Re: On-line Standards

[Eric Scouten <scouten -at- STAFF -dot- TC -dot- UMN -dot- EDU>]

>Howdy Everyone,
>I have a problem here that is quickly turning into
>a sore spot and was wondering if y'all could help.
>We recently bought a HyperCard package for
>distributing our standards manual on-line. The goal
>was to free up my time by giving this package to all
>AMD writers. We hoped this would reduce the
>thousands of hours I spend reading for hyphens,
>abbreviations, funky phrases, and text issues that
>can easily be incorporated into a first draft.
>Ideally, the writer could pull this down as a desk
>accessory and have on-line answers. The package
>we have is Editorial Advisor (EA). The program
>seems to work well independently; but, in our
>department, we have several different software
>packages open simultaneously. EA can't seem
>to handle a busy desktop and my system
>administrator is spending more time restoring
>my desktop than I usually spend standardizing
>documents.

I have a word of caution: Your computers are choking trying to run
Editorial Advisor with several other applications. I don't know anything
about EA. (Is it a desk accessory or application? How much memory does it
require?). What I do know is a bit about HyperCard. It requires lots of
memory (in some cases, up to a 2 MB memory partition). You can't make it
into a desk accessory (though in System 7, the distinction is less
important). And it seems slow to me.

Unfortunately, I can't offer a better alternative. Anyone else who can?

-Eric
---
Eric Scouten                     Internet:    scouten -at- staff -dot- tc -dot- umn -dot- edu
Research Projects Coordinator    Bitnet:      scouten -at- umnacvx
Student Affairs Research
University of Minnesota          Compuserve:  74650,2242
110 Morrill Hall
100 Church St SE                 Phone:       +1 612 626 0746
Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA        Fax:         +1 612 626 8131