TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:EM/EN nightmare cont'd. <pc to Mac>? From:Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Thu, 12 Feb 2004 10:52:17 -0500
Dan Gallagher wrote that as a result of a font mismatch: <<One of the
books got printed 500 times with a voltage table full of enyays where a
minus sign should be.>>
Not to criticize, but this is why I'm such a strong advocate of
proofing documents in the final medium (paper vs. online, Mac online
vs. PC online, Internet Explorer vs. Netscape, etc.). There are
seemingly infinite ways you can get bit by such problems, and the
solution is always the same: proofread that final output. That's why
"proof" is part of the word "proofreading": without that proof, you're
working on circumstantial evidence.
I learned this lesson the hard way several years ago when we sent a PC
PageMaker file to a service bureau that was also running Macs, and that
ignored our request to output film from a PC. Output looked great
direct from our PC, so it would have been reasonable to assume that it
would look great on film. Yet many of the characters (French accents
and upper-ASCII characters) got mangled as a result, and if we hadn't
requested film proofs to check, we'd have had a very embarassing
situation to correct, probably at our own expense.
--Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)