MS Word Question -- about templates

[Dick Margulis]

Dori Green wrote:
> 
> And when Management doesn't have someone on staff who can do this, and isn't
> willing to pay the designer bucks to bring in a consultant to do this,
> you're stuck.  And believe me, engineers and systems analysts will find ways
> to circumvent the "rules" and they have almost no respect for the idea of
> format consistency.
> 

Just to toss in another perspective ...

Mostly I agree with what Dori is saying, namely that in technology 
companies it's hard to impose template discipline and it's generally 
more productive to bring in an editor.

However, I'm currently doing some editing for a major publisher of 
technical books (including software titles). The dynamics are different 
in this situation, because the whole process is aimed at getting a 
salable book to market rather than checking off "documentation complete" 
on a project plan. The publisher provides a well thought out template of 
the sort Jonathan describes (custom toolbars specific to the needs of 
the production department), together with thorough instructions on its 
use. Authors are required to use the template, and they do, because 
getting the book to market on time affects their royalty payments.

So there are situations where a complex template is enforceable. But 
most tech writing environments don't qualify. In fact, I suspect the 
same engineer-authors who are so compliant with the process on the books 
they are writing freelance are typically noncompliant with any templates 
they encounter in their SME roles on their day jobs.

There's probably a lesson here in terms of designing incentives for 
proper template use. I'm just not sure what it is.

Dick
http://www.dmargulis.com/