RE: what should I say?

[Marguerite Krupp <mkrupp -at- cisco -dot- com>]

Hi Sue,

They want bigger? White space is your friend!

They want Quark? Others have covered a lot of good advice here. I would add
that last spring I had my grad students working on single-sourcing. One of
the members of one team wanted to use Quark, while the others wanted Word or
Frame. Interesting situation. They made it work, but the person who favored
Quark wound up doing a lot of extra work. Very colorful result, with a nice
design, especially for the shorter pieces. For the longer ones, if I recall,
she resorted to a different tool (after practically standing on her head to
make Quark work). 

So, if a little "pseudo-real-world" experience is any help, there's no need
to get into an "either-or" discussion. I'd say let the illustrator stay with
Quark and provide her with whatever text you need to share in a form she can
import into Quark. Ask her for illustrations in whatever format *you* need
for the tool you want to use. Should be a reasonable and economically viable
solution.

I hear a subtext about who has ultimate control of what goes out. Get ahold
of both your marketeer and the illustrator and see what you can work out so
you share control here. Ultimately, as others have said, they'll do whatever
they want, of course, but I think it's better to build bridges than to burn
them.

At the risk of making a long post longer<G>, I have a story that I used when
I was working as a contractor. The source is a Trappist monk at the
monastery in Weston, Vermont. The monks take a vow of obedience, and one
day, when this particular monk was a novice, the novice master asked him how
he felt about taking this vow. 

"For example, suppose I told you to paint the stained-glass windows of the
chapel black," said the novice master.

"I'd tell you it was a stupid idea," replied the novice.

"But what if I insisted, as your superior, that you do it?" 

"Well," said the novice, "I'd do it, because you're my superior, but I'd
still tell you it was a stupid idea."

So it often goes with consultancy.

Marguerite

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