Re: Hard Copy Manuals: Who does layout?

[rmedinger -at- LUCENT -dot- COM]

Mike Huber wrote:

>> "Many years ago" is right. Composing directly into DTP is one of the basic
>> ideas of modern technical writing. And has been since dinosaurs ruled the
>> earth and programmers wrote manuals, maybe as far back as the mid-1970's.
>>
>> Essentially, there are two big advantages:
>> 1)      The writer knows the material, and uses the appropriate typographical
>> tools to communicate clearly. Tables, graphics, and text work together to
>> create an integrated information product that works better than the same
>> material would work separately. Some of that might be considered "artsy,"
>> but a lot of it is extremely pragmatic. For example, the writer knows when
>> it's important that a line of text (for example, a command line) not break.
>> The writer knows whether the comma right before the close-quote is
>> punctuation for the sentence or a vital piece of an example input. Look at
>> a modern manual, and you will notice that there are very few instances of
>> "see figure 12-b on page 29." The writer has placed figure 12-b right were
>> the reader is looking when the reader need figure 12-b. That kind of tight
>> integration comes from writing directly to the page.
>> 2)      The development cycle is significantly longer when a writer has to
proof
>> a typographer's work.
>>
>> If you have time, you might want to look up what Brian W. Kernighan had to
>> say about the issue. He was one of the first software technical writers to
>> do his own page composition. His "The C Programming Language" was one of
>> the best manuals of it's time (my copy here on my desk has a copyright date
>> of 1978) and defined the C language for quite a few years. He wrote some
>> essays on why it's a good thing for writers to do their own page
>> composition. When you read the essays, remember that the learning curve on
>> the tools was severe - nroff and troff dot commands are nowhere near as
>> easy to write as HTML. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I read them. I
>> don't think you will find much recent material, since it's been an accepted
>> practice for so long.
>>

Alexia Prendergast wrote:

>> <peeling my own eyebrows off the ceiling...>
>>
>> Many years ago, these tasks may have been different,
>> but today, information design is such a part of the
>> actual information development, that I can't imagine
>> writing without having control over presentation. If
>> design is to be involved, they can design the template
>> that the writers use in the DTP tool.

Welcome to the "wonderful" world of SGML, where writers are only concerned
with "content" and not "format". If you look at the latest "trends" in
documentation, you'll see that because of SGML, writers are being more and
more pushed into the mold of wordsmiths, not communicators. Its sad, but
as our communications are used in more and more types of media, it appears
that the original creator of the information (the writer) is not going
to be allowed to have complete control over the final product.

My 2 cents worth.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Medinger
Technical Service Bureau, Inc.          Technical Documentation Specialists
8150 W. 111th St., Suite 5              Specializing in Electronic Publishing
Palos Hills, IL 60465                     Utilizing Frame, Interleaf & Word
708-430-7300  708-430-7306 (FAX)        E-mail: tsb -at- flash -dot- net

       "Providing Technical Documentation from Concept to Completion."
            Technical Writing Consultant to Lucent Technologies
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