Re: Powerpoint is overkill for manuals!

[John Posada <john -at- TDANDW -dot- COM>]

Actually, you can export from PP to HTML and also Word, so as far as being
locked in...

Tim, I know you didn't post the original, so this isn't for you, but for the
original author. Was a reason given for this requirement. There may be a reason,
that someone with limited knowledge of options may believe created a
justification for doing it this way, like maybe wanting to create run-time
versions for distribution on diskette? Maybe for use as a training piece for
seminars? Yes, I know that there are better suited packages to accomplish these
tasks, but maybe the person defining this requirement doesn't know that. Maybe
it is being done on spec for another party and THEY requested it. (When I was
doing responses to RFPs, I had one client ask that the 500 response be done in
Excel.) I can think of any number of reasons for the request, some valid, some
not.

Actually, on more thought, I can think of some pretty interesting ways of using
PP for creating a manual. It depends on how you define the manual. If you
restrict yourself to thinking how can I create a manual that looks like
FrameMaker in PP, then it is a bad idea, but then that is a bad approach. If you
position it from the standpoint of PP's capabilities, then yes, you can use it
to create a pretty powerful deliverable.

I don't know if you've used recent versions of PP in depth, but with it's
outlining, multimedia, Internet integration, and auto run capabilities, it can
produce some pretty interesting and effective output.

Let's not get in the habit of putting the tool infront of the message. Remember,
people used to create manuals containing thousands of pages on Royal manual
typewriters.


> a whole manual? That's absurd. If nothing else, PP isn't portable to
> *anything else* on God's earth. Once in there, you won't be able to get it
> out. PP is a dead end. Even Word isn't that restrictive. I can't think of
> anything less suited for modern manual production, unless it's Access,
> although even Access isn't a dead end; I can use it to hold tagged text, at
> least. If you must use something bizarre, use Corel or Paint Shop Pro,
> because at least those apps are flexible and can do great graphics.
>

--
John Posada, Technical Writer
Bellcore, where Customer Satisfaction is our number one priority
mailto:john -at- tdandw -dot- com   mailto:jposada -at- notes -dot- cc -dot- bellcore -dot- com
My opinions are mine, and neither you nor my company can take credit for
them.
  "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish,
and he will sit in a boat and smoke cigars all day."
  "The only perfect document I ever created is still on my hard drive."


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