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.
Perhaps one key may be in the "Documentation Specialist."
As others have indicated, there are often uses for Excel within a
corporate environment that can be very valid...and that need to be
updated and otherwise maintained. This, too, is "documentation" work.
I have seen, for example, fairly extensive use of Excel within the
Sales and Marketing activities of companies that don't have a CRM
application. When these must be changed, it may become the province of
such a documentation specialist to do so.
To me, an important requirement of the job should be flexibility--and
tools use, as others have endlessly pointed out, is only a rather
small part of what we do.
As for commenting that Excel is "not an appropriate tool for technical
documentation" *to the hiring manager*--I can nearly guarantee you
that this would be a strong factor in completely blowing any
opportunity an applicant may have to get the job. Once employed, and
once familiar with the internal situation, a tech writer gains the
trust and, one would hope, the respect of colleagues and managers--and
this is the appropriate time for this kind of conversation.
ROBOHELP X5 - SEE THE ALL NEW ROBOHELP X5 IN ACTION!
RoboHelp X5 is a giant leap forward in Help authoring technology, featuring all new Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! View an online demo: http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrldemo
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.