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Subject:RE: Do as they say, not as they do From:Lyn Worthen <Lyn -dot- Worthen -at- caselle -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 6 Feb 2003 14:15:22 -0700
DGoldstein -at- DeusTech -dot- com wrote:
>...It was a sentence in the style guide that directly
> contradicted the style guide's own rules, and that
> made me laugh.
I once went to a conference on document layout and design. The slide shows
were excellent, the presenter professional, and the handouts violated every
single recommendation the presenter discussed (15 double-sided pages in 8
pt. font, no variation in styles, .25" margins all around with coil binding
cutting into the left-hand text, absolutely no white space, no graphics,
detailed instructions run together in paragraphs, etc., etc.)
When we called this point to her attention, she grimaced and said that she'd
had to pull everything together on her own budget, and while she could take
the time to do the slide presentation well, she just didn't have the cash to
print/copy the number of pages the handouts would have required if she'd
done them "right" and had hoped we wouldn't notice.
The nearly unanimous recommendation from the audience was that she should
have prepared good handouts and offered to email a PDF to everyone.
While I know the circumstances under which they were prepared, I still tend
to view the handout as a better example of what *not* to do than notes on
what *to* do.
Calls to mind a quote:
"...if you can't be a good example, you can always be a horrible warning"
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