TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
(cross-posted to techcomm, frameusers, techwr-l, and STC lone writers sig).
Background:
I work for a company that produces software for the community-bank industry.
The documentation effort here is still relatively new, and I am the latest
TW to come aboard (hired mostly because of my interest in new tools and my
wide-range knowledge of the various tools. We are all very aware here that
my knowledge of the specific industry is lacking, but I am learning). The
other writers in the department are from a non-writing background (including
the manager). Formally, we are a part of the Q/A testing department.
The documentation has come a long way in the last two years, but it is still
primarily paper-based (well, we burn CDs of PDFs to send to our clients). We
also provide extensive, recurring training. The training department uses our
documents, but only to cut-and-past into viable training docs. We produce
release manuals and user manuals, but they are more procedural than "help."
The current system is Word-based (but again, I was hired because I know
Frame, and the original documentation was done in it).
Although it has come a long way, the documentation is, to me, inadequate for
our users' needs. It is impossibly dense (procedures with 100s of steps
(some of which are repeated across several different procedures), features
undocumented, no search mechanisms other than a TOC). Luckily, I have a
manager who is open to suggestion, and who already respects the fact that I
may be more knowledgeable about the documentation process than she is (I've
been trained as a writer; she has fallen into writing more from a Q/A
background).
My primary goals are:
1. To get a more formalized process in place for documenting the software.
I'm not sure how to go about this, but am researching it (and if anyone does
have any suggestions, feel free to comment to me privately).
2. Since we are moving toward more electronic help, I would like to
standardize our development environment, and move it towards a more
single-sourcing alternative. This team writes the documentation, which can
be manipulated into different forms (training manuals, electronic help, even
PDF). Our product does have a help file, but it several years out of date
(basically useless).
The absolute best solution I've found so far is AuthorIT: it integrates into
Word, creates help files of all types, uses a modular text base. I've used
it - on an extremely limited basis - previously, and really liked what it
can do (including document control, versioning, et cetera). It is also
fairly cheap compared to the other products ($499 per seat license for up to
4 seats, cheaper as you buy more, as compared to the $800 cost of Frame and
the $1000 cost of Robohelp)
My question to the various groups: has your company used this product? What
issues did you encounter in its deployment and in day-to-day use? Would you
recommend it a as a solution? What are it's limitations? Strengths? How
would you rate its learning curve? Basically, tell me about about your
overall experience with the product.
I'll write a summary of the comments I receive and post it to the list
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Check out SnagIt - The Screen Capture Standard!
Download a free 30-day trial from http://www.techsmith.com/rdr/txt/twr
Find out what all the other tech writers, including Dan, already know!
Order RoboHelp X3 in November and receive $100 mail in rebate, FREE WebHelp
Merge Module and the new RoboPDF - add powerful PDF output functionality
to RoboHelp X3. Order online today at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
