Re: RSS Feeds

Subject: Re: RSS Feeds
From: Scott Abel <abelsp -at- netdirect -dot- net>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 07:37:54 -0400

RSS feeds can and are indeed playing a BIG role in the delivery of the
right technical information to the right people in the right format at
a time of their choosing. I'll be chatting about RSS at both the
upcoming Documentation and Training Conference in boston and again at
the annual STC conference in Minneapolis next year. The prospects for
RSS are many. The primary challenge is not technology, it's changing
the way we create content that is the obstacle.

RSS readers can also be a challenge depending on what types of content
you want to syndicate and whether or not you are creating modular,
reusable XML content from the start. RSS readers are a lot like web
browsers -- you can't control which ones your user chooses to use (in
most circumstances) and that variety of choice introduces some
challenges.

In short, to accomplish anything significant with RSS, you need content
created with rich metadata and a strategy for delivery that addresses
the current shortcoming of the tools used to view RSS. That said, there
is BIG money and saving in RSS, so don't expect it to go away. If it's
not already on your radar screen, it should be.

More on this topic in the coming weeks.

Scott Abel
TheContentWrangler.com

New Contact Information

The Content Wrangler, Inc.
Office: +1 (317) 466.1840 Skype: abelsp
abelsp -at- netdirect -dot- net www.thecontentwrangler.com


On Sep 7, 2006, at 2:00 AM, techwr-l-request -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com wrote:

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WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
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delivery. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

Easily create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to any popular Help file format or printed documentation. Learn more at http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

---


Today's Topics:

1. Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools. (? ?)
2. RE: How you take notes in SME interviews (Monica Cellio)
3. Re: RoboHelp: How to make help for Linux platform?
(Khizran Kaleem)
4. Re: Converting HTML docs to PDFs (Stuart Burnfield)
5. RE: Converting HTML docs to PDFs (Inbar, Paul)
6. Google Versioning? (Wade Courtney)
7. Re: RoboHelp: How to make help for Linux platform?
(Khizran Kaleem)
8. Re: Integrating help with web based application (Khizran Kaleem)
9. Re: Converting HTML docs to PDFs (Ken Munro)
10. RE: Converting HTML docs to PDFs (Mike Feimster)
11. RE: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools. (Martinek, Carla)
12. Re: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools. (paul priola)
13. RE: Integrating help with web based application
(Zuercher, Darrell)
14. Re: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools. (Al Geist)
15. Training technical writers (Ron Scheer)
16. RE: Converting HTML docs to PDFs (Joyce Fetterman)
17. RE: Training technical writers (Robotti, Anne (Carlin))
18. RE: How you take notes in SME interviews (Diane Brennan)
19. Meaning of the slash (/) mark (C)
20. Troubleshooting broken cross-references in FrameMaker
documents converted to PDF (C)
21. Re: Training technical writers (David Farbey)
22. Re: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools. (David Loveless)
23. RE: Software "ownership" (Dan Goldstein)
24. RE: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.
(technical writing plus)
25. Training technical writers? (Geoff Hart)
26. Programming quotes (Geoff Hart)
27. Re: Converting HTML docs to PDFs (Bill Swallow)
28. Re: Training technical writers (Dick Margulis)
29. Dash It All! -- Lines in FM (Pinkham, Jim)
30. RE: The Documentation Being Put Through Qual Assistance
Process (Agnes Starr)
31. RE: Integrating help with web based application (Joe Malin)
32. translators (Ronald Schwarz)
33. RE: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools. (Joe Malin)
34. RE: Converting HTML docs to PDFs (Joe Malin)
35. Simplified English (A.H.)
36. Looking for questions to ask in Arbortext training (David Castro)
37. Simplified English? (Geoff Hart)
38. Meaning of the slash (/) mark? (Geoff Hart)
39. RE: Meaning of the slash (/) mark (Combs, Richard)
40. Re: Simplified English (bryan johnson)
41. RE: Troubleshooting broken cross-references in FrameMaker
documentsconverted to PDF (Fred Ridder)
42. RE: Meaning of the slash (/) mark (Elayne)
43. Re: How you take notes in SME interviews (Bill Swallow)
44. RE: Simplified English (Andrew Warren)
45. RE: Looking for questions to ask in Arbortext training
(Pinkham, Jim)
46. TW Podcast (bryan johnson)
47. Re: Dash It All! -- Lines in FM (Keith Hood)
48. Re: Meaning of the slash (/) mark (Diana Ost)
49. RE: Dash It All! -- Lines in FM (Combs, Richard)
50. RE: Dash It All! -- Lines in FM (Pinkham, Jim)
51. Creating Thumbnail Index from an Acrobat Text Index
(Thomas Mereen)
52. Re: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools. (Paul Pehrson)
53. RE: The Documentation Being Put Through Qual Assistance
Process (laura_johnson -at- agilent -dot- com)
54. Consulting Fees (John Werfelmann)
55. Re: Looking for questions to ask in Arbortext training
(David Castro)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 10:39:24 +0800 (CST)
From: ? ? <ck1168 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Subject: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID: <20060906023924 -dot- 26017 -dot- qmail -at- web30512 -dot- mail -dot- mud -dot- yahoo -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this list and to tech writing as well. This is my first tech
writing job. The company makes software and I write the manuals.

I manage about 27 documents, of which 16 are variants of two basic
documents i.e. 95% of contents are the same. The manuals are small
averaging 120 pages with around 100 odd images. I'm using Word 2000 and
RoboHelp to produce MS Word, PDF and Windows HTML Help.

Right now I'm looking for tools that will help manage all these and to
cut down time on layout/formatting and let me focus on improving the
contents.

Lately Word has been crashing. I've read up on Framemaker and In Design
but have never used either. Should I be using Framemaker? or In Design?
or some other tools?

thanks for reading!
c.k.tan



____________________________________________________
Yahoo! Singapore Answers
Real people. Real questions. Real answers. Share what you know at http://answers.yahoo.com.sg


------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 23:03:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: Monica Cellio <cellio -at- pobox -dot- com>
Subject: RE: How you take notes in SME interviews
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID: <Pine -dot- BSO -dot- 4 -dot- 58 -dot- 0609052301470 -dot- 28738 -at- callisto -dot- jtan -dot- com>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

I use paper and pen (never pencil), exclusively. I rarely get through a
discussion that doesn't involve *some* non-text notations; paper gives
me the flexibility for inheritance diagrams, flow diagrams, schematics,
circles and arrows connecting points after the fact, and even
cross-outs. The last is particularly interesting to me: if *I* got it
wrong initially then I have to be careful to make sure my reader doesn't
as well, and if the *SME* changed his mind then this is something to
follow up in the product itself. (Perhaps the design is unclear, or it
was clear but we're using it inconsistently. Either way, that's going
to trickle down to the users if we don't do something about it. [Insert
standard comment about our jobs including being the proxy for the user.])

I also sometimes use different pen colors, particularly if we're
discussing what's in an interface (the signatures, class hierarchy, etc)
versus annotations about why we did it that way. I also sometimes pull
out the red pen to draw stars next to particularly-important things to
come back to; text search doesn't always have the same impact.

