TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Not allowed to change templates? From:Andrew Plato <aplato -at- EASYSTREET -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 5 May 1998 00:41:49 -0700
> Gerd Ballenberger wrote:>
> Our (big) department has a standard set of FrameMaker templates, and we
are
> "NOT" allowed to change them. Now we're writing a department style guide,
> and found e.g. that there is no paragraph tag for a literature list, and
no
> xref format for referencing the list items, like [1]. Of course we created
> these formats (plus some others), and now we have to defend our decision.
> How did others handle the need for special-purpose formats in a rigid
> environment?
We left and got jobs working for technical pubs groups that were not run by
Nazis.
A few other replies to this suggested forming a review board to determine if
the changes are necessary. Anytime I hear the words "review board" I want
to hurl. These groups should just call themselves "lazy, ineffectual,
hateful, morons who want to control every minutia of work and sap the life
out of everyone they touch." I have never met a review board I liked. They
are monuments to inefficiency and petty bickering.
I remember once having to endure a TWO HOUR discussion about the value of
sans-serif fonts. Those people should have all been melted down and their
organs fed to strays at the pound.
Seriously, here's my useless advice: make the changes to your templates and
don't tell anyone. If you tell them you changed the template -- they'll
yell at you and you'll spend WAY more time "defending your decision" then
writing documents (like you should be doing). If you just do it and don't
ask, they'll either praise you for your "ingenuity" or yell at you. The
latter has the most chance of being successful without the involvement of
any "review boards".
As always, with love...
........................................................
Andrew Plato
Owner/Principal Consultant
Anitian Technology Services
www.anitian.com
