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Subject:Re: Formatting Docs On-The-Fly From:rjstevenson -at- sprynet -dot- com To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Thu, 15 Dec 2005 11:25:36 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
Only if one believes that those violations are an ineradicable characteristic of documentation.
If people are constantly violating the formatting standards, I would dig in to see if the problem is with the format (perhaps it needs to be more flexible) or the people (maybe no one explained why Section Foo is necessary).
Rebecca
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Markos <ajmarkos -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Sent: Dec 15, 2005 11:15 AM
To: CB Casper <knowone -at- surfy -dot- net>, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Formatting Docs On-The-Fly
On a past TW assignment, I had edited/rewrote alot of
procedures written by network engineers. As the job
was at a DOD agency, we had a standard format/style.
However, that format/style was often violated. In
correcting these situations, I noted that the reason
for such violations was almost always the same:
Getting creative with the format/style was an easy way
for the writer to mask "holes" in his/her
understanding of the subject at hand (i.e, if I do not
fully understand the subject, then a way around the
situation is to "modify" the style so that it fits
what I do know).
Is not such modifying the style on-the-fly such a
wide-spread issue that structured Framemaker is bound
to be of limited use?
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