RE: System Requirements

["Sherman, Bryan" <BSherman -at- synchrony -dot- net>]

Rather than specific recommendations, how about some general principles.

Hard Disk: Big as you can get. In chemistry class you learn about the
universal gas law: "a gas will expand to fill any given space". In TW the
law is "documentation and support documents will expand to fill any given
space". Think about applications and resources (like all the screen
captures).

Monitor: Larger screens will allow for more efficient use and less eye
strain. Beware that it's not just about viewable inches, dot pitch and
refresh rate are very important as well. We have 21" monitors here, but the
26mm dot pitch doesn't cut it sharpness-wise at 1280 by 1024. My old home
17" monitor only handles about a 70mhz refresh rate at my desired
resolution, which creates a barely noticeable flicker (which unfortunately
results in a very noticeable headache after a long session.)

Dual Monitors?: If you have a Mac or Win 98 you can support dual monitors.
We have Dell Latitudes that support dual monitors. We can display different
programs on our external monitors and out laptop displays. This has proven
invaluable while documenting programs (the issue of running program and
authoring software on same machine notwithstanding). It also lets you
potentially "proof" at lower resolution on one monitor, while working at the
higher on another. I don't believe you can do this with NT, but I could be
wrong.

Laptops?: I think the benefits (portability) outweigh the negatives of
laptops. Obviously we use the Latitudes. Makes me settle for a smaller hard
drive, but there are always tradeoffs.

The Ultimate TW Machine: YMMV, too many variables on the programs you're
documenting and the tools you use.

Good Luck!