Re: getting experience with expensive tools

[Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>]

> Anyone have any creative ideas on how to get experience with expensive tools
> like Flare and Robohelp, when you can't afford to just buy them and don't
> ever work at places that can afford them or have the bandwidth to deal with
> changing to a dedicated doc tool?

Many vendors offer fully-functional demo versions that either garble
output or watermark it. Most of these are 30 day demos.

Look for beta testing opportunities (requires paying attention in the
right places at the right times, or knowing the right people). You
will be given a full version to use, and for the price of your time
and feedback you get to learn a new tool.

Jump into a new tool on the job. You say you've done several
shoestring gigs. You know the point of using the tools and what you
need to do, content-wise, to succeed. Flaunt that to get a gig asking
for specific tools knowledge. If you're a solid tech writer and know
single-sourcing, picking up a tool is a cakewalk.

-- 
Bill Swallow
Twitter: @techcommdood
Blog: http://techcommdood.com
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/techcommdood
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing 
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor,  Microsoft Word or 
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat