There's few things as satisfying as standing back and looking at a finished product.
The company I've been sub-contracting for finally got their act together for the photo shoot, so I finished the manual today.
Actually, the photo shoot was fun. I went there (as the technical writer who wrote the manual) to make sure they didn't stuff up any of the pictures I'd asked for for the manual.
And it turned out to be a very good thing the contractor had suggested it. Major stuffups averted: one. Minor stuffups averted: I lost count. Unnecessary photos averted: two or three different shots (at least 15-30 mins each). Gee, but how do people get instructions this simple so bloody wrong??
Anyway, I learned quite a bit about professional photography. And I also learned a lot about things you don't do in a pro photo studio. Like walk on the nice white paper they spread out as a backdrop. Or nudge the stand when you're adjusting the equipment that's hanging from it.
But it was fun :-)
Anyway, so they finally gave me the photos from the shoot (two were messed up, of course, so I had to have them try again), and I got down to working them into the material. Then it was on to compilation, index creation, and voila! One User Manual, 80 pages long and 4 megs in size.
It's this part of the job that's the nicest. Having it all done, and done well, and knowing just how much of that stack of paper (or electronic paper, at least) was your effort.
'Scuse me a moment while I try to pat myself on the back >_^
Posted by adam at August 13, 2003 06:51 PM