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From: Price, Becca
To: Delaney, Misti
Subject: RE: PET PEEVE #3148
Date: Monday, July 10, 1995 1:32PM
got a call from Tara this am - as a mgr. of a tech writing group, she had
this to say (my words not here: the usual disclaimers for anything I may get
wrong)
She feels that it is imperative that the ad mention the tools the writer is
expected to use. Yeah, any good writer can switch, but there is an
inevitable ramp-up period. When the systems were fairly simple, it was easy
to switch from WordPerfect to DisplayWrite to MultiMate to Wordstar. Now,
systems are so complex that it is much harder - not so much to learn the new
software commands, but to learn the mindframe, the philosophical
underpinnings of how the program is structured.
She uses Word 6 for Windows where she works: she hired a new employee who
had to switch from Word for Dos, and it took the new employee 6 months to
get used to it. There was some talk about her company switching to
WordPerfect: Tara said that after playing with the program for awhile, she
felt that the lost time in re-learning, aggrivation, etc. wouldn't be worth
it.
Speaking as Becca again, Iknow that I would think twice about taking a
position where the tool used was either WordPerfect or XyWrite.