Monica Cellio
Senior SDK Developer






------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 14:37:32 +0500
From: "Khizran Kaleem" <khizran -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Re: RoboHelp: How to make help for Linux platform?
To: "Rick Stone" <rstone75 -at- kc -dot- rr -dot- com>
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID:
<ad16a2c20609060237w115a7af0l1370e89e030592a3 -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Hi Rick,

Thanks for your reply. I am currently using RoboHelp Office 2002 with both
the flavours ofcourse. I have searched throught internet enough to find out
that WebHelp would be cross-browser/cross-platform to some extent. But if I
use a WebHelp output that would mean I would still have to use Windows to
manage the source, right?

Regards :)
Khizran.

On 8/31/06, Rick Stone <rstone75 -at- kc -dot- rr -dot- com> wrote:

Hi Khizran

It's not clear which "RoboFlavor" or version you are using. There are
basically two "flavors". RoboHelp for Word and RoboHelp HTML. Both *MIGHT*
be capable of producing a loose, uncompiled version of your help system
known as WebHelp. This depends on the version and depending on how old the
package is, whether you purchased only RoboHelp for Word or RoboHelp HTML
or
you purchased the complete RoboHelp Office package.

Without more information, I can't be more specific. But if it's a recent
version, you can probably produce WebHelp output. This is somewhat
"cross-browser" and should be able to be displayed on a Linux system. Note
that it may appear slightly differently when displayed in a Linux browser
than it will when displayed in Internet Explorer.

Hopefully this helps... Rick :)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Khizran Kaleem" <khizran -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 5:24 AM
Subject: RoboHelp: How to make help for Linux platform?


Hi,

I have been working on robohelp creating WinHelp and HTMLHelp for
different
softwares but all have been Windows based. I have never worked on/for
Linux.
If I have the help contents how can use it on Linux. Can someone please
help
me with this or refer a website?

Thanks.





------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 10:09:00 +0800
From: Stuart Burnfield <sburnf -at- au1 -dot- ibm -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Converting HTML docs to PDFs
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID:
<OFE9C97C6F.76404E67-ON482571E1.000B0CE0 -482571E1 -dot- 000BCF98 -at- au1 -dot- ibm -dot- com>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

I used HTMLDOC to do this a few years ago and was happy with the result,
though the appearance of the output wasn't very important for that job.

It was free then but now costs $US 69. You can get a free 21-day demo
license from:
http://www.easysw.com/htmldoc/

Stuart



------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 08:24:12 +0300
From: "Inbar, Paul" <paul -dot- inbar -at- intel -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Converting HTML docs to PDFs
To: "Renee Bornstein" <rbornstein -at- AdvisorSoftware -dot- com>,
<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<D0122E209EBF8D4CAB38EC6A8AF244E5FF4585 -at- hasmsx412 -dot- ger -dot- corp -dot- intel -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi Renee,

I don't know what the level of complexity of your XML source is, but in similar situations I have produced HTML from the XML using XSLTs, and for print I load the XML into Structured Framemaker and use that to produce the PDF. Framemaker produces very nice PDFs. I generally need to modify the XML somewhat for that, and also to develop a structured application in Framemaker, but these are one-time efforts and once you've done it it's very easy to regenerate your documents whenever there's an update. You could also use Framemaker, instead of an XSLT, to generate the HTML if you like.

I have also used Acrobat professional and Word to produce PDFs from HTML, as Dick Margulis mentioned, but as he said, these are middle of the road solutions that produce a PDF document that looks like a "there was no other alternative" solution. By contrast, the XML -> XSLT -> HTML solution and the XML -> Framemaker -> PDF solution produce professional looking documents.

Good luck!
Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+paul -dot- inbar=intel -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+paul -dot- inbar=intel -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Renee Bornstein
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 12:43 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Converting HTML docs to PDFs

Hi all,



Just joined; hope I'm not repeating earlier discussions.



I've got an assignment to document an XML API. There are a few good
tools for converting the XML to HTML, where the schema shows up in nice
frames and tables, complete with helpful diagrams. But the boss says we
must produce PDFs as well. I've been researching HTML-->PDF conversion
tools and it seems there are two categories: free/cheap that don't do a
very good job, and $3K+ that do wa-ay more than I need. The first
category of tools produce PDFs that are either too small to read, or
only capture part of the page (I could just print the original HTML if I
wanted that), and don't have a clue about page breaks, etc. This
category includes tools like HTML2PDF Pilot and PDFonlin. The second
category of tools produce beautiful PDFs, including nested tables, table
header continuations, and even the capability to put a Print To PDF
button on my webpages. The best I saw was Corda HighWire. However, I
don't have a budget for $3,000. I don't really have a budget at all, but
might could talk my way into a program that's under $500. Anyone been
through this and found a good HTML-->PDF converter?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

Easily create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to any popular Help file format or printed documentation. Learn more at http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

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------------------------------

Message: 6
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 09:42:56 +0100
From: "Wade Courtney" <wade -dot- courtney -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Google Versioning?
To: techwhirlers <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<c993fb6b0609060142v14d4c950o7f1a33c074ac4c0f -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Check out number 7.

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2006/09/10-great-uses-for-google- desktop.html

--
Wade Courtney
North San Diego County
Yahoo: wcourtne
http://blog.stinkingbadges.org
http://www.frappr.com/elpicoso
http://www.myspace.com/elpicoso
http://www.linkedin.com/in/wadecourtney

A leader is best when people barely know that he exists. Less good when they
obey and acclaim him. Worse when they fear and despise him. Fail to honor
people, and they fail to honor you. But of a good leader, when his work is
done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, "We did this ourselves."

-- Lao-Tzu


------------------------------

Message: 7
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 14:43:50 +0500
From: "Khizran Kaleem" <khizran -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Re: RoboHelp: How to make help for Linux platform?
To: "Sean Wheller" <sean -at- inwords -dot- co -dot- za>
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID:
<ad16a2c20609060243w62ae6a35qaeb3da8ad0ab1ed4 -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Thanks for your help Sean! So this means that the tools change and everthing
changes for Linux. What about the contents i already have? That can be
imported right?

Thanks

Khizran.


On 8/31/06, Sean Wheller <sean -at- inwords -dot- co -dot- za> wrote:

On Wednesday 30 August 2006 12:24, Khizran Kaleem wrote:
I have been working on robohelp creating WinHelp and HTMLHelp for
different
softwares but all have been Windows based. I have never worked on/for
Linux. If I have the help contents how can use it on Linux. Can someone
please help me with this or refer a website?

Khizran,

There are basically two major desktop environments for Linux - GNOME and
KDE

Both provide help systems. In the case of GNOME there is Yelp. In the case
of
KDE there is KHelpCenter.

The best solution is to integrate your help into either of these two help
viewer environments.

With Yelp you can write help directly in docbook and it will be converted
to
HTML on-the-fly.

With KhelpCenter you need to use HTML.

If you are accustomed to producing help for Windows systems, then I
suggest
you forget everything you learned about the packaging component of Help
production.

In order to produce help that is integrated on Linux desktops you need to
learn and setup the GNOME or KDE document project tools, then you need to
learn how to build your help into RPM or DEB packages, depending on the
platform you are using.

If you need help, just contact me off-list.

Hope this helps,

--
Ask me about the Monkey.

Sean Wheller
Technical Author
sean -at- inwords -dot- co -dot- za
+27-84-854-9408
http://www.inwords.co.za



------------------------------

Message: 8
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 15:12:18 +0500
From: "Khizran Kaleem" <khizran -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Integrating help with web based application
To: "Maria Peera" <maria_husain -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID:
<ad16a2c20609060312y54497ff5m6e1eea9991251eee -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi Maria,

I have been looking up information regarding creation of context-sensitive
HTML help for web applications for some time now. According to RoboHelp,
context-sensitive HTML help is compatible with applications developed in C
and C++ only, therefore we won't be able to use Map IDs as we do for desktop
applications using WinHelp.

