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Subject:Interleaf From:"Jody R. Lorig" <jlorig -at- KAVOURAS -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 17 Nov 1997 09:11:30 +0000
Johathan Soukup questioned:
>I just finished my second interview for a tech writing position and
>it looks like I have a job. My interviewer was explaining their
>production process to me and asked me if I knew Interleaf. I had
>never heard of it. He said it was ok, because hardly anyone outside
>the company was familiar with it either and I would pick it up
>quickly. I found their website and the product looks pretty good. Is
>anyone else familiar with Interleaf? Is it easy to work with?
>Reliable? Powerful? Any info anyone could provide to satisfy my
>curiousity would be greatly appreciated.
I have used different versions of Interleaf since 1985. I have found
that it can do anything I want to use it for (including the ability
to create complex isometric exploded drawings).
Interleaf contains a book/catalog feature that allows the creation
of multiple-section documents. The sections within the book will use
the catalog contained in the book. While using the book feature, you
can also create an index (based on entries you made while you were
writing the document), a table of contents (if you define a paragraph
type to be included in a TOC), and probably the most powerful (and
least understood) feature is the effectivity (conditional text).
The one thing that many users find confusing is that there are
property sheets for almost everything (document, paragraph component,
image frames, tables, table cells, etc.). But, once you find out
which property you want to alter, you can achieve the look you want.
As for the ability to learn it quickly, that depends. Do you expect
to be creating complex formats within a couple of weeks, or just be
able to update existing documents using previously created documents?
If you have version 5.4, read the getting started manual. There is
also some samples of documents available as part of the installation
disks. When the software was loaded on the machine, there are options
for loading assorted sections of the software (filters, fonts,
printer drivers, languages, tutorials, sample documents, etc.). If
necessary, run the setup again to load the items you need. You can
run setup again when you are done to remove them.
If you have version 6.x, there may be a similar manual, or you may
have to try any tutorials provided with the software.
