 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au |
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This Issue
This issue concentrates on written communications - from the writing stage
to the final output. Two excellent articles by members with practical experience in this area sound a
cautionary note that you will not become a desktop publisher simply by purchasing the bits and pieces. I did
not give sufficient notice to contributors, so I hope to devote another issue to this theme next year.
Writing Skills
It would seem that writing skills are not inculcated upon our youngsters
since at least the last decade. I don't know enough about education in this country to criticise it, but I
have seen the products of some of the less exclusive schools to say that there is room for improvement. I
cannot understand why major newspapers and magazines sometimes appear to have no proof-readers on duty.
Errors in print have the unfortunate effect of confusing those with little confidence in their own writing
and spelling abilities.
I realise that short cuts need to be taken in order to meet deadlines, and typos will occur, but one would
think that there are at least a few literate people that can be hired for a price. I believe that this is the
real issue - the literati are usually employed in more lucrative occupations, and would not have the 'right
experience' to snatch such jobs. Before I get a flood of indignant mail from our journalistic readers let me
emphasise that I am referring to a minority. I am also talking about illiteracy in the advertising industry
that does not help the situation. I don't get concerned about words that are deliberately misspelled for
effect, e.g. snax, lite, hi etc, but grammatical errors are not forgivable. Apostrophes seem to cause
the most problems - Have you ever seen a packet of the frozen product Sea Shantie's? I'm not perfect
either, and I appreciate the constructive criticism I have received. PC Update now has a regular
proof-reader in Gordon Randall as of this issue, as I don't trust myself to proof-read my own material. (I
still can't find that missing 'p' in the last issue!)
Desktop Publishing Hype?
An interesting situation has developed now that most large organisations
have invested in desktop publishing. We now have instant experts in DTP! My problem is in identifying the
false prophets from the messiahs. Whilst some writers on DTP topics publish books and articles purporting to
tell us what is good and what isn't, it is often a case of "Do as I say, not as I do". I read the following
DTP magazines - Desktop Publishing, Personal Publishing (US), Publish! (US) and PC Publishing (US).
Each one is presumably trying to practise what it preaches. Sometimes they break their own rules, presumably
'for effect', and my conclusion is that "almost anything goes as long as you like it". Like that old
question of which typeface is the most readable - most say Times Roman. I recently read a US report which
concluded that "it depends on what you are used to"! It is probably a matter of 'horses for courses'. In my
organisation we use some sanserif faces for aircrew publications. I am still trying to get to the bottom of
this, but it appears that in dimly-lit, vibrating cockpits sanserif is more legible than serif. Taking our
own magazine as an example, each member of the PC Update 'SIG' had a different opinion about the
typeface and style we should adopt. I dropped the use of Palatino for body text because I truly find Times
Roman easier to read, but I do miss Palatino's elegance. Of the four DTP magazines I have mentioned, two use
Times Roman (or clones thereof), one uses Palatino and one ITC Garamond. Hopefully, this magazine will
stabilise its style for a while, although I am still not convinced that we cannot improve our cover further.
We can now accept four colour adverts, so one of these months you may yet see a full colour cover.
PC Tools Deluxe
Ken Wortley of The Computer Trader has kindly donated a copy of PC
Tools Deluxe (now at V 4.24) for my use. This is my favourite utility and I urge you to judge it for
yourselves if you need the following features in one package - DOS shell, ASCII text editor, format, disk
caching, disk optimising, backup/restore, unformat, undelete etc. This donation is a good example of
organisations supporting user groups and receiving exposure at minimal cost. See the inside back cover and
you will see that a donation of a relevant product will earn your company a 'free' mention for a long
time.
Incentive for Contributors
As of this issue, contributors of articles who upload their articles to the
BBS or mail them to Charles Wright will receive a voucher for disks from our public domain library to the
value of $20 - usually two disks, sometimes a 'special' three-pack. Postage/Packing will also be free.
Contributors should enclose their postal address so that I can mail the vouchers without having to ask David
Sloan to look it up.
Future Issues
I still need articles on communications, networks, modems, BBSs (October);
information centres, office automation, product support from both users' and suppliers' viewpoints
(November); and employment issues (December). At the moment I get articles as late as a week before the issue
goes to press. I would like more time particularly where I need to contact another party to get 'the other
side of the story'. I have a request from a new user 'JDM' who found the August issue incomprehensible. JDM
will find the New User SIG report quite interesting, as he is not the only one in this boat. If someone is
willing to write a regular page for new users I will publish it.
Reprinted from the September 1988 issue of PC Update, the
magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
