RE: Re: Editing .pdfs - Continued

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

Nostalgia time!  We used to write up our drafts on
ruled paper with #2 pencils, create our illustrations
on a drafting board, send them all off to the secretarial
pool to be typed and then out for layout, printing and 
binding.  Then came "Technical Publications," with editors,
illustrators, typesetters and later desktop publishers.
"Publication" used to mean "editing and production," and
if you were writing a manual you spent close to 90% of your
time getting hands-on time with the protos and generating
content.  I'm lucky these days if I get to devote half that
much of my time to getting away from the keyboard and being 
"technical," and because everybody knows how "easy" it is
to make last-minute changes because there's only one person
to impose upon instead of a production staff, review 
deadlines are virtually meaningless.  Worst of all, I've 
never been able to shake the nagging feeling that most 
readers would still be just as happy with informative pages 
that look as if they came off an IBM Selectric.

Gene Kim-Eng


------- Original Message -------
On
Thu, 12 Feb 2004 16:04:04 -0800 (PST) David Neeley?wrote:

  
Of course, I would also if given the opportunity take most of the formatting decisions from the writers--enabling them to focus on the content--and have formatting specialists handle that. The result would be much better templates and adherence to same, easier updating docs as needs change, and it would put in bold relief those writers who can't write well enough to keep.