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Subject:Re: Outlines and New FrameMaker Docs From:Keith Soltys <ksoltys -at- INTERLOG -dot- COM> Date:Sat, 5 Jul 1997 12:08:26 GMT
On Thu, 3 Jul 1997 23:00:41 GMT, you wrote:
>Subject: Outlines and New FrameMaker Docs
>To:TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU,Internet
>
>Hi,
>
>I'm a former computer programmer, documentation writer, and technical editor.
>I subscribe to TECHWR-L because I'm trying to plan a new career after the
>death of my former business partner. For business, I became a spreadsheet
>designer; and for my own pleasure I wrote complex computer-generated
>outlines. I hoped that I could use both skills for technical writing.
>
>Does anyone know where all the great outlining software of the late '80s,
>which helped fuel the small-computer industry, has gone? They were called
>"thought processors" for a good reason. I would have thought that they would
>be vital for creating complex technical documentation.
>
>Most spreadsheet and database software, like Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3,
>and many relational database programs got better and better. However, Acta,
>More, and ThinkTank, (a real oldie), turned up their toes and went away, or
>became the strange things now embedded into Word or ClarisWorks.
>
..snip..
>
>Carolyn Jane Gillis Member: EAC, CAJ
>Scarborough, (Metro Toronto), Ontario Carolyn_Gillis -at- tvo -dot- org
You could check out the excellent PIM, (personal information manager),
Ecco, by NetManage. I got Ecco 3 because of it's exellent outliner. It
has lots of other useful features, but for me the hierarchical todo
list is the most useful.
Using Ecco. I can build a todo list sorted by project and subsorted by
document (and even chapter if I want to go that deep), assign each
item to a developer, give it a due date, and then pull off a report
that lists everything I need to do sorted by date, or print out a list
of everything I need to talk to one person about. I couldn't do my job
without it--at least I'd never get everything done that I need to do
if I didn't use it to track things.
I'm still using Ecco 3 though there is a version 4 which has better
integration with Win95/NT. I doubt there'll be a version 5 though,
because Microsoft has pretty much killed the PIM market by bunding
Outlook with Office 97 (sigh). But you'll have to pry my copy of Ecco
away from my cold dead fingers before I'll give it up to switch to
Outlook.
Best
Keith
------------------------------------------------------------------
Keith Soltys -- ksoltys -at- interlog -dot- com -- http://www.interlog.com/~ksoltys/
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