive path. And I
really don't want the layout work. I'd just as soon write and
forget about it. I'm just concerned that Mr. Marketer and Ms.
Layout are running at full throttle towards that cliff...

If I've misunderstood the situation, please forgive me and ignore my
advice. But if I read it right, I suggest you do your gig, and pass the
text on to them to let them do *their* gig.

And that is certainly one of my choices. I guess I just don't
have a contractor's attitude, or sumthin'... I should pro'lly
just do the work and keep my mouth shut. But if I were the
client's employee, I'd be jumping up and down by now saying
what a stupid waste of money it all sounds like.

And yesterday, my technical contact said the boss wants the
online book to be "bigger". <sigh> Anybody got some spare
content they're not using???
;-)

-Sue




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