Re: Maybe O/T? - Text development vs. tech writing

["Judy Ferril" <jferril -at- qwest -dot- net>]

Thank you all for your replies. I certainly didn't mean to start anything up
on the list and it appears as if I might have.

I did discover that my problem was not necessarily out of the realm of some
reality. Others felt very much of the same block as I do. I look at a
manual (especially for an end user) as a sum of the parts. How do I write
about a screen without having any say in what screen should go in the
documentation? This is not an inter-communication type of situation - it is
just generate text. It goes from me and then who knows. I have a
strong work ethic and even though I have been brought in from outside, I
still carry that strange feeling that I owe the client the benefit of a good
working document. Novel concept.

I have found out this is apparently a marketing driven decision. I will be
generating text.....that is all folks. I am sure in the HTML world this
would work fine, but that is not the environment. I am not working in the
future, but in the here and now. I am learning for the future. They have no
staff ---- graphic designers, writers, etc. The only staff is development,
marketing, and sales. I have worked very closely with development on these
manuals with no issues whatsoever. Alpha and beta manuals in the field with
minimum redos .I am a consultant, as will be the formatter. So now I will
take all of the
manuals I have done in Frame (when asked 8 months ago to use the tool of my
choice),  transfer them to Word docs so they can go to their formatter and
be
translated into Quark documentation(?) - hope this does not offend anyone
either.

I will do the best I can and learn from this lesson. I am sure I will
enhance my
 writing skills, etc., but I hope not at the expense of an unknowing client
trying to learn to use the product.

Thanks again for your insight, advise and sharing the wealth of your
knowledge with me. We all always have so much to learn.

Judy



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