Re: Hard Copy Manuals: Who does layout?

Subject: Re: Hard Copy Manuals: Who does layout?
From: Alexia Prendergast <alexiap -at- SEAGATESOFTWARE -dot- COM>
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 08:29:46 -0400

<peeling my own eyebrows off the ceiling...>

Many years ago, these tasks may have been different,
but today, information design is such a part of the
actual information development, that I can't imagine
writing without having control over presentation. If
design is to be involved, they can design the template
that the writers use in the DTP tool.

My own experience: I write much more efficiently and
thoroughly when composing directly in a DTP tool than
in a word processor. I was able to compare
this while using Frame at work and Word for a publisher.
The Word doc was double-spaced courier with virtually
no formatting -- talk about writers block! I ended up
doing the writing in a DTP and then, when I was done,
stripped out all the formatting for the publisher.

I always tell people that, if I had to use a typewriter,
I'd never have become a writer. ;)

Alexia
--
Alexia Prendergast
Senior Technical Writer
Seagate Software
alexiap -at- sems -dot- com

>----------
>From: Kathleen Padova[SMTP:kpadova -at- ASICENTRAL -dot- COM]
>Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 1997 6:55 PM
>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject: Hard Copy Manuals: Who does layout?
>
>...The department
>supervisor's response was that we (the tech writers) should just write
>the text in Word and then hand the document over to our design
>department for layout and formatting in Quark. He also felt that the
>tech writers shouldn't be wasting their time learning DTP programs to
>perform a task (DTP) that tech writers shouldn't be doing.
>
>After I peeled my eyebrows off the ceiling, I calmly explained that
this was not the alternative I would have suggested....

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