Re: layout duties
You can probably sense my frustration with this process. Which begs the question,
<aside>No, it suggests the question. Begs the question is something else altogether, but that's a topic for another day.</aside>
why can't we just do the composition and layout ourselves, like most technical writers do?! I'm certainly able. I have a bachelor's degree and have as much formal training with the publishing software as our composition people (none).
Is there anyone else in a similar situation? Do the majority of you out there do your own composition? My senses tell me yes but I could use an actual reply to bring to the boss as proof that we do not do things here in a typical fashion.
I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Yes, most technical writers do their own layouts. I would suggest that this is sometimes a good thing and sometimes not a good thing. One size does not fit all.
It is entirely possible that the nature of your product line and the requirements for your publications led logically to the decision to use Interleaf/Quicksilver and that this remains the best software for creating and maintaining those publications. I'm not trying to start a tools war with Frame and Word advocates; I'm just saying that the business decision may have been made for reasons that remain valid _in your company_ (not for all companies at all times, folks).
I would also argue that division of labor is often a good thing. I've worked in Interleaf shops both as a composition specialist (see an A, type an A, don't ask questions) and as a compose-it-yourself writer. Each system has its advantages, and from the company's point of view, the extra costs associated with your current system may be offset by savings you're not considering. For one thing, the pool of writers who are already familiar with Quicksilver is vanishingly smaller than the pool of available writers who can write about [lowercase] windows. And the pool of laid-off Interleaf operators who can't write well is also large. So there's a business argument that has to do with the expected cost of filling available slots.
Can you hire a writer and train him or her to use Quicksilver? Yes, sometimes. What percentage of the time? I don't know. But anything less than, say, 90% might introduce more uncertainty into the system than your company wishes to tolerate. And I'm doubtful that 90% of writers could be trained in a reasonable amount of time and at reasonable cost to use Quicksilver _well._
So what's the real problem here? The real problem seems to be that your process has a lot of friction (drag) in it. And I do think your process can be improved.
For starters, the composition department needs to be responsible for doing its own proofreading (step 2). You should not be recorrecting work that they screwed up after you corrected it the first time (step 4). So scratch those two steps.
Second, there has to be a way for you as the author to communicate directly with the compositor what your expectations are regarding layout. That is, you should be able to provide a sketch, or have a conversation, or stand and point if need be, so as to ensure that your creative input is incorporated and the compositor does not have to guess what will be acceptable to you. This can be implemented as comments in your Word file if the composition department is located at a great distance. My point here is that your complaint has some validity and I'd like to see the system designed so as to alleviate it.
Third, (step 5), the PDF should be provided to you automatically at every step, in addition to the hardcopy. And you should have Acrobat so that you can attach notes and comments in the PDF if that idea floats your boat.
My two cents.
Dick
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References:
layout duties: From: Eric Bolton
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