Identify
Your Software's Strengths and Weaknesses
By Matt
Sullivan
Matt Sullivan
is the
training director for
GRAFIX Training, Inc.,
an Adobe-certified training provider
with offices in San Diego and Tustin.
Among his
Adobe certifications are Acrobat, FrameMaker, FrameMaker+SGML, and Photoshop.
Direct questions
on
technical issues to
matt@grafixtraining.com
Find previous
"Tech Issues" columns at www.grafixtraining.com/
stc/stc.html.
Recently, while waiting for a flight in the airport, I realized how many electronic devices we all carry. So I figured it was a good time to pull out the portable keyboard for my Palm and write this article.
Of course, I also have a digital camera in my bag next to my cell phone. And I'm wondering if I should pull out my MP3 player so that I don't have to listen to all the airport noise. (Okay, so I'm a little more "connected" than most.)
Do I really work any faster or more effectively than someone without all these devices?
Honestly, on a normal day in San Diego I don't do any better than folks with a cell phone and a desktop computer. The reason is that all this gadgetry only helps when I'm away from my primary computers and connections.
I think that the utility we get from most software is the same. Using FrameMaker's thesaurus to look up synonyms is helpful only if there's no desktop thesaurus available. Using Word to output HTML is helpful only when we don't have a program designed to do that function.
I stress in class that there are many features in these programs we can safely overlook. It's a case of the right tool for the right job. I suggest that you identify the strengths of your software and, more important, the weaknesses.
Here's a list of my most used applications and, in my opinion, their biggest strengths and weaknesses:
FrameMaker
Strength: Keeping track of the components of a book such as numbering of components like chapters, tables, and TOCs.
Weakness: Creating simple graphics. I don't spend more than 10 minutes discussing Frame's creation tools. I spend time on importing graphics from other applications.
Photoshop
Strength: The best bitmap editor out there. Period.
Weakness: Combining pixel-based art with vector-based, or shape-based art and type. Photoshop turns everything into pixels, which can lead to fuzzy graphics and type.
Illustrator
Strength: Creating art that looks mechanical or airbrushed.
Weakness: Working with bitmaps. Adobe tried to turn Illustrator into a simple page layout program years ago. Didn't work then, doesn't work now!
Speaking of page layout programs, in order of market share:
QuarkXpress
Strength: Straightforward interface. Acceptance in commercial printing market.
Weakness: Technical support from the company. Cumbersome type and graphics controls.
PageMaker
Strength: Ease of use. Just what you'd expect from the program that spawned the DTP industry.
Weakness: Lack of features. Limited future upgrade potential.
InDesign
Strength: Superior type controls for those who need them. The best handling of graphic formats, including native Photoshop and Illustrator files.
Weakness: The 1.x releases. Lack of printing controls really hurt InDesign's initial acceptance. However, it still ranks as my favorite page layout program.
Acrobat
Strength: Acrobat Reader installed on nearly everyone's computer.
Weakness: Lack of marketing. This program does more than you'd think, including database entry, document revision control, and electronic signatures to name a few. Check it out.
Now that I've gone through the pros and cons of my favorite software, I think I'll do the same thing with all my electronic gadgets and see what I can get rid of!
