Re: The Writer's Kit

Subject: Re: The Writer's Kit
From: Barb Philbrick <caslonsvcs -at- IBM -dot- NET>
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 18:48:17 GMT

On Tue, 6 Jan 1998 08:12:51 -0500, you wrote:

>Jim Chevallier wrote:
>
>>Plus, if your client has made it your responsibility to provide a
>printer-ready* file, most print shops apparently don't handle Word. Probably
>not Frame either, no?
No, but I get around it by sending Postscript print files. Most
printers can deal with these, and it sidesteps a lot of problems, such
as dealing with fonts and figuring out which printer supports which
application and which operating system.

Someone else provided a long list of applications that you should have
as a contractor. I don't think you have to have all of the
applications listed. Personally, I don't buy an application until I
see a need for it that justifies its cost. After all, I'm not going to
make much money if I take a $1500 job that requires me to buy
Interleaf (on sale, it was$1000). I'll turn down the work or see if
the client and I can work out another means of accessing the software
(licensed versions; I don't bootleg).

The things I think you _do_ need:
* A word processor that will read in text files from a variety of
other sources. Word or WordPerfect are generally good for this.

* A graphics package that will import and export graphics in a wide
variety of formats. I prefer Corel for this. You could also use a
general conversion program such as HiJack.

* The most commonly used DTP package in your area of expertise. For me
when I started my business, this was Ventura. Then it shifted to
Interleaf, and now to Frame.

I don't know why someone would rib you about not having Pagemaker
unless you do a lot of short pieces or marketing work.

Good luck,

Barb






Barbara Philbrick, Caslon Services Inc.
Technical Writing




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