Re: PageMaker? what to do.

Subject: Re: PageMaker? what to do.
From: "David S. Broudy" <broudy -at- BCF -dot- USC -dot- EDU>
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 10:58:42 -0800

At 12:01 AM 10/31/95, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>From: Timothy Schablin <timothy -at- ESKIMO -dot- COM>
>Subject: PageMaker? what to do.

>Recently, I received a call from a potential client to write a software
>manual. He ask me about my expertise & stuff, and seemed quite interested
>in my qualifications. He asked me what I use to write in. I told him I
>use MS-Word or WordPerfect. The client said he needed the manual written
>in PageMaker. I told him I know hos to use PageMaker and I could get it,
>but I don't have PageMaker now.

>Well, that was the end of that potential client. He said "I will find
>someone else." and hung up.

Well, jeez!

>What can you do? PageMaker is pretty steep in price. The job would have
>paid for PageMaker many times over, but what if another client wants it
>in something else.

I find it really annoying that some clients insist on Quark or Frame as
well (I have Quark but not Frame nor have I ever used it). But that's the
breaks in freelancing. It's easy to get around the "we only use Word 6.0 so
poo on you" because there's so many coversion options, but there's not
really anything that converts DTP app files to others except Adobe's
QXP->PM converter.

Lately most of my writing work has just been banging the text into a WP
program; what the client does with that after I'm done is their business.
If they do want it all laid out nice n pretty, that's a separate activity
distinct from writing and I charge accordingly. Creating a manual or any
document from scratch in Pagemaker is a huge pain in the ass. Why do people
think it's a bloody word processor?

This potential-but-not-any-more client of yours needs a big clue.

>What does one tell these clients?

Um, sorry? Get a clue? Know what you're asking for before searching out
freelancers? I don't know *anyone* who "writes" in Pagemaker or Quark.

* http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~broudy/ *
* freelance web geek n tech writer *
* "But cha are, Blanche, ya are!" --Baby Jane *


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