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: DEBATE: Word-processing or DTP From:Damien Braniff <Damien_Braniff -at- PAC -dot- CO -dot- UK> Date:Thu, 23 Jul 1998 08:32:41 +0100
An interesting question and one where I've seen the situation change over
my career as a writer. For the first 4/5 years of my career (not that long
ago!) work was done as Bernie suggested. Originally my work was done in
pencil and handed over to be typed, formatted etc with gaps left, where
indicated, for drawing to be added later (cut 'n' stick!). Then we got
WP packages (Samna I think, AmiPro pre-cursor) and again the text was
passed to the "typists" for formatting and layout. And then we got to where
we are now - Jack of all trades! I'm not quite sure just when this
happened - probably with the arrival of packages which were "easy" to use
and where graphics could be integrated. Why did it happen? Two main
reasons spring to mind:
Companies felt they could save money - why have two people doing two
jobs when one could do both.
Writers felt that they should have control of the "process", not just
the words. And so we became "designers" as well as writers. Plus, of
course, with reference to (1) this made us more employable - a very
powerful reason and one still going strong. How many ads do we see
where specific package expertise is required?
