TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Ken, I tend to agree with your points about ED not being all that customer
driven. Another problem is that it takes a lot of space and when you're
competing with other software sellers to make your product as fast, simple,
and memory cheap as possible, on-line doc. isn't all that attractive. As
the mgr. of a doc unit in a large hospital software company, I am aware
that many clients jump on the bandwagon because they think it sounds hot,
but they haven't really dealt with it yet and don't know how difficult
it can be to leave the patient accounting screen where they're entering,
say co-payment data, in order to look up in the on-line doc some arcane
question about how to apply the co-payment across accounts. Sure help
would be the obvious alternative, with a nice window that jumps open,
but that's a degree of sophistication that I've never been able to get
my company to go with. At the top of the priority list for clients --
which is what drives requests from the marketing group -- is more
functionality to solve their data pocessing needs, not on-line doc.
So no money is forthcoming for us to get slick software to do it with.
Heck, we can't even hire enough bodies to do the hardcopy doc. I have
always dreamed of......corinne