However, there is one method to integrate the help pages with the relevant
application page. This can be done by getting the path or the name of the
relevant application page and then opening the particular help page in a new
window using the name retrieved from the web application.

For reference, I am attaching a presentation i downloaded from
www.userfirst.net. It gives a sample code for all kinds of context sensitive
helps.

I think you need to give the exact file names for each HTML page of your
help to the developer for integration.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Khizran

On 8/31/06, Maria Peera <maria_husain -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:

Hi All,

I have created web-based help with a freeware tool called Helpmaker. I
need to integrate the help with our product which is a web-based
application. How do I integrate them, what are the files that I need to
give to the developer ??

Any useful links would be appreciated.

regards


---------------------------------
How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger's low PC-to-Phone call
rates.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

Easily create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to any popular
Help file format or printed documentation. Learn more at
http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

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------------------------------

Message: 9
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 09:03:33 -0300
From: "Ken Munro" <kenmunro -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Converting HTML docs to PDFs
To: "Renee Bornstein" <rbornstein -at- advisorsoftware -dot- com>
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID:
<973d71e00609060503g5278eb79ib9dfe8ca58f77e88 -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Hi.

I think to get PDFs from XML for free or under $3000 it would be best to use
either an Apache tool called FOP, or you can buy something called XSLFast
which uses FOP but has a GUI front-end on it to speed up your style sheet
design. Using FOP alone, you will have to code your own XSLT file by hand.
(Fun at first, but the novelty wears off quick.)

FOP can be found at:
http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/

XSLFast can be found at:
http://www.xslfast.com/

I have done both, and it sure helps to have a tool like XSLFast. It goes for
$890EU or $1200USD.

Good luck. I think you will have fun with this.

Ken Munro

--
email: kenmunro -at- gmail -dot- com
website: http://www.kenmunro.com/
podcast: http://www.kenmunro.com/kenmunro.rss


On 9/5/06, Renee Bornstein <rbornstein -at- advisorsoftware -dot- com> wrote:

Hi all,

Just joined; hope I'm not repeating earlier discussions.

I've got an assignment to document an XML API. There are a few good
tools for converting the XML to HTML, where the schema shows up in nice
frames and tables, complete with helpful diagrams. But the boss says we
must produce PDFs as well. I've been researching HTML-->PDF conversion
tools and it seems there are two categories: free/cheap that don't do a
very good job, and $3K+ that do wa-ay more than I need. The first
category of tools produce PDFs that are either too small to read, or
only capture part of the page (I could just print the original HTML if I
wanted that), and don't have a clue about page breaks, etc. This
category includes tools like HTML2PDF Pilot and PDFonlin. The second
category of tools produce beautiful PDFs, including nested tables, table
header continuations, and even the capability to put a Print To PDF
button on my webpages. The best I saw was Corda HighWire. However, I
don't have a budget for $3,000. I don't really have a budget at all, but
might could talk my way into a program that's under $500. Anyone been
through this and found a good HTML-->PDF converter?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


------------------------------

Message: 10
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 08:26:49 -0400
From: "Mike Feimster" <mike -dot- feimster -at- acstechnologies -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Converting HTML docs to PDFs
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, <rbornstein -at- AdvisorSoftware -dot- com>
Message-ID: <FD4F843837B2B4409811EA15A1DA443901141C8B -at- AXCVS -dot- ACS -dot- TECH>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Renee,

It might be easier to convert the XML to PDF. There are a couple of
alternatives.

1. Use XSLT and XSL-FO to create the PDF. Apache FOP is a free XSL-FO
processor and there are commercial processors available as well. There
are several free XSLT processors. The dollar cost for tools is low, but
the pain might be high. This requires programming and it might be
quicker to hire a consultant.

2. Both FrameMaker 7.x and Word 2003 allow you to import XML docs. The
specifics are different, but basically you create a template and some
supporting files. When you import the XML doc, you have a nicely
formatted Frame or Word doc.

Finally, do you have a HATT, such as RoboHelp or Doc2Help? If so, and it
has a Print Doc feature, you could always create a new project, import
the HTML files into the project, and then generate the PDF from there.
The upside is that you can get a PDF quickly. The downside is that it is
not repeatable; you'll need to go through the whole process for every
change.

Mike


------------------------------

Message: 11
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 07:43:46 -0500
From: "Martinek, Carla" <CMartinek -at- zebra -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.
To: <ck1168 -at- yahoo -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<56BB7301E340C54291D9728333B94F0907F2A21B -at- 03s03exch02 -dot- zebra -dot- lan>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

The first thing to consider is where you want to be one, two, or five years from now with your documentation. I think moving away from Word is a good idea since you're already experiencing the wonderful crashing feature that it has when you start to get more complex documents.

Do you ever plan to move your content into regular XML or DITA XML? What about a content management system? If so, those should figure into your plans before you make any kind of switch. You could still choose to use Frame (Structured Frame if you're going to XML), or you could choose to move to an XML-authoring package like XMetal.

If you have to make a decision NOW, with what you are describing, I would say to use FrameMaker. I suggest going through some training for it to bring you up to speed quickly. The three days invested in that will save you considerable time later on. You can also use the Framers list @ www.frameusers.com as a great reference and help source.


Hope that helps.

Carla
cmartinek|zebra|com

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Message: 12
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 05:44:16 -0700 (PDT)
From: paul priola <mayarasta -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.
To: " " " " <ck1168 -at- yahoo -dot- com>, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID: <20060906124417 -dot- 25527 -dot- qmail -at- web55201 -dot- mail -dot- re4 -dot- yahoo -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

I've never used In Design but my short answer is anything but word. Been a Frame person for 12 years and have few complaints. We do SW manuals, 1500 page HW manuals and 50 page data sheets. Works great for all. Generates PDF easily and with webworks publisher generates HTML.
paul

<ck1168 -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
Hello everyone,

I'm new to this list and to tech writing as well. This is my first tech
writing job. The company makes software and I write the manuals.

I manage about 27 documents, of which 16 are variants of two basic
documents i.e. 95% of contents are the same. The manuals are small
averaging 120 pages with around 100 odd images. I'm using Word 2000 and
RoboHelp to produce MS Word, PDF and Windows HTML Help.

Right now I'm looking for tools that will help manage all these and to
cut down time on layout/formatting and let me focus on improving the
contents.

Lately Word has been crashing. I've read up on Framemaker and In Design
but have never used either. Should I be using Framemaker? or In Design?
or some other tools?

thanks for reading!
c.k.tan



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Message: 13
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 09:12:22 -0400
From: "Zuercher, Darrell" <dzuerche -at- tva -dot- gov>
Subject: RE: Integrating help with web based application
To: "Khizran Kaleem" <khizran -at- gmail -dot- com>, "Maria Peera"
<maria_husain -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID:
<C30CEAB331E621438DDCE4662F9C856F1A45E4 -at- TVACOCXVS2 -dot- main -dot- tva -dot- gov>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hi Maria,

I have used RoboHelp to create HTML-based, context sensitive help using
Map IDs. The developer (ASP.Net and VB.Net) calls the help this way:

Adds a reference to RoboHelp's javascript file:

<script src="RoboHelp_CSH.js"></script>

Then, calls a function from this file:

<INPUT onclick="javascript:RH_ShowHelp(0, 'HelpFileName.htm',
HH_HELP_CONTEXT, MapID)" type="button" value="Page Help">

I hope this helps.

Darrell Zuercher
Tennessee Valley Authority
Business Analyst


-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+dzuerche=tva -dot- gov -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+dzuerche=tva -dot- gov -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Khizran Kaleem
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 6:12 AM
To: Maria Peera
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Integrating help with web based application


Hi Maria,

I have been looking up information regarding creation of
context-sensitive
HTML help for web applications for some time now. According to RoboHelp,
context-sensitive HTML help is compatible with applications developed in
C
and C++ only, therefore we won't be able to use Map IDs as we do for
desktop
applications using WinHelp.

However, there is one method to integrate the help pages with the
relevant
application page. This can be done by getting the path or the name of
the
relevant application page and then opening the particular help page in a
new
window using the name retrieved from the web application.

For reference, I am attaching a presentation i downloaded from
www.userfirst.net. It gives a sample code for all kinds of context
sensitive
helps.

I think you need to give the exact file names for each HTML page of your
help to the developer for integration.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Khizran

On 8/31/06, Maria Peera <maria_husain -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:

Hi All,

I have created web-based help with a freeware tool called Helpmaker. I
need to integrate the help with our product which is a web-based
application. How do I integrate them, what are the files that I need
to
give to the developer ??

Any useful links would be appreciated.

regards


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------------------------------

Message: 14
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 09:43:54 -0400
From: Al Geist <al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID: <44FED09A -dot- 8070403 -at- geistassociates -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed



I manage about 27 documents, of which 16 are variants of two basic
documents i.e. 95% of contents are the same. The manuals are small
averaging 120 pages with around 100 odd images. I'm using Word 2000 and
RoboHelp to produce MS Word, PDF and Windows HTML Help.


Can we assume that you are using RoboHelp for Word and conditional
text? If you are, then creating print documents from RoboHelp is fairly
straight forward, but the images usually suck.

Right now I'm looking for tools that will help manage all these and to
cut down time on layout/formatting and let me focus on improving the
contents.


Have you searched the archives on this subject?

Lately Word has been crashing. I've read up on Framemaker and In Design
but have never used either. Should I be using Framemaker? or In Design?
or some other tools?


It all depends on what you need to do; where you want to be five years
down the road and how much money you want to spend. A lot of my fellow
writers are FrameMaker fanatics, but it is expensive and has a
relatively steep learning curve, especially if you're learning technical
writing at the same time. In Design is less expensive, will handle 120
page documents and works well if you're mission includes marketing
communications. I've had no problem using Word with documents up to 200
pages, but you have to know it's limitations.

Hope that helps.

--

Al Geist
Technical Writing, Online Help, Marketing Collateral, Web Design, Award
Winning Videos, Professional Photography
Voice/Msg: 802-658-3140

Cell: 802-578-3964
E-mail: al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com <mailto:al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com>
URL: www.geistassociates.com <http://www.geistassociates.com> (online
portfolio/resume)

See also:
URL: www.geistimages.com <http://www.geistimages.com> (fine art prints
for home or office and note cards for all occasions)

"When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether
to answer "Present" or "Not guilty.""
Theodore Roosevelt




------------------------------

Message: 15
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 07:02:04 -0700
From: "Ron Scheer" <ronschee -at- college -dot- usc -dot- edu>
Subject: Training technical writers
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID: <44FE7271 -dot- 14D2 -dot- 0073 -dot- 0 -at- college -dot- usc -dot- edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Quick question: Does STC or any other professional organization have a
recommended curriculum for training technical writers?

Ron

____________________________
Ron Scheer, PhD
Senior Lecturer, Writing Program
University of Southern California
Los Angeles



------------------------------

Message: 16
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 10:07:56 -0400
From: "Joyce Fetterman" <Joycef -at- gtsoftware -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Converting HTML docs to PDFs
To: "Renee Bornstein" <rbornstein -at- AdvisorSoftware -dot- com>,
<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<0158FA377E8AB14382178AC20C6D7A8D081765 -at- gtmail -dot- gtsoftware -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Renee Bornstein wrote:
<< I've been researching HTML-->PDF conversion tools and it seems there
are two categories: free/cheap that don't do a very good job, and $3K+
that do wa-ay more than I need. The first category of tools produce
PDFs that are either too small to read, or only capture part of the page
(I could just print the original HTML if I wanted that), and don't have
a clue about page breaks, etc. This category includes tools like
HTML2PDF Pilot and PDFonlin. The second category of tools produce
beautiful PDFs, including nested tables, table header continuations, and
even the capability to put a Print To PDF button on my webpages. The
best I saw was Corda HighWire. However, I don't have a budget for
$3,000. I don't really have a budget at all, but might could talk my way
into a program that's under $500. Anyone been through this and found a
good HTML-->PDF converter?>>



We use HTMLDOC for the basic HTML to PDF conversion, then I use tools
from the Organic Master Toolbox to tweak the result. I did have to
modify my HTML templates somewhat to work well with HTMLDOC but it
wasn't difficult.

HTMLDOC: <http://www.easysw.com/htmldoc/>

Organic: <http://www.organicsw.com/mastertoolbox.htm>

I've been especially happy with the products and support from Organic
Software.

Joyce


------------------------------

Message: 17
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 10:21:25 -0400
From: "Robotti, Anne \(Carlin\)" <ARobotti -at- CarlinGroup -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Training technical writers
To: "Ron Scheer" <ronschee -at- college -dot- usc -dot- edu>,
<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<2BC1891575B27A4189851638D93E62C93B3387 -at- 666-02-MSG -dot- carlingroup -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


Quick question: Does STC or any other professional
organization have a recommended curriculum for training
technical writers?

Ron, would you mind posting a summary of responses to this question? I'm
going to have to train a few people myself and would be very interested.

Thanks,

Anne


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------------------------------

Message: 18
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 10:37:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Diane Brennan <dalaine00 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Subject: RE: How you take notes in SME interviews
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID: <20060906173755 -dot- 10578 -dot- qmail -at- web37912 -dot- mail -dot- mud -dot- yahoo -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

I've also been doing technical/SDK writing for many years and pen and paper is far more flexible than laptops when it comes to interviewing SMEs. But after reading your e-mail and the responses, I realized that I have been using some tricks for a long time. So here's a few tricks:

