Re: The End Of Technical Writing Was RE: Re: a different resume red flag

Subject: Re: The End Of Technical Writing Was RE: Re: a different resume red flag
From: "Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 13:15:20 -0700


I spend much more of my hands-on writing time wrestling with
tools and formatting than I would like to. Part of this is because
I'm only getting to spend something like 15% of my time doing
hands-on doc work (most of my time is spent managing projects,
internal processes, personnel and budget issues, etc., etc), and
most of that is centered on developing the rough doc outlines
for new product types and jumping in when necessary to make
some minor last-minute change to a document we thought was
done because the original writer is now on a new project. I also
have every non-writer in the company who needs help with making
a PDF or hunting down information in the document control system
coming to me (again, because it would be too distracting for the
writers to have to field these calls for help while they're dogging
engineers for input or trying to beat a revenue deadline). I'm quite
certain that because of this my hands-on skills with FrameMaker
have eroded quite a bit from my individual contributor days.
However, it also seems to me that some of the previous tools I
used at the time (such as Interleaf, RoboHelp in the winhelp days,
and even Word 2.0) were a helluva lot less of a pain to work with
than the ones we're using now and took a lot less of the time writers
should be spending on research and other work than they do today.
Or maybe I've just advanced into the curmudgeonly phase of life.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message -----
From: "TechComm Dood" <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>

> I can't tell if your joking or serious. I hope you're joking. The
> tools aspect of our job is and should be small. If you're spending
> hours upon hours a day tweaking in your tools, the problem is that
> you're either not using them right or are using the wrong tools. The
> focus of our activities should be in developing (writing) usable
> documentation for our customers. The tools available to us to aid our
> writing and publishing processes are many and varied because there are
> many different needs depending on what you're doing. The right fit
> should yeild minimum impact on the work day and the work load.



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ROBOHELP X5: Featuring Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author
support, PDF and XML support and much more!
TRY IT TODAY at http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrl

WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT: New! Document review system for Word and FrameMaker
authors. Automatic browser-based drafts with unlimited reviewers. Full
online discussions -- no Web server needed! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.



Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: The End Of Technical Writing Was RE: Re: a different resume red flag: From: TechComm Dood
Re: The End Of Technical Writing Was RE: Re: a different resume red flag: From: Tony Markos
Re: The End Of Technical Writing Was RE: Re: a different resume red flag: From: TechComm Dood

Previous by Author: Re: The End Of Technical Writing Was RE: Re: a different resume red flag
Next by Author: Re: The End Of Technical Writing Was RE: Re: a different resume red flag
Previous by Thread: Re: The End Of Technical Writing Was RE: Re: a different resume red flag
Next by Thread: Re: The End Of Technical Writing Was RE: Re: a different resume red flag


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads