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RE: Is Word Formatting in End-User docs important? [was:Word Help (problem solved)]
Subject:RE: Is Word Formatting in End-User docs important? [was:Word Help (problem solved)] From:Paul Hanson <PHanson -at- Quintrex -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 29 Nov 2000 09:38:30 -0600
I agree with you. In your situation, where your clients are seeing the
Word docs, yes, they should be clean.
In my case, though, I create a PDF file from the 'messy' Word doc. When
you print the Word doc, you can't tell that it's ugly 'under the
covers.'
There is currently aninitiative around here to get those 'legacy' docs
cleaned up.
<snip>
> From: Sharon Burton-Hardin [SMTP:sharonburton -at- earthlink -dot- net]
> Since we are working with the best docs/least cost issue, I (and out
> clients) cannot afford to work with your docs. I cannot afford to pay
> someone to tweak and fight that level of unmaintainable docs.
<snip>
I don't think they are 'unmaintainable' just because they didn't
use headings and an auto TOC. I think they are messy and ugly, but I can
still go into them, hold my nose with one hand, hunt and peck type with
the other, get my text added, save, and get out before I decide to clean
up the mess.
I don't know if we're saying the same thing. I think they are
ugly docs - - I agree with you. If I emailed one to you and you looked
at the mess it is, you'd fall on the floor in shock. I'm saying there's
a difference between 'clean' and 'messy' formatting. Both are usable if
the messiness is transparent to the end-user. In my case, our clients
don't see the character formatting, the empty paragraph marks, the fact
that the TOC was created by hand.
Paul
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