--Use the big yellow legal pads. They have more real estate.
--Write on only one side of the page. That way you can squeeze info back in a previous section, if needed.
--When the topic changes, which is usually quite abruptly, draw a line halfway across the page to indicate a new subject.
--When a SME goes back to provide more explanation on a previous point, start writing on the back of the page where the original discussion happened. Another trick I use all the time is to put an A with a circle around it in the border next to the point that is being expanded upon, and put an A in a circle in the point in my notes where I am continuing the dicussion. I usually end up with a B, C, D for a lengthy discussion since SMEs have a tendency to go back to previous points. Since I have lines between topics, I can see where the original part and new part of the discussion begins and ends.
--Another advantage of using the legal pad is that you can divide up information using notes in the right-hand border.Like Monica, I put a star next to important info, a question mark next to stuff I don't get, a note about the information that will help me organize it later (like if the dev is talking about two subsystems, I may annotate the name of the subsystem being discussed so I don't get the two confused when I look at my notes later).
--Sometimes while the SME is talking he'll say something about the customer like "our customer needs to know how to do X." In that case, in the border I write TASK and I note the task just mentioned so I know that I need to get specific information for a task-oriented topic or walkthrough.
--When you use a question mark to indicate that you didn't understand something, leave your question until the end of the discussion so you don't break the SMEs train of thought. In your mind, set the expectation that the SME will get to your point without your having to ask. Nothing is more irritating to a SME than being constantly interrupted when trying to explain something. Be patient and concentrate with your entire mind on what is being said. At the end of the discussion, or at the point where the SME asks if you have questions, you can go back to the question mark and ask the question if it hasn't been answered. Don't worry about forgetting the question--read your notes and you will remember the question. If you don't remember, then the question wasn't important.
--If the SME makes a reference to something that you can look up, don't bother asking for an explanation unless you are really feeling lost. I often take notes without completely understanding some aspect of the discussion and learn about that unknown subject at a later time. If you have taken thorough notes, then when you learn about the stuff you didn't understand, you will be able to go back to your notes and understand what was being said. This may raise new questions, but you can meet with the SME again or send e-mail to get answers to your new questions. The key is to not waste the SMEs time by asking him to teach you things that you can easily teach yourself by doing research on the Internet.

Whiteboarding:

When the SME gets up to the whiteboard to draw an illustration, if he is talking while whiteboarding then do not start drawing on your notes--that's the advantage of having it on the whiteboard--you can go back later and draw it in. Instead, concentrate on learning and asking for clarification of points. This is how I get my illustrations. I listen and keep clarifying things so that the SME keeps erasing parts of the illustration and drawing things in a way that makes more sense until we get to the point where I have a diagram that I can put into the docs. If the SME wants to erase the whole thing to create an entirely new drawing, then at that point I will stop him so I can put the information in my notes. Otherwise we just move to another whiteboard.

Diane Brennan
Programming Writer

"My favorite place to be is on the steep part of the learning curve." Sally Jewell


Monica Cellio <cellio -at- pobox -dot- com> wrote:
I use paper and pen (never pencil), exclusively. I rarely get through a
discussion that doesn't involve *some* non-text notations; paper gives
me the flexibility for inheritance diagrams, flow diagrams, schematics,
circles and arrows connecting points after the fact, and even
cross-outs. The last is particularly interesting to me: if *I* got it
wrong initially then I have to be careful to make sure my reader doesn't
as well, and if the *SME* changed his mind then this is something to
follow up in the product itself. (Perhaps the design is unclear, or it
was clear but we're using it inconsistently. Either way, that's going
to trickle down to the users if we don't do something about it. [Insert
standard comment about our jobs including being the proxy for the user.])

I also sometimes use different pen colors, particularly if we're
discussing what's in an interface (the signatures, class hierarchy, etc)
versus annotations about why we did it that way. I also sometimes pull
out the red pen to draw stars next to particularly-important things to
come back to; text search doesn't always have the same impact.

Monica Cellio
Senior SDK Developer




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------------------------------

Message: 19
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:23:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: "C" <cll01821 -at- lycos -dot- com>
Subject: Meaning of the slash (/) mark
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<20060906152358 -dot- HM -dot- 00000000000008R -at- cll01821 -dot- bos-mail-wwl13 -dot- lycos -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"


We had a discussion at work about the meaning of the slash (/) mark. In my
25-year career as a technical writer, I have always understood the slash
mark to mean "or", as in "Select OK/Yes".



However, a developer here included options in the interface where the
administrator chooses a combination of protocols from a list. For example,
the administration can choose the "LDAP/MAPI" combination. When reviewing
the administrator's guide, I assumed that "LDAP/MAPI" meant "LDAP or MAPI"
and asked the tech writer to clarify it for me. She told me that it means
"LDAP and MAPI", which was a surprise to me. I didn't know that the slash
could mean "or" and "and".



Searching for usage information brought some interesting information to
light, including the fact that usage of the slash often lends itself to
ambiguity. It appears that the "or" meaning is common in instructional
documentation, but the "and" meaning is common in many other places where
the writer simply wants to connect two items through the slash mark.



So, fellow techwhirlers, what is your understanding of the best practices
for using the slash mark? I typically try to avoid using it at all, and when
I do use it, it means "or".



Carol


------------------------------

Message: 20
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:33:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: "C" <cll01821 -at- lycos -dot- com>
Subject: Troubleshooting broken cross-references in FrameMaker
documents converted to PDF
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<20060906153305 -dot- HM -dot- 00000000000008T -at- cll01821 -dot- bos-mail-wwl13 -dot- lycos -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"


I'm using FrameMaker 7.0 and Acrobat 6.0 Professional. When several
cross-references that worked in FrameMaker did not work in the PDF, I
attempted to fix the problem by re-importing the relevant cross-reference
and paragraph tags, all to no avail. I searched the Adobe Support site, with
no luck.


I also searched the techwr-l archive because I had a vague remembrance that
someone on this list recently mentioned that corruption with
cross-references could be fixed by removing the cross-references and all
associated markers and then re-inserting the cross-references.


I never found the original posting, but I went ahead and removed and
replaced the cross-references, one at a time, verifying the successful
conversion after inserting each new cross-reference. Success!


Many thanks to whomever posted the information. Also, if you read this
posting, would you kindly send me, off-list, your original e-mail to the
list about this problem and solution?


Carol


------------------------------

Message: 21
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:28:42 +0100
From: David Farbey <dfarbey -at- yahoo -dot- co -dot- uk>
Subject: Re: Training technical writers
To: Ron Scheer <ronschee -at- college -dot- usc -dot- edu>, techwr-l discussion list
<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID: <44FEDB1A -dot- 2050805 -at- yahoo -dot- co -dot- uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Hello Ron,

The STC does not have such a curriculum.

In the UK, the ISTC has started running its own courses ("open learning
courses") for technical writers, and their curriculum is available for a
small fee (I think it's £5.00 plus postage). See www.istc.org.uk for
their contact details.

In Europe, there was a collaborative report last year by TC-Europe on
the needs of technical writer training, which you can download for free
from: http://www.tceurope.org/tecdocnet/tecdocnet_index.htm

David Farbey,
London UK


Ron Scheer wrote:
Quick question: Does STC or any other professional organization have a
recommended curriculum for training technical writers?

Ron

____________________________
Ron Scheer, PhD
Senior Lecturer, Writing Program
University of Southern California
Los Angeles



------------------------------

Message: 22
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 08:48:35 -0600
From: "David Loveless" <daveloveless -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.
To: "ck1168 -at- yahoo -dot- com" <ck1168 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID:
<30609280609060748n6dddaf4fib46a081c213e1eae -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Grain of Salt: I've never used FrameMaker.

I personally find InDesign to be a fantastic tool. In my position
(lone writer), I don't think Frame would serve me as well because I
cover such a large spectrum of writing styles and projects. As Al
pointed out, InDesign does great work with Marketing docs and other
graphic intensive docs. And I've done a project as large as 200 pages
in InDesign without problems. Any larger and your probably going to
need to go to Frame.

Good luck!


------------------------------

Message: 23
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 14:23:51 -0400
From: "Dan Goldstein" <DGoldstein -at- riverainmedical -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Software "ownership"
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<0ADA9A22B5BC2147B360A22FD2BAD25C7AA7F7 -at- RMGBEX01 -dot- rmg -dot- local>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

"Lawyers," nuthin'. Try SMEs. Has anyone ever insisted that you skip
over a document or an application screen because it had already been
checked a million times? *That's* the one you've gotta check twice.
Sometimes they're just irritated and rushed, but sometimes there's
really something they don't want you to see.

