Creating a Woodworking Plan, Part 2: Getting Started

<<<< See part one here

Once the SketchUp model has been completed it is time to work on the project plan itself. Typically, I use four different software products to create a plan: SketchUp, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Paint, and Adobe Acrobat Pro.

There are several ways you can generate a project plan. I have seen people use Microsoft Word and Adobe InDesign. I have both of these programs and hopefully I’ll graduate to InDesign in 2013, but I use Publisher for three reasons: 1) it is very flexible, 2) it was what I had; it came included in the Microsoft Office bundle we bought a while back, and 3) I have become skilled in using Publisher to get what I want. As soon as I can get my hands on an InDesign book, I'll start the process of learning it since InDesign seems to be what the professionals use.

What do you want your woodworking plan to be?
I originally called my plans e-books. This seemed to be a somewhat accurate term since my first project plan was 27 pages in length. But, they don't really resemble a book; there is no cover, except for my first plan, there are no table of contents. I no longer call them e-books (I also dropped that term when I realized people don't search for woodworking e-books, they search for woodworking plans). My plans are really meant to replicate a magazine article - they include the construction process, a ton of illustrations and hopefully teach a thing or two about the steps required to bring a project to life.

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