Re: Seeking advice for a senior English majo

[Barb Philbrick <caslonsvcs -at- IBM -dot- NET>]

>2.) There's some programs that would be useful to learn--and some that
>are definitely cheaper to buy while you're a student. However, I think
>it's more useful to learn a number of programs than focus too much on a
>single one.
I gave her exactly the opposite advice, but I think we're after the
same thing. I told her to learn one program well. I defined "well" as
understanding the behind-the-scenes stuff - how are books organized?
What are the elements of a good style sheet? What are the capabilities
(cross-referencing, indexing, TOC generation)? I've found that half
the battle of learning a new program is knowing what it should be able
to do and then figuring out how to do it.

It seems like learning several at the same time might be confusing.
(Just the terminology diffferences between Word, Ventura, Interleaf,
Pagemaker, and Framemaker can make your head spin, although they're
better now than they used to be.)

Regards, 

Barb

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