Best Things to Tell the Tech Writer

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

OK, I'm finally gonna start a thread. I need help with this. Black humor (is there any other kind) will be appreciated. If I don't laugh, I'm gonna start hunting alleged engineers...

Note, with arrow pointing to crayon blobs on a disassembly illustration of a mechanical device:

"Just a general representation of the stuff in the lower half should be acceptable because they may either have the ballast or something else installed."

I get to modify the disassembly illustrations. Oh, and the "mechanical device" does have wings...

Sheesh!!

[piqaboo]

"Ignore the edits in red. Go with the ones in black ball point."

[OperaTenor]

"This Page Left Intentionally Blank."

[piqaboo]

Insert here:
Mfg will be done at GCD in PosCtrl ste. Oligos to be seg by fn & target by ste #.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Dimensions? Why? Are they important?

[haggis]

"Trespassers will be violated"

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Naaah.

Trespassers Will Be Shot.
Survivors Will Be Shot Again.

I'm at "downright surly" at this point, next setpoint is "mean".

[piqaboo]

"Can you just tidy this up a bit, perhaps clarify it?"

Said by technician while handing over a criss-crossed mass of multicolor markings, all dominated by a pencilled in "stet".

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

<Whimper icon> I find myself doing a Sharpie drawing on the acetate document protector that I put the very nice color photograph inside of. This should, theoretically, give me a line drawing.

I say theoretically because I am profoundly art impaired and this is the best I can do. I am not allowed to use the engineer's very nice digital color photograph with the digital crayon blob overlays that he put into the Word document.

I don't care. I'm paid by the hour. I brought in chocolate.

I started at Insanely Cheerful, went through Happy, Optimistic, Pleasant, and Civil before the second cup of coffee. Since then, I've blown through Touchy, Testy, Cranky, and Surly. Soon my brain will take that notorious left turn at Albuquerque, I'll be Loony Toons, and all will be well.

I have Chocolate. I have Chocolate. I have Chocolatttttttttttttttttttttttt

[Rick186]

Hi.
Whatcha doin?

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Originally posted by Rick186:
Hi.
Whatcha doin?

Faking it. Engineer's yellow stickie says "Artwork Change". Crayon and smudged pencil and green marker denote changes to be instituted. Several changes to illustration are required.

I am not an artist. I am profoundly art-impaired. I am not named Art. How do I get stuck with Artwork?

It just seems wrong. Wrong, I tell you. Wrong.

[piqaboo]

Reading a 17 page document (rev B) to find and approve what is purported to be 2 changes.
Problem is, the editor didnt mark the changes. I get to find them, by word for word comparison to rev A.

I dont get paid by the hour and I forgot my chocolate. Arghghg!

[haggis]

Piq?
Is it a paper copy or in Word? If word, use the compare....(Ed. "You thrive on pointing out "The bleeding obvious" Don't you?" "She's more than justified to pour ink on your head, you know that don't you?"

Nawwww, she likes for me to do that!!!

Ed. "Sigh")

[piqaboo]

Haggis -
thanks!
3 to do:
one = 2 paper copies
one = one paper one e-copy. <cross-eyed icon here>
but the third! Both are e-copies in Word - and I didnt know there was a "compare" function - cant wait to test it out! Hooray!

How was england? Get sunburned at all?
(see the sun at all?)

[Shapley]

That feature is also available in Word Perfect.

Throwing in a punch for my word-processor-of-choice. I never have developed a liking for Word and that annoying paper clip that pops up and tries to tell me how to write my documents!

V/R
Shapley

[Shapley]

If my reckoning is correct, I should be nine posts away from a new chair!

[Shapley]

Wait! It's eight! make that eight posts away! :confused:

[piqaboo]

I liked mac's word processer (cant remember the name) but this company wont support mac's so all is done in the office suite - which means word.

At prev job, we had three diff computers for the group - one with MS Word, one with Word Perfect, one that had both Word Star and the Mac program. We had to know how to use all three since we didnt always have access to the same computer. Wheeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

I do love 'excel' tho.


to Shapley : "post mon, post, post post! For the love of (<insert appropriate noun here>), POST!"

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Working in Quicksilver. Bet that's a program you don't see much.

Very useful for books. Nice XML publisher, with cross linking and active referencing that can be translated into PDF links.

No compare function.

[barfle]

As far as word processors are concerned (and I guess I'm exposing just how much of a coot I am), I started off with a pencil and eraser, then I had a Triumph typewriter that took me through all the tries at college, including the successful one.

My first electronic word processor was a Wang, which used those 8" floppy disks, and compared to today's equipment was pretty bad, but the daisy wheel printer made nice documents. When I tried to make an index with two columns, that was simply an exercise in killing time.

When PCs started showing up, I bought WordStar, which was pretty easy to use, and continued with several versions through WordStar for Windows. The company I worked at used Word Perfect, which I found unusable, so I did all my work in WordStar (these were the DOS days). They picked up MS Word when they graduated to Windows and their own network. I find Word to be pretty useful, and if you don't like the paperclip, you can turn it off, or make it into something more tolerable. I kind of like having a genius helping me with my writing, although he does ask some of the dumbest questions (Do you know the difference between "its" and "it's?) that it never seems to tire of.