FW: Re Word/Weird

[rebecca rachmany <rebecca -at- COMMERCEMIND -dot- com>]

Sorry, prematurely sent- here is the full posting.
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Okay, I've had it. Word isn't the best tool for long documents, but it's not
the evil entity everyone's making it out to me. I work for a writing
contractor who has been using Word for 10 years, and despite it's problems,
it has some major advantages, primarily its macro language and that it
doesn't cost an arm and a leg for freelancers and clients to purchase. 

I managed a technical writing firm of 15 writers for three years, and I
didn't have the Word struggles described on this list. Why? Because the
company owners and I took the time to really learn Word, by reading books,
subscribing to newsgroups and learning to use the macro language--and
communicating that knowledge to the rest of the team. Whenever a writer came
across a bug, someone knew how to help them quickly. We wrote macros which
overcome most of the major irritations, such as buggy numbering, cross-file
cross-references, headers and footers, the works. (If you'd like to check
out these macros, you can download them at www.tech-tav.com. Some are free
and the rest are available for twenty bucks, try before you buy. They come
with extensive documentation. We also posted a bunch of free newsletters,
which could help you with some of your problems.) We have an internal (not
available to the public) suite with more stuff, like global search and
replace over multiple files, creation of bug-free postscript files, listing
of all graphics in documents, etc. We developed these things because they
save us time and we give them to all our writers, with a document describing
how to use them. Our editors look at the softcopies to make sure everyone is
using these things and re-trains anyone who isn't.

The real factor here is training and communication. You can't expect people
who say they are experienced Word users to walk into your office and start
working. Most of the technical writers I know who are "experienced" Word
users have a low level of understanding of how the program works, and how to
overcome its frustrations. In fact, the same is true of most of the
technical writers using Frame. I know of one very senior documentation
manager who swears by Frame and told me that one of the things he loves
about it is that he never has to use templates.

The point is: it is simply ridiculous to assume that people know what they
are doing and that they should solve their problems themselves. You know
your team is having the same problems over and over? Solve them and write
something in your style guide about how to do it. Have a monthly discussion
session where people help each other. Assign one person to be the technical
support person and write macros to fix these issues. But learn your tool,
whether it is Word or Frame, Robohelp or ForeHelp. You can rant and rave
about the program's bugs and say you hate software, but those are your
tools. You just have to know them and you have to COMMUNICATE within your
team to stop repeating the cycle. 

You may never love Word, but you will be able to function efficiently with
it. You are correct; it is not designed for long documents, and it never
will be. This is because, frankly, people like us make up less than 10% of
the market for Word. This means we have to find other ways  to solve the
problems, and we can, do thanks to VBA.

Over the years, I have cursed every single software tool I've ever used,
with the exception of Freecell. C'est la vie, folks. There are much richer
Word resources out there than Frame resources, some might argue because you
need them more. But that aside, if you are forced to use Word, force
yourself to really learn it and find the right way to fix your problem,
instead of groaning about how it sucks. Rush hour traffic sucks, too: so
telecommute, ride a bike, go to work at 6 am, or learn the backroads. Or
join a carpool. You aren't alone in your problems; there are plenty of
people who have been there and are willing to help. That's what this list is
for and that's what Word lists are for. But you have to invest the time.

Rebecca Rachmany
Commercemind
PO Box 920, Kfar Saba 44109
972-9-7642000 x217
Mobile: 050-900600
rebecca -at- commercemind -dot- com