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> -----Original Message-----
> Is there anyone else in a similar situation? Do the majority
> of you out there do your own composition? My senses tell me
> yes but I could use an actual reply to bring to the boss as
> proof that we do not do things here in a typical fashion.
>
In more than 15 years as a technical writer, I haven't run across anyone who didn't provide at least a preliminary version of a manual in the final program to be used (occasionally, someone else would be responsible for the final pagination after editing/proofing). No one that I know of uses the handoff method that you described for the exact reasons that you described. The room for error greatly increases, which increases the time to get something into print, which ultimately increases the cost. Not good for the bottom line.
A place that I started working for in *1990* had just moved to PageMaker for doing their books in WYSIWYG format, and they were behind the times by most people's standards. Their magazine still used a similar system of having someone else do the layout because the graphics people injected photographs, artsy text, and other visual things that the writers didn't need to be involved in and didn't know how to do. Sounds to me like your company is at least 15 years behind the times.
Donna
Donna L. Jones
--------------------------------------
Technical Writer II
Zebra Technologies Corp.
Vernon Hills, IL
djones -at- zebra -dot- com
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