Tools and writers

[Robert Maxey <Bob_Maxey -at- MTN -dot- 3COM -dot- COM>]

>>> How can we convince employers who are looking to hire a tech writer
that
> their primary concern should not be with the software programs a tech
> writer has experience using? that a technical writer is not, primarily,
> a typist?

This is a tough one. At work, we want people to use a specific tool because
we have the tool available and we have the required site licenses for it.
Also, if you like a particular tool, and you create a document with it,
perhaps others might have problems opening the document up. We now have a
standard everyone must follow.

A problem for us is in making sure every department, and every division
uses the same tools. For example, we have divisions all over the world and
we all use training documents and a training database. Some are created on
Access 2.0, some on Access 7.0. One division uses Lotus Notes and another
uses Excel. We have MS Word documents and some Word Perfect. To make things
worse, everyone wants to tie everything into a document control system that
is different still, with worldwide access through the global Intranet
Training Database.

We will implement a set of rules and that includes the tools used to create
documents that will be used all over the world. One might be a great
writer, but they also must use the tools we will require and nothing else.

I am not sure if the tool really makes any difference or not, it is just
that the tool an employer wants you to use, might be a requirement due to
other factors.

Bob Maxey


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