RE: Why Aren't Open Source Tools Being Considered?

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axion -dot- net>]

On Thu, 2005-08-18 at 19:02 -0700, Sarah Stegall wrote:
> Bonnie Granat writes:
> - Its Help is about as bad as Word's.
> 
> 
> Hah. You should see the user guide. Sentence fragments, missing punctuation,
> non-standard sentence structure, misspelled words, random character
> formatting and the pervasive use of the passive voice are only a few of its
> flaws. Not to mention being over 400 pages long. 

I believe Jean Hollis Weber, who has been a member of this list (and may
still be), is one of the valiant people trying to improve the user
guide. 

But the user guide does have one advantage over the Help: I haven't
caught it yet referring to things that don't exist in the program.

As for the length, have you seen the length of third party manuals for
Microsoft Office? For such large programs, 400 pages isn't surprising.
I've seen manuals for both that were over twice the length.

-- 
Bruce Byfield 604-421-7177
http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield

"Navigator, navigator, rise up and be strong,
The morning is here and there's work to be done,
With your pick and your shovel and your old dynamite,
To shift a few tons of this earthly delight."
- The Pogues


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Now Shipping -- WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word! Easily create online
Help. And online anything else. Redesigned interface with a new
project-based workflow. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l


---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.