re: Getting PowerPoint and Word to coexist

["Christensen, Kent" <lkchris -at- sandia -dot- gov>]

(Sorry, I'm in digest mode and my response will be less useful as regards
your Friday deadline)

re:  I have about 30 pages of meeting minutes from an RF Summit. I also have
the PowerPoint slides that the various presenters used. My audience (field
technicians) doesn't have PowerPoint, but does have Word and Acrobat Reader.
They may print the final output, but more than likely most will use their
laptops to view the electronic version.


Since it doesn't sound like you can just mail out videotapes of the
presentation, I think your solution #4 (Just give 'em the two dang files,
and let 'em do their own thing) is most likely.  However, I think it useful
to point out that live PowerPoint presentations and paper or electronic
presentations of same are like apples and oranges.  Yes, you had to be
there.

Frankly, if it's important enough, you should consider the material you have
as notes and just start over to make a new presentation that fits the next
mode you intend.  And, there is yet another apples-oranges question
involved, because presentation for print and presentation for computer
screen viewing cannot be the same thing, either.  (See
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010610.html)

So, if you really want to make a presentation for print and want to transmit
that electronically, I'd suggest pdf.  But start over and compose it for
print rather than just trying to paste together the material you have left
over from the live presentation.

If you intend a presentation for computer screen viewing, likewise start
over and do it in html.

There is a lot of this "kill two birds with one stone" thinking these days,
but I suggest tech writers should remember that even though they may be able
to make sense of WYSIWYG computer screen views, they shouldn't expect that
of their customers--never ever send anyone but another tech writer a Word
file, say I.  Most printer paper is 8-1/2 in. wide (or A4?) for a
reason--it's what humans can comfortably scan.  Newspapers have columns
because their page width is beyond the normal scan comfort zone, and
computer screen presentations shouldn't be edge-to-edge either for the same
reasons.  Technical writing should always be customized for the expected
presentation medium.  Knowledge of these needs and the techniques to meet
them are among the skills that define tech writer professionalism.  "Printer
friendly version" links on web pages should be expected.

Your Friday deadline is unrealistic.  Work on the paper or computer screen
presentation should probably have begun prior to the actual live
presentation.  In this instance, IMHO you've been tasked to be a secretary
rather than a tech writer (emphasis on the H in IMHO).  Besides, "notes" and
"meeting minutes" are pretty worthless as long-term learning vehicles--the
only thing really useful is a start-to-finish presentation, and that isn't a
dump of notes, slides, and other rough draft material.  Treat your customers
better than that.  It's a "pay me now or pay me later" thing--you'll likely
need a tech support desk to answer all the questions a note dump will
generate.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

Sponsored by Cub Lea, specialist in low-cost outsourced development
and documentation. Overload and time-sensitive jobs at exceptional
rates. Unique free gifts for all visitors to http://www.cublea.com

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.