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Of late, I have been producing websites with a graphical designer. This designer is not very familiar with what is and what is not possible/difficult/easy to do with PHP/HTML/MySQL/JavaScript/CSS, which are our tools. And she is not always timely in producing the designs on the schedule promised. So there have been some frustrations.
On the other hand, the websites I create with this designer (who does, obviously, define the layout of the pages) are much more striking than the ones I would produce myself.
So, on balance, although the process is much more complicated because there is another person in the loop, I am finding that the results justify the occasional aggravation.
Just a thought -- it seems to me that manuals for window products (and I'm thinking this means the hardware that lets us look out at the view, and not the kind that looks out at us from our computer screens) might need to be appealing to design junkie types, who might be more particular in regards to layout than other technical readers might be. My graphical designer friend has literally told me that certain arrows on certain pages MUST line up exactly to the pixel to other elements on the other side of the page (Not always easy to do). True, I do have astigmatism and true, I am nearly totally fixated on text rather than graphics, but I must say my graphical designer makes a compelling case for why others would notice and care about these kinds of things even though I wouldn't.
I'm sure Eric has gotten a lot of suggestions about how to eliminate the layout group from his documentation process, but my opinion is -- learn to work with them and you'll probably learn a lot about layout and design from them. These experiences will benefit you when you move on to your NEXT tech writing experience, in which you may need to do the layout.
-- Emily
A long while ago, on Tue, 28 Dec 2004 13:52:26 -0600, in fact, "Eric Bolton" <ERICB -at- marvin -dot- com> wrote:
>I must preface my question by first stating that I am a technical writer =
>for a major manufacturer of window products. I write installation =
>instructions and manage parts manuals. I realize my species is a rare =
>find on this list but still consider myself a "technical writer" even =
>though I don't work in the software industry.
>
>The set up of our technical publication department does not allow me to =
>do my own layout. ... The normal life cycle of the document
>before the formal approval process frequently consists of the following:
>
>1. Hand off to composition.
>2. Receive from composition (hard copy), mark up mistakes and hand off =
>to composition.
>3. Receive from composition; correct mistakes again, make additional =
>changes as a result of SME input.
>4. Receive from composition, correct changes made without my request, =
>frequently a cut and paste error only without the "paste".
>5. Receive from composition, again, upon approval request to convert to =
>PDF (I don't have Adobe Acrobat) so that I can send to a committee for =
>formal approval.
>
>You can probably sense my frustration with this process. Which begs =
>the question, 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?=A0 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.
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