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.
Don't focus on tools, focus on concepts. From the more "writer" side, it is more important to understand the usage of paragraph styles, character styles, master pages, variables, etc., than know any tool that uses those. Learn while in-line styles should be avoided. Those are the bigger concepts, after that any software is just a new tool you need to learn how to use.
Picking up programming skills is never a bad thing, in addition to HTML learn some CSS, it is becoming more common to have to debug in those areas even from what your tools may output.
I've been involved in hiring decisions in the past, and not knowing Framemaker was not a deal breaker as long as I thought someone had a good understanding of the concepts of how any document should be designed from the tool standpoint. Heck, my knowledge of how to "do it right" got me hired somewhere using a tool I'd never even heard of (is Corel Ventura still even around??).
- V
-----Original Message-----
From: Craig Lashley
Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2015 6:20 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Future Tech Writer with Software Questions
Hello,
I am currently in school for Technical Communication and will be graduating next Spring. I've been trying to determine what types of software would be best to purchase while I can still get a student discount. I saw a post about Adobe Tech Comm Suite a few days ago. I also see Frame Maker and Dita a lot white doing tech comm searches. Are these worth buying as an individual? I've been told several times to learn HTML. I have a basic understanding for coding such as Java and C++. Is there a legit way to get certified HTML to show a future employer? I've done many walk through tutorials on Youtube, and have a basic concept and understanding of HTML. I feel for a future job having some sort of tangible documentation proving that would benefit me. Are there other certifications outside of a college degree I should look into? There appears to be a large amount of webpages saying they offer certificates, but which ones actually carry weight? I am working on determining what I could be doing outside of going to class to help me really have an upper hand as far as employment in technical writing.
