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When I first started editing Signature, I had the grand idea that each issue would have a theme—tools, for instance, or working in an off-shored world. Then I realized that imposing a theme on every issue would limit Signature’s columnists to a topic sometimes poorly matched to their expertise. Bye-bye theme parties. But sometimes we manifest things just by thinking about them, or so Oprah tells me. Maybe that’s why this issue gelled into one with the theme of sunsets--sunsets for products, for difficult clients, even for San Diego’s beloved Bazaar del Mundo. For example, in TechTips, Jim Sands dissects the rumors that RoboHelp is set for sunset, especially now that Adobe is buying Macromedia, which previously bought eHelp; In Thinking Independently, Deborah Gill-Hesselgrave weighs the options for drawing the shades on problematic clients; and in a special photo essay, STC Chapter President Lance-Robert writes about the end of a San Diego landmark-- Bazaar del Mundo in Old Town. How ironic that this theme fell into the last issue of the STC year, June. There’s a saying I love by T.S. Eliot: What we call the beginning is often the end, and to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. (Okay, that might be a little poetic for an STC newsletter, but I never miss an opportunity to quote Eliot.) As a San Diego native, one who grew up spending sunny Sunday evenings at Casa de Pico in Old Town, I hate to see Bazaar del Mundo become something else. To me, the only “beginning” that ending brings is the trend of impersonal commerce replacing nostalgia, history, and culture. I don’t much like the idea of saying good-bye to RoboHelp, but here I’m a little more optimistic. The gap RoboHelp might leave opens the door for sophisticated endeavors like XML to fill. To that end, in June’s STC meeting, speaker Mike Hamilton of MadCap Software debuts the XML-based product Madcap Flare for creating Help. (See the Meeting Preview column for more info.) As Signature’s contributors will tell you, the end of a publishing year (we’ll be back in September), means a couple months off from the grind of spewing wisdom in the form of a column. The summer months are a break, but also a time to rest and replenish creativity, too. I think T.S. Eliot has a point. His poetic phrase talks not about endings and beginnings, but about circles. I hold out little hope for positive changes at Bazaar del Mundo, but in terms of the other sunsets we face, I’m eager to see what September brings. Best,
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