Hi writers I'm currently having to justify my employment value; not sure if it's possible. This might be a long email, apologies, but I'm hoping the information and feed back will be useful to more than me. I hope this isn't off-topic - if so, please accept my apologies and ignore this post. The Director of Finance has the view that 2007 is so easy to use that the corporation shouldn't need additional Microsoft Word support. Firstly - if you worked for a corporation with 100 engineers all creating new technical documents, from Functional Specifications, to System Design documents,to Tender Responses (all over 50 pages) in Microsoft Word 1. Would you agree that they required no additional Microsoft Word support in ensuring their documents adhered to the corporate brand and style guide? And if so, would you only see that support as being required for setting up templates? Or adhering to the style guide? And would you believe that these document authors would necessarily have the Word skills to format in accordance with the style guide. (Note: These authors do not have time to attend training, or glance at the style guide). At the risk of opening up World War III, I have been making the point that Microsoft Word in any version is flawed as a long document tool. Yes, 2007 is easier to use than earlier versions (for new users and once you get used to it for other Version users) for creating short documents, but I personally see the same problems in long documents that I have seen from unskilled Word authors/formatters in earlier versions. From what I have seen, those who don't find Word a problem for large documents, usually work with a conservative template structure, for example, it utilises tables to keep the paragraphs aligned, and does not require the author to understand correct style usage to create a consistently formatted document. And the documents have a standard structure that doesn't require or allow for added sections etc. It's conservative and does the job, but doesn't necessarily look like it has been formatted by a professional (desktop publisher). Please feel free to let me if you agree or disagree with my assumption. I haven't worked in a wide range of organisations over the last couple of years and things may have changed as 2007 has become more widely used. Would be very happy to hear your views on that! I was wondering if someone on this list knew where I could find some technical writing statistics, or if as I suspect they are not published, if people on this list would like to respond with their experience, I will collate and forward back to the list. If you want other categories added in, let me know I'll add them in and re-send. As you can see, Statistical analysis is not really my area of specialty. Appreciate any feedback. The role I am in is a Senior Technical Writing role, which is more of a Documentation Management role; I don't do a lot of writing, but I assist others in improving their content, develop content libraries, and setup templates and provide VBA tools to assist authors with more complex Word tasks, such as Insert Landscape pages. It falls to me to ensure documentation standards are kept, I provide templatea nd formatting support to around 100 engineers. The role has very little requirement for online Help authoring, and a lot to do with Proposals and Delivery documentation. It would be good to know even what percentage of the Technical Writing community have over 5 years experience as start. Do you have over 5 years experience? Your Answer: For those who do have over 5 years experience, things I need to know are: - % who use Microsoft Word vs Other tools for the majority (over 75%) of their authoring work Do you? Your Answer: Of those who use Word in their authoring work: - % who are IT technical vs IT procedural vs Other technical vs Other prodedural vs Other Is your experience in one or more of these categories, and which? Your Answer: - % who have proposal/tender response experience (over 5 years) Do you? Your Answer: - % who have IT system documentation experience (over 5 years) Do you? Your Answer: - % who have technical copyrighting experience (over 5 years) Do you? Your Answer: - % who have experience in more than one category of proposal writing experience, system documentation and technical copyrighting experience. Which categories? Your Answer: - % who have template design and build experience for technical documentation in a large corporation as well as corporate documentation (ie letters, fax covers, forms etc) (over 3 years) Do you? Your Answer: - % who have Word VBA macro development experience. Do you? And at what level -Beginner, Moderate or Advanced. Your Answer: Any help would be appreciate, whether you know of similar studies etc would be great. I realise this might be a big ask - but if so, just ignore. It's voluntary! thanks in advance! regards Suzy