Finding a good printer?

[geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]

 David Janus is <<having some trouble getting [his] manuals
 printed...  the person in our marketing office who is
 dealing with the printer doesn't seem to understand my
 requirements and doesn't seem to be asking the right
 questions of the printer. I produce my work in Word 7 and
 then output it to a PostScript file using a Docutech
 driver... evidently the file gives them some problems.
 Their suggestion?  Use Quark.>>

 Sounds like you've encountered the dreaded "single source
 provider" problem; that is, your marketing people have a
 comfortable relationship with a single printer or service
 provider, and have no intention of looking around for
 someone else equally qualified. This isn't always a bad
 thing; I'm currently working in a long-term
 (non-codependent!!!) relationship with a printer, and
 although we could shave a few bucks by shopping around, we
 get excellent service from someone who understands our
 needs and responds to them quickly and well.

 In your case, the service provider simply doesn't want to
 invest the effort to learn new technology (in this case,
 how to handle a DocuTech file from Word). That's not
 necessarily a bad thing: word processors in general are
 infamous at typesetting services for posing Postscript
 output problems, and few people want to invest the
 resources to figure out how to use a word processor with a
 typesetter. Quark is superb software, and has been
 thoroughly debugged by typesetting pros, but it's
 unnecessary in this case. There must be dozens of service
 providers in New York who know Docutechs inside out. Ask
 your marketing guy to call Xerox and get a list of printers
 who use the Docutech system and your problem will likely be
 solved... assuming that your file isn't corrupted or
 otherwise unprintable, of course. Have you verified this?

 --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
 Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.