06-22-2011, 03:55 AM
For what it's worth -- I knew PageMaker v1 through v7 like the back of my hand.
The more complex the document, the more I dived into it.
It was rare to find a "simple document" - unless you had a prototype drawn up or a version of someone
else's work that you wanted it to mimic - and that leaves possibilities to a minimum.
Otherwise I've done something as "simple" as a three column brochure (2 sided, so six columns)
that had three versions (just minor variations for 3 different audiences) - but in the end, each one,
due to proofing, word changes and sometimes as insignificant as a stray comma - or a new paragraph
required across three versions, that this brochure took about 3 days, and each had 29 revisions (in other
words, nearly 90 versions, nearly 90 PDFs made, nearly 90 "Package document fonts/graphics" - and
a total of about 30 or so hours into a single sheet of paper.
(and at the end, I moved it all over to InDesign 1.0 - because I wanted to learn how to use InDesign -
as I never used Express - and I knew that PM7 was the last of its kind) -- but of course, nobody got
billed for that.
Client was happy, literally ecstatic that I got it all done in time for them to hand deliver it to their printer
half way across the country - watch the output of just 200 of each variant, and I got $2500 for it.
The more complex the document, the more I dived into it.
It was rare to find a "simple document" - unless you had a prototype drawn up or a version of someone
else's work that you wanted it to mimic - and that leaves possibilities to a minimum.
Otherwise I've done something as "simple" as a three column brochure (2 sided, so six columns)
that had three versions (just minor variations for 3 different audiences) - but in the end, each one,
due to proofing, word changes and sometimes as insignificant as a stray comma - or a new paragraph
required across three versions, that this brochure took about 3 days, and each had 29 revisions (in other
words, nearly 90 versions, nearly 90 PDFs made, nearly 90 "Package document fonts/graphics" - and
a total of about 30 or so hours into a single sheet of paper.
(and at the end, I moved it all over to InDesign 1.0 - because I wanted to learn how to use InDesign -
as I never used Express - and I knew that PM7 was the last of its kind) -- but of course, nobody got
billed for that.
Client was happy, literally ecstatic that I got it all done in time for them to hand deliver it to their printer
half way across the country - watch the output of just 200 of each variant, and I got $2500 for it.