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Scott: When you're working with chaotic startups that don't have the
resources to attend to the most basic problems, you cannot, absolutely
cannot get them to invest in Framemaker. It's a non-starter.
Dan and everyone: While the problem *may* have been caused by heedless
cut-and-pasting, I have a new clue. My client said, "I had to toally
reformat the lists in the test plan. The numbers didn't work!"
(Remember, at this company many, many hands touch the documents, which go in
and out of Sharepoint. I do not have the control to maintain one pristine
copy. Too often, people are updating obsolete-though-recent copies of the
documents. I am then asked to merge them with the most recent "correct"
copy, which has also been through one or more sets of hands since I last saw
it. There is no procedure to ensure that I am the sole owner of a clean
source document.)
This after I had verbally described the workaround, and after I had
painstakingly written it up in the templates I had created, so that EVERY
TIME you opened a template, you saw the writeup about the workaround and how
to use it. Aieeeeee! again.
I have capitulated: I am reinstated Word's broken, crappy numbering tool
(the one you use from the toolbar). Everyone knows how to use it, and if it
breaks and people have to fight with it, it will not be my doing. It will be
a problem with a known source. (My client agrees with my decision.)
It's just not possible in such a chaotic environment, with virtually no
procedures, to get people to understand and use the workaround. There is no
chance the the company is ready to start implementing procedures and
controls. So, I've got to accommodate.
While I feel a pang at the loss of those beautiful, unbreakable numbered
lists, I feel a greater relief at not having to fight a losing battle.
On to other struggles! And, lest it seem like I'm whining, (well, I *am*,
but not bitterly) I actually enjoy this contract a great deal. When a
startup is happy, as this one is, there's no better place.
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