Help for a new tech writer

[Jonathan West]

>
>  Am I nuts to take this on?

Yes, but we all do something nuts from time to tome, and it might turn out well.

>  I will be starting slowly, a few days a week,
>  with research at the plant. All the info I will need is essentially in the
>  owner's head, so I will be doing extensive interviews with him. But I need
>  to get the right software and a template to work with so I can at least
>  start plugging things in to some kind of structure. I'm wondering about
>  Framemaker or Indesign.

Don't forget Word. There are good descriptions of how to build Word
templates here

Creating a Template - The Basics (Part I)
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart1.htm

Creating a Template (Part II)
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/CreateATemplatePart2.htm

And on how to create custom toolbars here, which will make using the
template much easier (assuming you use Word 2003 not 2007)

Creating Custom Toolbars for Templates
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=262

It is very important to create a template early, and have a set of
styles defined. If at a later date you decide to change your layout,
all you need to is change your style definitions.

The advantage of Word is that those who will review your manuals are
more likely to be tolerably familiar with it, and it may even happen
that there is some written material available in Word that you can
use.

>
>  I know I haven't given much info (I don't have much yet), but anyone have
>  advice for me?

Realise that with both you and owner being new to this, your common
understanding of what is needed will change over time, and you
probably will end up having to restructure & rewrite documents more
than once. Make sure the owner understands this as well.

A key aspect of documentation in a factory environment like this is
revision control. Being able to pick up a manual and being able
instantly to tell whether it is the current version is very important.
If you can't do that, people will end up continuing to work to
outdated procedures. You need a prominent version number and
publication date on the cover and on every page, and you need to
ensure that you update the version number and publication date for
every version you publish. The format of the number doesn't matter
provided you apply it consistently. Get into good habits early on
this.