-----Original Message-----
From: Poshedly, Ken
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 9:43 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Software "ownership"

... I once asked a closing attorney if I could have a little
more time to read through the mortgage contract (yep, one of
those multi-multipage documents) as we were refinancing our
home, even though the new rate was very favorable. He got
_extremely_ irritated, snapped at me, "Hey, we could just
forget the whole thing right now!" and just about got up
and walked out, but stopped however, when we agreed NOT to
read the mortgage contract so we would sign legalese
mumbo-jumbo blindly and he could go home. Ah, lawyers.


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Message: 24
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 09:14:05 -0500
From: "technical writing plus" <doc-x -at- earthlink -dot- net>
Subject: RE: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID: <000201c6d1be$b6a42540$0b0110ac -at- ThomJames>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

You could also try OpenOffice.org, which is free. Version 2 came out last
December and works pretty well with Word. The program includes a text
processing component (Writer), a drawing component (Draw), a spreadsheet
component(Calc), and a database component (Base). Some components let you
build pdfs too (Writer does). They used to have a good presentation about
OOo, on their marketing page.
Bruce Byfield , who used to be a member of this list, would often have
good things to say about the program. He also wrote an article (which still
may reside on sourceforge.net) that compared OOo and Framemaker.
OOo also has some xml features. It allows you to save in Word doc format
too.

Jim Jones http://tinyurl.com/4arjc

-----Original Message-----
... to consider is where you want to be one, two, or five years from now
with your documentation. I think moving away from Word is a good idea since
you're already experiencing the wonderful crashing feature that it has when
you start to get more complex documents.

Do you ever plan to move your content into regular XML or DITA XML? What
about a content management system? If so, those should figure into your
plans before you make any kind of switch. You could still choose to use
Frame (Structured Frame if you're going to XML), or you could choose to move
to an XML-authoring package like XMetal.

If you have to make a decision NOW, with what you are describing, I would
say to use FrameMaker. I suggest going through some training for it to
bring you up to speed quickly. The three days invested in that will save
you considerable time later on. You can also use the Framers list @
www.frameusers.com as a great reference and help source...



------------------------------

Message: 25
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 10:25:49 -0400
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
Subject: Training technical writers?
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, Ron Scheer
<ronschee -at- college -dot- usc -dot- edu>
Message-ID: <09A0F233-9AF6-42CA-AE6C-4E0F81016DD2 -at- videotron -dot- ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

Ron Scheer wondered: <<Does STC or any other professional
organization have a recommended curriculum for training technical
writers?>>

There are more curricula out there than you can shake a stick at.
See, for instance: http://stc.org/edu/academicDatabase01.asp

Is there any universal standard? No more than there is in any other
field of education, though there are undoubtedly broad trends. Best
bet is to find a school near you and see what their program looks
like, then compare it with a few other schools to see if it has any
omissions that you consider significant.

In terms of "core competencies", STC currently has a committee
studying the ever-contentious issue of certification. I personally
know and trust one of the committee members (don't know the others
well enough to comment, so don't take that as a slap at them), and
also know one of the "eminences grises" who is active in this effort
behind the scenes, so I believe that at least two highly intelligent
people are at work on defining these core competencies. This may
eventually provide some of the information you're looking for.

Personally, I'm deeply skeptical of the value of certification--it
puts the cart before the horse, because credentials are worthless if
the profession isn't well known and respected. But I'm prepared to be
an honest skeptic and remain willing to be convinced.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --

Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca

(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)

www.geoff-hart.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -




------------------------------

Message: 26
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 11:42:32 -0400
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
Subject: Programming quotes
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID: <69A49A11-B5FA-4C78-9431-72E84A909489 -at- videotron -dot- ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

Thought this might be of interest to anyone who works with
programmers: http://www.eskimo.com/~hottub/software/
programming_quotes.html

There are also insights for writers, such as the following:
"Before software can be reusable it first has to be usable."--Ralph
Johnson

Single-sourcing anyone?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --

Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca

(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)

www.geoff-hart.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -




------------------------------

Message: 27
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 10:42:01 -0400
From: "Bill Swallow" <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Converting HTML docs to PDFs
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<375e3cb30609060742g344f36e2v4a2a089cd717a30f -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

If you have Acrobat Professional you can save your entire HTML output
to PDF, but this may not be what you want. Take a look at XSL-FO to
see if this concept is more what you need. There are some tools on
Sourceforge and of course for purchase that can probably get you to
where you want to be.

--
Bill Swallow
HATT List Owner
WWP-Users List Owner
Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
avid homebrewer and proud beer snob
"I see your OOO message and raise you a clue."


------------------------------

Message: 28
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 10:52:17 -0400
From: Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>
Subject: Re: Training technical writers
To: Ron Scheer <ronschee -at- college -dot- usc -dot- edu>, TECHWR-L
<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID: <44FEE0A1 -dot- 5000602 -at- comcast -dot- net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

The question is quick, but the answer is long. Very long. There have
been several lengthy and sometimes rancorous discussion threads over the
years addressing this question.

To the extent that there is any consensus at all--which there really
isn't, but I'll pretend for the nonce--it is that all tech writers
should be grounded in general science, math, and technology sufficient
to be able to understand quickly the subject matter they will be
documenting. Obviously, someone who is going to document the assembly of
barbecue grills does not need the same kind of technical knowledge as
someone who is going to write software life cycle documents; but both
have to be generally familiar with engineering jargon and scientific
terminology across many disciplines and have to know where to find the
information they need. So a certain number of math, science, and
engineering credits should be a prerequisite for a tech writing
curriculum--if only to demonstrate a level of interest in _technical_
writing, rather than a desire to have one's poetry subsidized by a day job.

In addition, tech writers should be firmly grounded in grammar and
rhetoric (either taught within the curriculum or as prerequisites): You
want people who can write well by the time they complete the program,
however you get them there. They also need to have a metalanguage to
talk about writing.

The curriculum should cover audience analysis, usability testing, and
the principles of document design--organization, typography, layout,
readability, usability, etc.--for all manner of print and electronic
media. It's more important to have a firm grasp of what the output
should look like in order to be effective than to memorize the
operational details of software tools that will be obsolete in five
years anyway, although students should finish the program knowing how to
produce various types of documents with at least one modern set of
tools. (I think you provide the software in a lab and point the students
to user manuals; I don't think more than five minutes of instructor time
should be spent teaching tool use.) Students should also learn the
basics of graphics--screen captures, image manipulation, a little
technical illustration, a little photography, enough about printing
technology so that they're no longer dangerous.

The curriculum should cover principles of information
organization--topics like relational database design and query
languages, content management, single-sourcing, etc.

The curriculum should prepare students for real-world working situation:
understanding personality types in the workplace; understanding the
different ways organizations can be structured; understanding (at a
minimal level) the basic concepts of project management, product
management, business analysis, corporate decision-making (its seeming
lack of logic when viewed from below); understanding something about
personnel review systems; understanding various ways to organize a
documentation group; understanding how to manage a group (delegation of
authority, assignment of resources to project teams, collecting and
evaluating metrics, making budgets).

If you can put together a curriculum like that, your graduates will not
have any trouble finding work.

