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Subject:Re: access and learning TW software? From:"Bergen, Jane" <janeb -at- ANSWERSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 22 Jan 1998 12:42:12 -0600
Hello, Vannessa,
You can skip the Visual Basic unless you just have a burning interest.
That's simply a programming language and depending on where you work,
the programmers may or may not use it. Even if they do, most tech
writers are not expected to know programming languages.
Acrobat is just a Reader. There's nothing to learn and it's freely and
widely available on the internet. To create a document that Acrobat
Reader reads, you need Adobe Distiller. It comes as a component of
FrameMaker 5.5.
Nearly EVERY writer needs to know Microsoft Word (95 and/or 97). You'll
also need that with RoboHelp, as RoboHelp is just a set of Word macros
that depends on Word.
Coming from a PR/Marketing background, the most important thing for you
to learn is the writing part of technical writing. It's very different
than marketing writing. You'll need to rethink your language
considerably as technical writing is much "drier" and more concise than
marketing and other types of writing. Then there are all the tw
"devices" to master, such as information chunking, formatting for
usability, requirements for consistency in terminology, use of bullet
lists versus numbered lists, indexing, and on and on.
Hope that helps.
Jane
Jane Bergen, Technical Writer,
AnswerSoft, Inc. Richardson, TX
(972) 997-8355
janeb -at- answersoft -dot- com
On Thursday, January 22, 1998 12:21 PM, Vanessa Weibler
[SMTP:vanessa -dot- weibler -at- HIGHMARK -dot- COM] wrote:
> As a pr/mktg person who wants to make the transition to tech writing,
I am
> trying to learn what experience/skills I need to develop further, and
from
> reading postings on this list it looks like there are plenty of
computer
> applications with which I need to become familiar. Those mentioned
most
> often seem to be Robohelp, Visual Basic, FrameMaker, and Acrobat. My
two
> questions
> are:
> - Does this seem to be a pretty good starter list? Any
> additions/deletions?
> and
> - Does anybody know of places I might get used or earlier-edition
copies of
> programs to teach myself?
> Thanks for your help!
>
> -Vanessa Weibler
>
>
> Send commands to listserv -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu (e.g., SIGNOFF
TECHWR-L)
> Search archives at: http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html,
>
