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.
Many other posters have provided more than enough food for thought about
tools.
On the other hand, I think you need to categorize your work more closely.
You mention user guides in the same breath as marketing collateral. These
are very different types of materials and in a larger organization are
handled by different departments.
>From what you wrote, I see the following three categories:
MARCOM
* Marketing collateral, of which tech spec. flyers are a subset. (IMHO, with
small possible exceptions such as data sheets, marcom is best left to
copywriters. I have done both tech doc and copywriting and believe me, they
are very different. Having the tech writer do marcom makes as much sense as
having the dev engineers do customer support.)
TECH DOC
* Admin Guides (of which Install & Maintenance would be a subset)
* User Guide
(Context-sensitive online help should be generated from the above; it is a
format, not distinct content like a guide.)
RELEASE MATERIALS
* Release notes and any other supplemental, release-specific doc supplied
outside the more formal and continually evolving doc set of admin and user
guides.
In my experience these are either put together by the engineers or generated
from a bug database (ie, Bugzilla) then cleaned up for general consumption.
In my current position, I rely on internal release notes that accompany each
new build so I can more readily identify new or modified features.
You mention function(al?) specs but in my experience these are docs the
engineers give ME so I understand what they are making.
WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT - EDIT AND REVIEW, REDEFINED
Accelerate the document lifecycle with full online discussions and unique feedback-management capabilities. Unlimited, efficient reviews for Word
and FrameMaker authors. Live, online demo: http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
Technical Communication Certificate online - Malaspina-University College, Canada. Online training in technical writing, software (FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Dreamweaver, Acrobat), document & web design, writing manuals, job search. www.pr.mala.bc.ca/tech_comm.htm for details.
---
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.