I know this is not a direct answer to the question you asked, but I'm
not aware of any organization that has credibly proposed such a
curriculum standard; so I hope this at least proves somewhat useful.

Dick

Ron Scheer wrote:
Quick question: Does STC or any other professional organization have a
recommended curriculum for training technical writers?

Ron

____________________________
Ron Scheer, PhD
Senior Lecturer, Writing Program
University of Southern California
Los Angeles

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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------------------------------

Message: 29
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 10:14:26 -0500
From: "Pinkham, Jim" <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com>
Subject: Dash It All! -- Lines in FM
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<2BF7198089C96C438F66C74B3F43DD5EAC3127 -at- apls0111 -dot- euro1 -dot- voith -dot- net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"


I'm running FM 7.1 and futzing helplessly with some rectangles that have
dashed lines that I wish to convert to solid lines. I know there are
workarounds, such as redrawing the rectangles from scratch, but I also
want to know how dashed lines get applied, how to restore solid ones,
and WHY attempts to change the setting are proving futile. I suspect
it's something simple having to do with my combination of settings, but
the results feel very random.

For example, when I select the rectangle, set fill to none, line width
to 0.2, I get a solid red line. When I change the color to black, it
becomes dashed again. When I set the pen to solid, the lines look solid
in FM, but print as dashed in the PDF.

When I set the pen to none, I see all my dashed lines in FM, but no
amount of tinkering appears able to make them solid again. When I choose
solid on the Set Dashed Line Pattern button on the graphics toolbar, the
rectangle remains dashed. Same thing when I choose the Make Line Solid
button at the top of my screen (the one with the checkmark on top of the
solid line).

Closing FM and reopening doesn't seem to resolve either.

Any help on what to do would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim


------------------------------

Message: 30
Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 19:58:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Agnes Starr <zigrocstarr -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Subject: RE: The Documentation Being Put Through Qual Assistance
Process
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID: <20060906025833 -dot- 18767 -dot- qmail -at- web58303 -dot- mail -dot- re3 -dot- yahoo -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Thank you everybodyt for the wide variety of replies. I have heard many things on all sides of the issue, on and offline, and all of it has been helpful. I have to do some thinking now.I will be back in touch. At least I know this has been done before and will probably be done again. It can work and then again in some cases it is not a good idea.

Best

A-


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail.

------------------------------

Message: 31
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 09:57:34 -0700
From: "Joe Malin" <jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Integrating help with web based application
To: "Khizran Kaleem" <khizran -at- gmail -dot- com>, "Maria Peera"
<maria_husain -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID:
<144FACB355C4F7469CE7D9B7E51E327F025C8123 -at- tuvoxex -dot- tuvox -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

You seem to be saying that *all* context-sensitive HTML help is only
compatible with C and C++ applications. That is not strictly speaking
true. Of course, you may be saying that *Robohelp's* context-sensitive
help is that way. That's too bad.

We use Oracle Help for the Web. It's Java-based and works quite well
with J2EE-based applications. Unfortunately, it's not very well
supported. We are using it because
* it's free
* since I'm the lone tech writer, the company asked me to recommend
something
* I used it before at Oracle
* I was a tech writer in the group that developed it, and I still have
colleagues there who
can help me


Joe Malin
Technical Writer
(408)625-1623
jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com
www.tuvox.com
The views expressed in this document are those of the sender, and do not
necessarily reflect those of TuVox, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Khizran Kaleem
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 3:12 AM
To: Maria Peera
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Integrating help with web based application

Hi Maria,

I have been looking up information regarding creation of
context-sensitive
HTML help for web applications for some time now. According to RoboHelp,
context-sensitive HTML help is compatible with applications developed in
C
and C++ only, therefore we won't be able to use Map IDs as we do for
desktop
applications using WinHelp.


------------------------------

Message: 32
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 12:57:13 -0400
From: "Ronald Schwarz" <RSchwarz -at- cosmocom -dot- com>
Subject: translators
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Cc: Steve Dellutri <sdellutri -at- cosmocom -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<2B46594393D57547A76924D25DCDF9800133084F -at- cos-hq-exch2k3 -dot- cosmocom -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Can someone recommend translation services? We need to translate user
documentation from English to French and German, and to a dozen other
European languages, as well as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.

Translators need not be USA-based since they can obtain documentation
off our web site and post their work in a separate section of the site.

Ronald Schwarz

Senior Technical Writer

CosmoCom, Inc.
121 Broad Hollow Road
Melville, NY 11747 USA
Phone: +1 (631) 940-4320
Fax: +1 (631) 574-3161
EMAIL: RSchwarz -at- cosmocom -dot- com <mailto:chwarz -at- cosmocom -dot- com>
URL: http://www.cosmocom.com <http://www.cosmocom.com/>




------------------------------

Message: 33
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 10:04:07 -0700
From: "Joe Malin" <jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.
To: <ck1168 -at- yahoo -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<144FACB355C4F7469CE7D9B7E51E327F025C812C -at- tuvoxex -dot- tuvox -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Are you the lone tech writer? The decision may depend on your boss, your co-workers, and your budget!

Managing variants in FM is straightforward. FM is great for going to PDF. It provides very basic tools for going to HTML, but 3rd-party tools can do an excellent job. FM is also quite
good at handling images.

If your primary delivery mechanism is print or PDF, then FM is superior.

I warn you, though, that you will need time to learn FM. On the other hand, it will be time well-spent. FM has built-in features that can carry you forward into structured writing, single-sourcing, and other emerging technologies. I consider my investment of time and money in FM to be well worth it.

You will also find many people online that can help you with FM.

InDesign does not focus on the technical documentation area. If you are given the choice, choose FM.

Joe


Joe Malin
Technical Writer
(408)625-1623
jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com
www.tuvox.com
The views expressed in this document are those of the sender, and do not necessarily reflect those of TuVox, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of    
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 7:39 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this list and to tech writing as well. This is my first tech
writing job. The company makes software and I write the manuals.

I manage about 27 documents, of which 16 are variants of two basic
documents i.e. 95% of contents are the same. The manuals are small
averaging 120 pages with around 100 odd images. I'm using Word 2000 and
RoboHelp to produce MS Word, PDF and Windows HTML Help.



------------------------------

Message: 34
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 10:07:14 -0700
From: "Joe Malin" <jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Converting HTML docs to PDFs
To: "Renee Bornstein" <rbornstein -at- AdvisorSoftware -dot- com>,
<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<144FACB355C4F7469CE7D9B7E51E327F025C8133 -at- tuvoxex -dot- tuvox -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

This sounds like what you're really asking for is a Javadoc-like tool
that converts an XML schema or model to HTML and then to PDF. Is that
correct? I have written up XML APIs before, but I used Dreamweaver to do
it "by hand".

Joe

Joe Malin
Technical Writer
(408)625-1623
jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com
www.tuvox.com
The views expressed in this document are those of the sender, and do not
necessarily reflect those of TuVox, Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jmalin=tuvox -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf
Of Renee Bornstein
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 2:43 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Converting HTML docs to PDFs

Hi all,



Just joined; hope I'm not repeating earlier discussions.



I've got an assignment to document an XML API.


------------------------------

Message: 35
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 10:34:46 -0700 (PDT)
From: "A.H." <isaac840 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Subject: Simplified English
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID: <20060906173446 -dot- 24168 -dot- qmail -at- web36204 -dot- mail -dot- mud -dot- yahoo -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Greetings,

How does one become familiar with Simplified
English? Are there any generic docs, books, articles,
etc.?

