Scott Rhoades wrote:
A few weeks ago, before joining this group, I went through the printed
Writer Guide, looking for tips about stuff I didn't know. I found quite
a bit. I also had some thoughts about some of the book's organization,
but wasn't yet a member of this esteemed project team and didn't keep
notes. I could probably remember some of those thoughts if I thumbed
through again. I know a lot of the book has been updated since the
printed version was published, but I think the organization hasn't
changed much.
No, it has not changed much. The main changes are some expansion
of existing material (especially in the Mail Merge chapter),
rather than reorganisation.
And related to that: some topics are not covered in the Writer
Guide as it is now, mainly because no one was available to write
them. Also some are really quite advanced; most of the current
material is beginner-to-intermediate.
Is there a list of these topics somewhere?
Look in the outline for some we have identified. There are
others, but I don't think anyone has made a list yet; certainly I
haven't.
so to me a 2-volume set seems
like a good solution. Or possibly even 3 volumes!
I would tend to agree, as long as newbies could still find an
unintimidating, one-volume Writer Guide with the basics. I always think
of my mom. If she were to switch word processors, it would be a scary
thing for her, and a two or three-volume manual would probably convince
her that Writer is really complicated, so she'd likely give up before
starting. I mean, it CAN be complicated for people who need it to be,
but for people who just want to write letters and memos, and maybe an
occasional report, it doesn't have to be.
I think splitting up the book into "basic" and "advanced" topics
(not necessarily using those terms, but some variation on
things-almost-everyone-might-want-to-do vs things-for-power-users
or whatever) could actually make it less intimidating.
Another possibility is a "tutorial" book for novices and a guide
for intermediate-to-advanced users, which would have less
hand-holding and more technical detail. At the moment the book is
a mixture of the two and probably a bit frustrating for many
users at all levels.
--Jean
