Plan Your Dream Department Tools

[Nancy Allison <maker -at- verizon -dot- net>]

After years of working in bare-bones startups (where the tools were Microsoft Word, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Word), I'm now being asked to recommend tools for a techpubs group. I'd like your thoughts on this.

Assume that you've been hired into a department that is using FrameMaker 7.2 in Windows XP, no graphics tool other than MS Paint, no screencam tool, and no online help tool other than the WebWorks Publisher that came with FrameMaker, and the HTML Help workshop.

This doc group is undergoing radical changes and there's now lots of room for innovation. In the future, you expect to create:

--PDFs for print manuals
--Tailored online help (NOT just the manuals spewed into HTML)
--Interactive web-based troubleshooting tools
--Interactive web-based quizzes and surveys
--Videos
--Software demos created using webcams, sound files, and other media 

It's a small company and there is not much documentation overlap between products, so there isn't a need for a powerful content management system. The company is not going to move into XML any time soon. However, every document is translated into roughly a dozen languages.

You've been given a free hand to recommend the department's new software tool set. What would you choose?

--Nancy
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Gain access to everything you need to create and publish information 
through multiple channels. Your choice of authoring (and import)
formats with virtually any output. Try Doc-To-Help free for 30-days. 
http://www.doctohelp.com/


---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat