> The other problem,
> of course, is that it's hard to make really polished ODF files in the
> first place. ;-)
>

No it's not.  It only requires a bit of planning, and military 
enforcement of the rules, if you have multiple editors.

>> Alternatively, many programs nowadays support
>> version control. Did you check if InDesign does?
>
> As I say, nobody here seems to know how to work InDesign. It wouldn't
> surprise me if our current workflow can be significantly improved just
> by changing how the document it set up...

Yes.

I don't know InDesign, but I knew a few of its ancestors.

Just as CSS with HTML, or a complex software program, you need a plan 
and _you need to stick to it_.

- Define styles (ex: title, subtitles, section heading, text, code, 
examples,etc...) *AND USE TO THEM*  No more "I know the subtitle is 
Arial 14 pts, bold, so I'll manually change the properties of that 
sentence."
- Create page templates (left side should look like this, right side 
should look like that, first page of a chapter should look like that, 
etc...)
- Put section titles macros in the headers, and page number macros in 
the footers.
- Generate the table of contents automatically.
- Put someone in charge of maintaining the manual.  He or she can (and 
should) accept input from the rest of the team, but he or she has the 
last word on the format.
- That someone should have a backup, in case of vacations or wild bus 
rampage.

Tada!

Whether you use WordPerfect 5.1, vi and LaTex, emacs, Office365, or the 
latest Adobe Creative Suite, the above rules will have your manual at 
least look decent.

-- 
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/*    flabreque    */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/*        @        */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }

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