POLL: Which method do you use to apply bold and italics?

[Joe Malin]

I favor the idea that quality starts with designing the process to avoid
mistakes.

If we agree that formatting standards for documents produce quality
documents, then logically we should set up our tools so that those
standards are the only possible way to format. I haven't yet seen an
instance where ad hoc formatting was absolutely necessary, but then
again, I'm a relative newcomer. Someone should suggest an instance in
which they had to override a character or paragraph tag.

This, by the way, is why I am such a fan of structured FM.

Note that I often *change* the definition of a character or paragraph
format. Alas, I'm starting a department from scratch, so I have to
design as I go. As much as I can, I change the template as soon as I'm
sure my override is what I want. Quality also involves feedback.


	 Joe Malin
Technical Writer
(408)625-1623
jmalin at tuvox.com 
www.tuvox.com
The views expressed in this document are those of the sender, and do not
necessarily reflect those of TuVox, Inc.	

-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces+jmalin=tuvox.com at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+jmalin=tuvox.com at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf
Of Bill Swallow
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 6:44 AM
To: rmuller at morrowcorp.com
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Re: POLL: Which method do you use to apply bold and italics?

> Maybe we could start a new thread, "the horrors of FM inline styles, 
> and how I survived the experience." ;-)
>
> Might be fun, eh?

Might be. ;-)

Horrors:
* inability to globally update a document from a template (let's say you
need to change style based on rebranding)
* inability to get consistent output using WWP or M2G
* one step farther away from going structured/XML
* the WTF moments upon inheriting a book from another author
* once you start manually overriding character formats, custom character
and paragraph formats aren't far behind... ***chills***