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Subject:Re: What industries are represented on this list? From:"Wolfram W. Pichler" <pichler -at- ZEDAT -dot- FU-BERLIN -dot- DE> Date:Thu, 16 May 1996 11:57:14 +0200
Mary Howe <thunder -at- IDIR -dot- NET> wrote:
>What industries are
>represented on this list? It looks as though computer industry writers are
>in the great majority, but what else do people do? I know variants of this
>question have been asked before (e.g., how many freelance, how many
>permanent, what kinds of tools are used, etc.)...
I have been a TECHWR for 25+ yrs,
and an independent contractor for 10+ yrs, at times additionally a TECHWR
teacher and an expert consultant for user instruction. My clients represent
the following industries: Hardware, software, heavy machinery, medical
equipment, harvesters, post processing machines, high tension switch
devices, =B5 processor controllers, communication technology, technical
consumer goods - IOW: the whole industrial scope. We TECHWRs are not the
ones who could reinvent all that technology. But we are the ones to advise
amateurs like ourselves how to use all that technology to a successful end.
My tools:
Apple Macintoshes since the early days of DTP, Claris Works, Word, Excel,
PageMaker, FrameMaker, FreeHand, various HTML and communication tools...
Cooperation with illustrators:
Yes, I also do illustration work myself after much self training and
depending on much expert advice in the beginning, but - if the job demands
*and* affords - I also hire trained illustrators. My main argument with
clients is that they should *afford* quality manuals to meet the user's
demands - but I do not often win the fight. Because: clients spend all
their money on ISO 9000 quality certification, so there is nothing left for
quality user manuals.
Cooperation with translators:
=46or preparing hard copy I cooperate with technically trained, reliable,
native speakers for more than one dozen West and East European languages.
Research approach:
How do online manuals (WWW, not just onscreen CD-ROM) meet user demands? I
am still looking for URLs to study examples (remember?).
Last not least:
I'd love to do contract documentation work for US and Canadian corporations
exporting their device to countries of the European Union. So could one of
you good people help us find each other?
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