"Pinkham, Jim" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on 10/05/2007 11:23:54 AM:
> Depending on how basic your manual and how limited your scope, you might > even try Access or Publisher, if you already have them as part of the MS I tried to import a procedures doc in Word w/ callouts and arrows into Publisher and it just deletes the callouts and scrambles up the text into different areas, like Flare did when I imported the same thing. It's a known issue, i contacted Flare support. At this point my brain is so fogged with crisscrossing questions... it seems to me that I can hardly tell what questions are the right ones to ask...because i don't have the conceptual framework in place to figure that out. Also I don't do well w/ these video tutorials with the moving cursors and arrows either, they put me to sleep and cause brain fog. I just need personal interaction and immediate feedback on what I do and don't do wrong and right to learn it. Right here, right now, yes and no---bing bam boom, easy! I'm figuring out that what i really REALLY need is: Hire a consultant to: 1) Evaluate my & company needs and match w/ software that's fairly user-friendly and based on a MS Word-like model or interface 2) Train me and a few others here on basic ability on the software 3) Design a template I can work from and make minor adaptations to My company did it the way we're doing now with enterprise software. By implementing a software ERP or somesuch, Epicor's Vantage, that has caused thousands of dollars and hours and headaches and inefficiency by the sales staff, for whom it seems ANTI-designed. It has a horrible, clunky CRM that everyone hates and has reduced our productivity by maybe as much as 50%! I'm not repeating that if I can help it. Does anyone know of such a consultant? That's what I'm going to recommend to my supervisor. I have serious BRAIN FOG trying to learn too much in too short a time w/o "standing-next-to-me" guidance. Basically, learning software is boring. Writing is fun. Editing is fun. Formatting--boring but necessary, at least I already know how to do it. They're thinking very ballpark 3 months as a starting point w/ knowing the factors involved, it's already 4 weeks into it and I still have NO idea what software to get. With an entire manual to write and docs to import, and format...it's just impossible with the timeframe and my current knowledge/abilities. I feel frustrated! I'm a writer/editor, that's my strength...give me something to write, and I'll learn software slowly along the way... Tim ______________________________________________ Author Help files and create printed documentation with Doc-To-Help. New release adds Team Authoring Support, enhanced Web-based help technology and PDF output. Learn more at www.doctohelp.com/tcp. Interactive 3D Documentation Parts catalogs, animated instructions, and more. www.i3deverywhere.com _______________________________________________ Technical Communication Professionals Post a message to the list: email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, unsubscribe, archives, account options, list info: http://techcommpros.com/mailman/listinfo/tcp_techcommpros.com Subscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe (email): send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Need help? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Get the TCP whole experience! http://www.techcommpros.com
