Re: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.

[<ck1168 -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your replies and advice. It was helpful. I've read alot
on the tools available, but it doesn't beat experience.

BTW I've not worked out how to post a reply to a thread, so if this
appears as a new thread, well now you know.

Thanks Carla for reminding me about long term plans. After the mad-cap
rush to create the base documents and images, now every one to two
months I'll have to update the manuals. Mostly minor updates, but a
great many, and i only have eight hours a day.

Thanks Paul Priola, yes word crashes now and then, but i've quite a
number of workarounds. I still use it at the moment because I have
recorded/written quite a few macros. Tried OpenOffice 2.0, the styles
are better, but everything else is just re-inventing the wheel.

Thanks Robert, I'll have have to check out Author-IT. I think you,
Carla, Chris and Vicky may have hit the nail on the head. Its one
product with eight  versions, and two of the modules results in the 16
copies I mentioned earlier. Did I mention that this is only one
product?

Thanks David, I'm currently trying out the In Design and Framemaker
trial version. But you're right about something, marketing document's
already in the pipeline.

Thanks Joe, yes I'm the lone writer, proofreader, 'illustrator' and
'editor'. The Word version's for internal users who may want to use
some materials from the manuals. For printing, we use PDF. *sigh* yeah
FM is not easy to pickup, but definitely much easier than LaTeX. I can
figure out LaTeX, but that direction, it looks like I'll need a
separate graphics software, since I re-use a number of my Word drawings
as templates.

Thanks Vicky, I will!

Thanks Paul Pehrson, most of the guides are similiar simply because the
product is in modular form and is easily customizable. This is just one
product. There's several other products with similar requirements. 

c.k.tan




		
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