RE: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.

["Joe Malin" <jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com>]

Are you the lone tech writer? The decision may depend on your boss, your co-workers, and your budget! 

Managing variants in FM is straightforward. FM is great for going to PDF. It provides very basic tools for going to HTML, but 3rd-party tools can do an excellent job. FM is also quite
good at handling images.

If your primary delivery mechanism is print or PDF, then FM is superior. 

I warn you, though, that you will need time to learn FM. On the other hand, it will be time well-spent. FM has built-in features that can carry you forward into structured writing, single-sourcing, and other emerging technologies. I consider my investment of time and money in FM to be well worth it.

You will also find many people online that can help you with FM.

InDesign does not focus on the technical documentation area. If you are given the choice, choose FM.

Joe


Joe Malin
Technical Writer
(408)625-1623
jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com 
www.tuvox.com
The views expressed in this document are those of the sender, and do not necessarily reflect those of TuVox, Inc.	

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of    
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 7:39 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this list and to tech writing as well. This is my first tech
writing job. The company makes software and I write the manuals.

I manage about 27 documents, of which 16 are variants of two basic
documents i.e. 95% of contents are the same. The manuals are small
averaging 120 pages with around 100 odd images. I'm using Word 2000 and
RoboHelp to produce MS Word, PDF and Windows HTML Help. 

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