Cinnamon.

[eggwards]

The candle of the above mentioned scent is burning slowly, soothing my nerves. Work is about on my last one. Our data Conversion (the capital "C" stands for extra crap) is now about a month away. Weekends are being destroyed and deadlines are looming.

One of my deadlines is a totally new document that details a program that is still unfinished and full of holes. This program must go live on February 18th - with a full users manual and on-line help, that my team of 5 and I (not my usual team, but another one organized for this job). Whole functions don't work. Terms are being changed everyday. The upper management continues to change what we'll offer to the end user.

On top of this, I'm having problems deciding just how the document's end product will look. Normally I get some divine inspiration on these things, but I think right now, with all of the confusion and stress (everyone in the larger department I work in is just about at wit's end) I just am not as creative as I could be. Still, it's just a user's manual. Then again, I really wanted this job, to show off my underused skills.

The skills I am using are that of a juggler...just a little bit longer. The "final" draft goes to the Assistant Vice Presidents (yes, plural) on Friday.

I may be able to sneak away from the grind on The Feb. 8th weekend. It's the only full weekend I get for a while. I'll finally be able to take it easy in March.

I could use a nice backrub...

Comments

[garebear.livejournal.com]

NOW, I understand your weekends! If it's Tuesday morning, you have about 80 hours until Friday afternoon. In the past I've worked 72 hours straight to get a publication to the printers. Exhausted, smelling and delirious, sometimes it's the only way. I hope it's not the case for you.

For the layout...I hope you're using Quark, FrameMaker, PageMaker or InDesign and utilizing style palettes. In print, body copy reads best if serif (avoid modern serifs like Bodoni) and on-line, sans serif reads best. Keep it simple, ragged right, use lots of white space, screen captures. If using letter size pages, utilize a wide outer margin (notation margin) or multiple columns (or both)--also consider increasing your leading. Let readability take precedence to design. Let your design, communications and organizational skills shine. Wishing you the best in the successful completion of the job...and demonstrating the breadth of your skills.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Yes, I have a desktop publishing past that comes in handy every once in a while. I'm still using PageMaker, but would love to get a copy of InDesign. Never used Quark.

Planning to use Ariael for the font, since it matches up with the rest of e-commerce's sites here. The interesting thing is that we've made the decision not to use screen prints, due to the fluidity of the site right now. There are too many updates. We'll re-evaluate during 2Q after the test users get their hands on it.

[garebear.livejournal.com]

Glad to see someone who uses PageMaker. I work mostly on Quark, but favor PageMaker...It's funny that InDesign hasn't caught on. It's really a hybrid between PageMaker and Quark. Show them what you can do!

Damn, I have nowhere NEAR that helpful a comment

[ilorsodirettore.livejournal.com]

All I know is music and coffee, so yeah, I'm pretty much useless.

I do, however, give GREAT backrubs.

I, like you, however again, have damn near no free time until late February, so all this post is doing is disappointing you and making me hot unnecessarily.

Ah, living.