> > Q1: Will there exist "document formatting professionals" in the > future? yes. in the same way there will exist car mechanics, internal decorators, cooks, what have you. however much the DIY concepts take over, there is always a place for the artist > Or will their skills have to be found in: > > -- the authors? > > -- the software? the software, of course, if you make that distinction. the question is how writes the software! i drive cars, i dont tinker with the engine. i dont make my own pasta normally either. > If both authors and document formatting professionals exist, is > supporting both with one system: if authors want to get into document formatting, they can learn about it, and do both. but they should know that they are doing so, and i think a clearer distinction between functions is desirable inevitably, people take my remarks as being `elitist' about document formatting. i don't mean that. i mean that we can all do the whole job as we always have done with LaTeX, but it would help everyone if we knew which bit was which. We _do_ that in LaTeX already, we usually author but sometimes we (some of us) write style files. But we dont have to maintain that very close integration whereby the document can interfere in the formatting at a micro level sebastian