Re: Your opinion about help authoring tools

["Suzette Leeming" <suzette -dot- leeming -at- gmail -dot- com>]

On Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 2:54 PM, Gretchen Hollis <gretchen -dot- hollis -at- att -dot- net>wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I'm a technical writing graduate student, and I'm interested in other
> technical writers' experiences with help authoring tools . I would
> appreciate your responses to the following questions.
>
> 1. What type of technical writing job do/did you have (i.e., your title,
> company, and your technical writing responsibilities) and where are you
> located (i.e., state)?


Technical Writer, private company, responsible for all print manuals and
online help for a suite of financial applications, Stouffville, Ontario,
Canada.

>
>
> 2. Did you take courses that taught you how to use help authoring tools
> (i.e., RoboHelp, Doc-To-Help, AuthorIT) or desktop publishing tools (i.e.,
> Framemaker, Illustrator, InDesign, Quark). If no, skip to #5.


I once took a Framemaker and Adobe Acrobat course, but no courses for the
software I currently use.

>
>
> 3. If so, did you take the course(s) through a university or somewhere
> else?


Through a company called Learning Tree International.

>
>
> 4. Did you take the course before or during your technical writing job?


I took the courses during my job.

>
>
> 5. Do you think on-the-job learning is sufficient for learning help
> authoring tools for your work?


Yes.

>
>
> 6. Do you think technical writing programs at universities should teach
> students how to use help authoring tools?


No. There are many tools out there and it would be impossible to learn them
all in advance. A good technical writer should be able to quickly learn new
tools. It's the concept that's taught - not the tools.

>
>
>
> Thanks,
> Gretchen
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 2009 is your all-in-one authoring and publishing 
solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor,  Microsoft Word or 
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

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