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Subject:tool nonsense (gearing up to be a tech writer) From:"Swallow, William" <WSwallow -at- courion -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 1 May 2001 09:11:50 -0400
If you're a newbie and are looking to GET A JOB, disregard any of the tools
preference blabbering on here. Sure, I'm a FrameMaker bigot ;), but when it
comes down to getting a job and starting your career, take what they got and
work with it. Learn the tool, whether it's Word, PageMaker, Quark Xpress,
InDesign, FrameMaker, Interleaf, or some other tool. Learn it, work in it,
and if after a while you determine there's a better tool out there that will
save your company time and money on documentation, go for it. Then, you have
that first tool in your resume tool belt and are on to another tool.
For what it's worth, and no matter how much people beat the tool drum,
toolset knowledge comes secondary to tech writing experience/industry
experience. Sure, I have a shload of tools under my belt, but I didn't learn
them all before starting work. I accumulated the knowledge over time in a
variety of working environments. There is never an end-all tool. Sometimes
you have to put your ego/tool bigotry aside and use the best one for the
job.
I love my new cordless drill, but I doubt I'd use it to mend a leaky pipe.
Find a job that you think you'll like and forget about what they use for
documentation. Use their stuff, get the experience, and then if you want
make an informed recommendation to your boss for a better tool if you find
one.
*****************
BILL SWALLOW
Technical Writer
C O U R I O N C O R P O R A T I O N
1881 Worcester Road
Framingham, Mass. 01701
T E L * 508-879-8400 x316
F A X * 508-879-8500
www.courion.com
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