Get into the desktop game - desktop publishing packages - includes related article on doing more with your DTP machine

Communication World, Nov, 1989 by Ron Shewchuk

Get into the Desktop Game

So, management has finally decided it's time for you to "go desktop."

If you have been waiting eagerly for this opportunity, congratulations! If you have been full of dread since you realized that a strange grey machine would soon take over your desk, my sympathies.

Whether or not you are looking forward to the big move to hi-tech, you will soon be required to make some tough decisions -- decisions that will have a profound influence on your role as a communicator in the months and years to come.

It's been four years since the Macintosh/laser printer/PageMaker combination prompted an almost evangelical movement among followers of the ever-changing computer age. Desktop publishing (DTP) has now gone far beyond its cultish beginnings, and even the most cynical professional communicators understand that the new technology is dramatically changing the way print publications are made.

But few realize that the humming, glowing metal and plastic cube can quickly change your job description from public relations specialist to computer technician. Because DTP blurs the traditional boundaries between editorial and production work, care must be taken at the start of your journey into the realm of the mouse and keyboard. The equipment you choose may influence the direction of your entire career.

Along the road to your decision, you will come upon many experts who will advise you on what hardware and software to choose. Beware.

Fast-talking computer salesmen have probably already made many promises to you. By now they know which buttons to push: Save money! Save time! Put more power in your hands! Rid yourself of expensive suppliers! Get trained in two days! Such promises helped convince your superiors of the general benefits of the new technology, but how much of it is really true? Will the proposed DTP system meet your needs or make you crazy?

Your own company's computer experts will also provide you with free advice. They often recommend IBM PCs over Apple Macintoshes, and for them standardization can be a more important issue than ease of use. Their proposed solution may make grand philosophical sense, but it may also make you lose a lot of sleep.

Although most communicators choose the Macintosh as the foundation of their DTP system, I know many people who are successfully using IBM PC-based machines to produce publications, and the available hardware and software is starting to catch up with the Macintosh in power, versatility and ease of use. If you do go with IBM or IBM compatible machines, but find computers intimidating, choose Aldus PageMaker as your core DTP software package over Xerox Ventura Publisher. Ventura is a powerful package, but PageMaker is easier to learn, and that counts for a lot.

This brings us to a major issue: ease of use. Although the now familiar mouse-and-menu interface has dramatically improved the user's ability to operate personal computers, we do not yet live in a completely 'user-friendly' world. The Macintosh has many advantages over the IBM in this area, especially in the consistency of commands from application to application and the absence of 'cryptic key commands' that can make doing even the simplest functions a nightmare for the uninitiated.

The Mac may currently have the upper hand in ease of use, but both sides have a long way to go before personal computers become as easy to operate as, say, an automobile or a food processor. More often than not, the people who design the machines do not anticipate the learning problems normal folks will have.

Because the technology is growing so quickly and because it is doing things that could not be done before, new words are created and old words are appropriated and given new meanings. Until computer jargon works its way into the common language of business, it will remain a real barrier to true user-friendliness.

Of course, it's not just computer jargon that acts as an obstacle to ease of use. The worlds of typography and offset printing have their own obscure languages, and you will be required to learn more than you probably want to know.

(Note: From here on, my limited experience with PC-based systems forces me to focus my discussion on the world of the Macintosh. However, the general ideas remain the same, so PC-users are invited to read on.)

In choosing your system: the free advice doesn't end with computer salespeople or your company's information systems experts. If you have an in-house design group, its staff may also have some strong opinions, especially when it comes to DTP software. If one reason you are going with the new technology is to reduce your dependency on in-house specialists, keep in mind that their advice to you might be motivated by self-preservation rather than your best interest.

Graphic artists usually prefer the DTP software application Quark Xpress. They will tell you Xpress is more powerful than PageMaker, and they are correct. But Xpress is harder to learn and takes a more technical mind to run, effectively maintaining the propietary wall behind which the print production industry has based its success. In other words, Xpress reinforces the "leave it to the experts" mentality that DTP was created to destroy, so if you want to be a do-it-your-selfer, PageMaker is the way to go.