RE: Predecessors always worse?

Subject: RE: Predecessors always worse?
From: Paul Hanson <phanson -at- Quintrex -dot- com>
To: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:59:46 -0500

It also depends upon what knowledge you have that the predecessor didn't. My former co-worker used to write docs. He would manually type the TOC, manually insert bookmarks and manually insert hyperlinks from the TOC to the bookmark.

He about fell out of his chair when I told him about creating a TOC based upon styles.

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+phanson=quintrex -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+phanson=quintrex -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Erika Yanovich
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 9:36 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Predecessors always worse?

Why is that we hear sentences from tech writers like 'The documentation I inherited is badly written/should be completely rewritten/reorganized' (pick your favorite version) and not sentences like 'I was impressed by the documentation I found here'.

Does this happen because the existing docs are objectively worse or because happy tech writers are quieter?

Erika

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References:
Honestly -- when an SME completely REWRITES your text ... GEEZ!: From: Downing, David
RE: Honestly -- when an SME completely REWRITES your text ... GEEZ!: From: Dan Goldstein
Predecessors always worse?: From: Erika Yanovich

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