RE: Directions for tomorrow's techwriting

["Stevenson, Rebecca" <Rebecca -dot- Stevenson -at- workscape -dot- com>]

David Neeley writes:

"I for one would welcome a shift away from the present practice of having each technical writer spend a substantial part of each day consumed with simple formatting issues."

Time spent today on formatting issues: none
XML used: none

No one needs a methodology shift in order to not spend all day messing with formatting; all you need is a decent template (whatever your chosen poison happens to be) and an ounce of self-discipline. :-) Since forming our department two months ago we have spent a grand total of I think 3 hours creating our template. I expect we'll spend another 2 hours before we finish it.

This doesn't mean that XML or some other reuse-friendly technology won't be the wave of the future, but I hope it'll be for a better reason. :-)

Rebecca Stevenson
Technical Writer
Workscape, Inc.
508-861-3059
AIM: RJSWriter


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