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I have persistently encountered the same problem in this space. Most people I've worked with write documents using the last formatted document they made as a te

I have persistently encountered the same problem in this space. Most people I've worked with write documents using the last formatted document they made as a template for the next. Tracing back through their history of documents you find that they are all based off one person who decided it was a good idea to mix fonts and colours of headings, and mess around with font sizes and then save it all as default heading and text styles, and then everyone after them just uses these saved styles to save time because changing them would mean having to work with frustrating aspects of the tool (MS Word). So my question is, how can I get people to care about this? I've argued for a properly defined corporate style guides as well as adoption of typesetting systems like LaTeX but nobody wants to hear it. Am I just in a minority by being put off by poor typographic and formatting choices and should find more important battles at work? It concerns me that customer facing documentation is severely lacking in quality.

Someone 9y ago
The book “the Mac is not a typewriter” (https://www.amazon.com/Mac-Not-Typewriter-2nd/dp/0201782634 https://www.amazon.com/Mac-Not-Typewriter-2nd/dp/0201782634) may help get them some idea about style. It is 15 years old, targets print, and is aimed at Mac users, but that doesn’t matter that much. (For PC users, there is “the PC is not a typewriter” (https://www.amazon.com/Pc-not-typewriter-Robin-Williams/dp/0938151495 https://www.amazon.com/Pc-not-typewriter-Robin-Williams/dp/0...), but that is even older, so I’m not sure it will be more useful than the original, unless your users are using WordPerfect or Ventura Publisher)
- brians 9y ago
  Fifteen? I read that by 1991, latest. It’s nearly thirty. And it’s just what I thought of here: this article has the same simple clarity.
  - Someone 9y ago
    The second printing I referenced is from 2003. The (presumably) first printing on my bookshelf is from 1990.
jsjohnst 9y ago
> Am I just in a minority In one word, YES. But you aren’t alone either. I feel the same way and use LaTeX for any important writing (and I didn’t start using till after uni either oddly). My resume, a bunch of guides and documents I wrote in it, as well as a book I published. My editor (with WROX) insisted I had to use a Word template for it, but I just couldn’t force myself to. Instead I wrote it in LaTeX and then made a converter to output into their specific crappy template.
- jkepler 9y ago
  You could get a new publisher. If I ever write a book, I think I'd make LaTeX or TeX support one of my non-negotiable terms, or perhaps I'd self-publish.
MikusR 9y ago
There are countless kinds of cheese. How can we make people care about all those. The subtle taste differences, countries of origin or rippening time. Same with typography. If you want quality customer facing documentation generate it from plain text.
Obi_Juan_Kenobi 9y ago
Consistent styles might be a battle you could win, but you're mental if you think people are going to learn LaTeX.
- btschaegg 9y ago
  Even the consistent style part might take quite a bit of effort. I would be happy already if I could make a certain kind of person drop ClipArt and WordArt, and I don't see this ever happening...
mixmastamyk 9y ago
Latex is too hard for mortals, but I’d suggest Sphinx or one of the markdown alternatives. I think atlassian confluence is another even friendlier alternative, with a price tag.
- fantispug 9y ago
  Tools won't make people care, but they can help produce consistent documents. Atlassian Confluence is a horrible recommendation; it has few tools for typesetting, PDF export is very mediocre and hard to control (there is a plugin that allows you to control pagination), and I once found something that was impossible to produce in its markup (my workaround was to insert a zero-width character and hope no one copied it into a terminal).
  - mixmastamyk 9y ago
    We’re talking about alternatives to ms word for mortals.
- falsedan 9y ago
  > atlassian confluence l o l Replying separately because the other response is good and deserves upvotes, please vent your confluence antipathy on this comment’s karma instead.
- jsjohnst 9y ago
  Confluence? You mean the terrible wiki like software put out by Atlassian? It’s about as relevant as handing someone a typewriter and telling them to use it as an IDE/code editor. Sure, you can type characters out with both, but does that really make them similar tools?
mamcx 9y ago
You will need a semantic word procesor. Even if people understand that this thing matter, if not matter MORE than his others problems then don't expect much change...

Someone 9y ago

The book “the Mac is not a typewriter” (https://www.amazon.com/Mac-Not-Typewriter-2nd/dp/0201782634 https://www.amazon.com/Mac-Not-Typewriter-2nd/dp/0201782634) may help get them some idea about style. It is 15 years old, targets print, and is aimed at Mac users, but that doesn’t matter that much. (For PC users, there is “the PC is not a typewriter” (https://www.amazon.com/Pc-not-typewriter-Robin-Williams/dp/0938151495 https://www.amazon.com/Pc-not-typewriter-Robin-Williams/dp/0...), but that is even older, so I’m not sure it will be more useful than the original, unless your users are using WordPerfect or Ventura Publisher)

brians 9y ago
Fifteen? I read that by 1991, latest. It’s nearly thirty. And it’s just what I thought of here: this article has the same simple clarity.
- Someone 9y ago
  The second printing I referenced is from 2003. The (presumably) first printing on my bookshelf is from 1990.

jsjohnst 9y ago

> Am I just in a minority In one word, YES. But you aren’t alone either. I feel the same way and use LaTeX for any important writing (and I didn’t start using till after uni either oddly). My resume, a bunch of guides and documents I wrote in it, as well as a book I published. My editor (with WROX) insisted I had to use a Word template for it, but I just couldn’t force myself to. Instead I wrote it in LaTeX and then made a converter to output into their specific crappy template.

jkepler 9y ago
You could get a new publisher. If I ever write a book, I think I'd make LaTeX or TeX support one of my non-negotiable terms, or perhaps I'd self-publish.

MikusR 9y ago

There are countless kinds of cheese. How can we make people care about all those. The subtle taste differences, countries of origin or rippening time. Same with typography. If you want quality customer facing documentation generate it from plain text.

Obi_Juan_Kenobi 9y ago

Consistent styles might be a battle you could win, but you're mental if you think people are going to learn LaTeX.

btschaegg 9y ago
Even the consistent style part might take quite a bit of effort. I would be happy already if I could make a certain kind of person drop ClipArt and WordArt, and I don't see this ever happening...

mixmastamyk 9y ago

Latex is too hard for mortals, but I’d suggest Sphinx or one of the markdown alternatives. I think atlassian confluence is another even friendlier alternative, with a price tag.

fantispug 9y ago
Tools won't make people care, but they can help produce consistent documents. Atlassian Confluence is a horrible recommendation; it has few tools for typesetting, PDF export is very mediocre and hard to control (there is a plugin that allows you to control pagination), and I once found something that was impossible to produce in its markup (my workaround was to insert a zero-width character and hope no one copied it into a terminal).
- mixmastamyk 9y ago
  We’re talking about alternatives to ms word for mortals.
falsedan 9y ago
> atlassian confluence l o l Replying separately because the other response is good and deserves upvotes, please vent your confluence antipathy on this comment’s karma instead.
jsjohnst 9y ago
Confluence? You mean the terrible wiki like software put out by Atlassian? It’s about as relevant as handing someone a typewriter and telling them to use it as an IDE/code editor. Sure, you can type characters out with both, but does that really make them similar tools?

mamcx 9y ago

You will need a semantic word procesor. Even if people understand that this thing matter, if not matter MORE than his others problems then don't expect much change...