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Subject:Writing, Designing, Etc. From:"George F. Hayhoe" <george -at- GHAYHOE -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 12 Jun 1997 09:21:57 -0400
Mike Huber said: "Composing directly into DTP is one of the
basic
ideas of modern technical writing."
I respectfully disagree. Information design, writing, editing,
illustrating, graphic design, usability testing, and managing
all the preceding tasks (did I leave anything out?) are discrete
but related activities. Sometimes the same person performs them
all; sometimes they are shared among a large team.
As a writer, I need to know how the words I generate fit into
the overall design of the information product(s) being
generated, what graphics will support them, what the graphic
design of the publication(s) will be, what the organization's
editing standards are, what will be usability tested and what
the results of prior testing are, and how this project is being
managed by my organization. All of these activities should
influence what and how I write, and they MUST be coordinated to
ensure effective communication. That's a far cry from having to
perform all of those activities--or from implying that I can't
write a quality publication without composing in the page layout
program.
It could be that writing in the layout package limits the writer
in undesirable ways. I strongly suspect that composing in what
looks like final form might significantly discourage revision.
It would certainly be good to have some research on this topic.
My $0.02 worth.
--George Hayhoe (george -at- ghayhoe -dot- com)
George Hayhoe Associates
Voice: +1 803-642-2156
Fax: +1 803-642-9325
Award-winning Web site: http://www.ghayhoe.com
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