atw: Re: Helping users find your docs via search engines
- From: Michael Edward Granat <megranat@xxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 22:47:49 +1000
True, Brian (Clarke),
But, in some cases, we can only point out the folly of their stone age ways
to them and, from then on, be it on their collective MS-DROSS or Windows
Neanderthal Technology (NT) head.
In the meantime, using a logically named and structured directory system
for one's documents will really help (us if not them).
Also, entering something meaningful (even in tiny or hidden text) in the
first line of text can be of benefit when doing a Windows (Flag+F) find
file containing... and when opening files using the MS Office file preview
option.
You do what you can do, under the circumstances to add value to your
customer or employer's business. Sometimes they just don't want to know
(scared of change). Other times, nobody has ever had the gumption to let
them know how much better things can be, because so many folk are terrified
by progress, because progress means change and having to learn new
things. It also means having to push some entrenched people far beyond
their areas of technical competence, so tread carefully, as some toes are
particularly brittle.
That's where sometimes we have to step out of our comfy, but awfully
tattered old tech writer slippers and step into the shiny shoes of the
technical communications consultant, where we can take our job providers by
the hand and lead them into the wonders of the information age.
Surely it is both our duty and our destiny to think outside the square and
help them (and ourselves in the process) to advance.
There is little point in just sitting by and watching a technologically
retarded but salvageable company fall even further behind. They will
simply become extinct even sooner, which is of no use to anyone except for
their competitors, who should never be allowed to win without a fight.
Sometimes being a team player means having to take the reins and lead from
within.
Michael Granat
Write Ideas
At 20:24 25/8/2003 +1000, you wrote:
>Hi Michael,
>In some establishments, it is very difficult to enter such data as Title
>or Author because the IT department has decided such fields are not
>editable by the workers, ie, you and me. In others where I have been
>employed, people had been imbibing for so long at the MS-DOS pottie, that
>all they could do was generate 8-character Filenames, that were almost
>completely unintelligible to anyone else.
>Brian.
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