Tip of the month from PRC July 1996 

Word processor or DTP for technical documentation?

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Tip of the month is edited by Peter Ring, PRC (Peter Ring Consultants, Denmark)
- consultants on how to write user friendly manuals

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In many cases, DTP is used simply because it is common practice in the documentation department.

But there is time and consequently money (and stress) to save by using the best suited tool for the purpose, because for pure text editing, word processors are very often much faster to use. And if you only need black & white graphics (bitmaps or vectorized) it is often much simpler to insert them in a text editor than to place them accurately in a DTP programme.

I use both, depending on the job.

In my case - I mainly write for other companies - what my client use is an important factor, too. I mainly use MS Word 7.0 and CorelDraw 6, both for Windows 95, but I also occasionally use WordPerfect, Pagemaker, and Ventura.

When is a word processor best?

Generally, a word processor is better suited for handling text and simple illustrations, and a DTP is better suited for handling documents with complicated graphics. DTP has some extra facilities (= degrees of freedom) you never or rarely use. But they add to the complexity of using the programme, especially for simple operations like writing a text. Also, the text checking facilities (spelling, grammar) is often better in a word processor. For instance, I love the red curved underlining of potential errors in MS Word 7.0.

• When you only have text and black & white images (bitmaps or vectorized). To avoid the documents from being too large, link compressed graphics to the document instead of embedding them in full.
• When you don't need colour separations! However there is an exception and an emergency shortcut:
• If you are printing using a colour (laser) printer - no problems!
• Emergency shortcut: Print to an EPS file, which you then open in a graphics programme with colour separation facilities, e.g. CorelDraw. To my experience this only works with coloured vector graphics, not with coloured bitmaps.
• When you don't need horizontal and vertical text on the same page. However, it is possible e.g., by embedding it as a graphic, as/in a spreadsheet, or use an add-ons like MS TextArt.
• If you don't need special placements of the graphic relative to the text, e.g., curved margins following the contours of an image.
• When you may need to transfer text to other programmes. Many DTP programmes has very poor text export facilities. The only way to export is to copy and paste.

When is a DTP programme best?

• First of all if you need colours on the text pages of you document, and the document is to be printed with separated colours (e.g. offset).
• If you want advertising style layouts with curved margins or tilted bread text.
• If you are already using DTP and you are nervous of using more than one programme, or if you see it as a mountain to learn a new programme.

If you disagree with these ideas - or have more relevant points +/-, please e-mail me !
(Ideas for "Tip of the month" subjects are welcome, too!)

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