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In my last position I was documenting a document-assembly product, a
remaking of a very ancient publishing program that was once an industry
standard (so management told me). It was in development for Release 1.0 and
completely unsuited for original document production...not to mention the
fact that it could not incorporate graphics, was incompatible with 9 out of
10 other programs (barely Windows-compatible) and crashed at every possible
opportunity.
Guess what I was expected to use to document it? Hint: not Word,
WordPerfect, or Frame.
I made a game attempt initially, wrestled with the product, then tracked the
number of crashes and the time it took to accomplish any simple task. I used
this as evidence to support my argument that I should use a more stable DTP
program, at least to document Release 1.0.
The argument worked. The president was not pleased (this was the person who
enthused, "See, it's working like a real program!" when I succeeded in
producing a 2-page, minimally formatted text document after days of crashes)
but productivity was a hard point to argue.
Thanks,
Phila
***********
Philamena Hoopes
Vi PS the i-technology of healthcare
Phila -at- vips -dot- com <mailto:Phila -at- vips -dot- com>
410-832-8330 ext 8845
A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
+++ Miramo -- Database/XML publishing automation. See us at +++
+++ Seybold SFO, Sept. 25-27, in the Adobe Partners Pavilion +++
+++ More info: http://www.axialinfo.comhttp://www.miramo.com +++
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