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.
Subject:RE: Framemaker, Word and Robohelp From:Christine -dot- Anameier -at- seagate -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 16 Jan 2001 14:49:33 -0600
John Gilger wrote: <Wouldn't it make more sense to have the members of the
writing team who are
best developers of content (writers) use simpler software such as Wordpad,
vi, or (my personal favorite cyber-swiss-army-knife) emacs to write in text
files and having one or two of your best layout gurus using a good type
setting, markup, or layout program (TeX, SGML, Framemaker, Word ...) format
the stuff and make it look pretty?>
You're assuming that formatting and content are separable, and formatting
is nothing but window dressing. That's one school of thought, but not
everyone agrees with it. If I were limited to working in a text editor like
Wordpad, I would have one hand tied behind my back.
>From my perspective, layout, graphics, and writing are all integral to the
job, and the job is technical communication.
John wrote: <Why not do what you do best and let someone with the
complementary
skill do what they do best.>
I can't argue with that. But what I do best is information design, not pure
text-only writing. I have no problem with writers who want to "just write"
--I hope they can find positions that accomodate that preference. But
there's room in our field for both approaches. We don't all need to be
Photoshop and Framemaker gurus, and we don't all need to spend our days
looking at a sea of 10-point Courier.
Christine
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Develop HTML-Based Help with Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 ($100 STC Discount)
**WEST COAST LOCATIONS** San Jose (Mar 1-2), San Francisco (Apr 16-17) http://www.weisner.com/training/dreamweaver_help.htm or 800-646-9989.
Sponsored by DigiPub Solutions Corp, producers of PDF 2001
Conference East, June 4-5, Baltimore/Washington D.C. area. http://www.pdfconference.com or toll-free 877/278-2131.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
