We need to prepare a print version of some presentation slides. We’ve done this before, it’s just cut and paste production work. Pretty easy and predictable.

So, I prepare everything to make it really easy (directory of screenshots, spreadsheet of titles, directory for french & english, etc..) and tell The Designer what needs to be done.

I give him an example PDF of the final output, say to use Pagemaker because that’s what our template is in, and it’ll be really easy to auto-link the graphics for the French version. I give him a time schedule.

It takes him twice as long as expected to get it done.

Instead of using our copy of Pagemaker, he uses an unlicensed copy of Adobe InDesign. He has trouble getting the auto-linking to work in InDesign.

Clear instructions are ignored, and the budget is totally fucked. What a surprise.