Anthony Hernandez

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com


------------------------------

Message: 36
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 13:47:29 -0400
From: "David Castro" <thejavaguy -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Looking for questions to ask in Arbortext training
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<8319ca490609061047p56ace12eo67ef135631478f0 -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I will be going to training September 12-14 for Arbortext Editor.

I haven't used the tool yet, but have installed the 14-day demo. I
plan to try converting existing FrameMaker and Word documents into
Editor's XML to see where I might get stuck.

For those who have used or currently use Arbortext Editor, can you
think of good questions to ask in class, or procedures to have
demonstrated?

--
-David Castro
thejavaguy -at- gmail -dot- com


------------------------------

Message: 37
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:19:34 -0400
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
Subject: Simplified English?
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, "A.H."
<isaac840 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Message-ID: <BAECFF25-3042-4080-9DD6-59BD4C31C0BB -at- videotron -dot- ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

Anthony Hernandez wondered: <<How does one become familiar with
Simplified English? Are there any generic docs, books, articles, etc.?>>

Start your search at the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Simplified_English

If you want the great grandpa and 1000-lb gorilla in the field:
http://www.simplifiedenglish-aecma.org/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --

Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca

(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)

www.geoff-hart.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -




------------------------------

Message: 38
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:26:58 -0400
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
Subject: Meaning of the slash (/) mark?
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, C <cll01821 -at- lycos -dot- com>
Message-ID: <3D0278F2-B678-42A8-84B9-C7327C2426CB -at- videotron -dot- ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

Carol wondered: <<We had a discussion at work about the meaning of
the slash (/) mark. In my 25-year career as a technical writer, I
have always understood the slash mark to mean "or", as in "Select OK/
Yes".>>

There is no standard definition, other than in mathematics (where it
means "divide by"). That's exactly the problem with the slash: it's a
lazy way to say things that are better said using words. If you mean
"or", say "or". If you need to be more precise (often the case), say
"A, B, or both" or "A or B, but not both".

<<However, a developer here included options in the interface where
the administrator chooses a combination of protocols from a list. For
example, the administration can choose the "LDAP/MAPI" combination.
When reviewing the administrator's guide, I assumed that "LDAP/MAPI"
meant "LDAP or MAPI" and asked the tech writer to clarify it for me.
She told me that it means "LDAP and MAPI", which was a surprise to
me. I didn't know that the slash could mean "or" and "and".>>

See what I mean? <g> The correct usage in this case is an en dash,
which is used to indicate compounds of equal weight (i.e., "both)--as
any style guide will confirm. But because en dashes are foreign to a
great many readers (including, apparently, your technical writer),
it's still clearer to say "the combination of A and B" or "both A and
B".

<<Searching for usage information brought some interesting
information to light, including the fact that usage of the slash
often lends itself to ambiguity. It appears that the "or" meaning is
common in instructional documentation, but the "and" meaning is
common in many other places where the writer simply wants to connect
two items through the slash mark. So, fellow techwhirlers, what is
your understanding of the best practices for using the slash mark? I
typically try to avoid using it at all...>>

Your research should help you accept my own opinion that the slash is
ambiguous, and should be ruthlessly eliminated. Why bother using an
ambiguous form when unambiguous wording is so easy?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --

Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca

(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)

www.geoff-hart.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -




------------------------------

Message: 39
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 14:25:56 -0600
From: "Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Meaning of the slash (/) mark
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<AABEB232F95338499DF8F513EE2B2C7802D8F6 -at- WSTEXCH00 -dot- westminster -dot- polycom -dot- c om>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

C wrote:

When reviewing
the administrator's guide, I assumed that "LDAP/MAPI"
meant "LDAP or MAPI"
and asked the tech writer to clarify it for me. She told
me that it means
"LDAP and MAPI", which was a surprise to me. I didn't know
that the slash
could mean "or" and "and".

Actually, the slash could mean "or" OR "and." ;-)

So, fellow techwhirlers, what is your understanding of the
best practices
for using the slash mark? I typically try to avoid using
it at all, and when
I do use it, it means "or".

Precisely because it's frequently ambiguous (and frequently used for
exactly that reason by people who don't want their meaning pinned down
or aren't sure of something), I avoid it, and I ask SMEs to clarify what
they mean when they use it.

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------






------------------------------

Message: 40
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:27:03 -0400
From: "bryan johnson" <bryan -dot- johnson -at- motoman -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Simplified English
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>,"A.H." <isaac840 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Message-ID: <44FEF6D70200007E0000073C@ MESSENGER.Motoman.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

I just ran across this podcast on controlled english:

http://www.thecomwellgroup.com/podcast/commtalk.htm

Bryan K. Johnson
Senior Technical Writer
Motoman Inc.
(937) 440-2606

"A.H." <isaac840 -at- yahoo -dot- com> 09/06/06 1:34 PM >>>
Greetings,

How does one become familiar with Simplified
English? Are there any generic docs, books, articles,
etc.?

Anthony Hernandez

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------------------------------

Message: 41
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:34:38 -0400
From: "Fred Ridder" <docudoc -at- hotmail -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Troubleshooting broken cross-references in FrameMaker
documentsconverted to PDF
To: cll01821 -at- lycos -dot- com, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID: <BAY106-F242B972CD71A7DB194EC64BA310 -at- phx -dot- gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

You may have worked much harder than you needed to in fixing your
problem. The first thing to try when FrameMaker cross-references
do not work in the final PDF is to enable the "Create Named Destinations
for All Paragraphs" option on the Links tab of the PDF Setup dialog in
FrameMaker before re-generating the PDF. This is much easier and
*much* less tedious than re-creating all the cross-references, and in
my experience it has fixed all broken links in at least 2/3 of the time.

My opinions only; I don't speak for Intel.
Fred Ridder
Intel
Parsippany, NJ


From: "C" <cll01821 -at- lycos -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Subject: Troubleshooting broken cross-references in FrameMaker
documentsconverted to PDF
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:33:05 -0400 (EDT)


I'm using FrameMaker 7.0 and Acrobat 6.0 Professional. When several
cross-references that worked in FrameMaker did not work in the PDF, I
attempted to fix the problem by re-importing the relevant
cross-reference
and paragraph tags, all to no avail. I searched the Adobe Support site,
with
no luck.


I also searched the techwr-l archive because I had a vague remembrance
that
someone on this list recently mentioned that corruption with
cross-references could be fixed by removing the cross-references and all
associated markers and then re-inserting the cross-references.


I never found the original posting, but I went ahead and removed and
replaced the cross-references, one at a time, verifying the successful
conversion after inserting each new cross-reference. Success!


Many thanks to whomever posted the information. Also, if you read this
posting, would you kindly send me, off-list, your original e-mail to the
list about this problem and solution?


Carol
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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------------------------------

Message: 42
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 16:49:52 -0400
From: "Elayne" <sandahl -at- rogers -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Meaning of the slash (/) mark
To: "'C'" <cll01821 -at- lycos -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID: <009701c6d1f6$00b91f50$6501a8c0 -at- FIDDLEHEADDT>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

In my 15-year career as a technical writer, the slash (/) has always
meant "or". And the ampersand (&) means "and". And hyphens (-) to make
combinations. Except I always called the "slash" an oblique.
<smile>

Cheers,
Elayne




-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sandahl=rogers -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sandahl=rogers -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of C
Sent: September 6, 2006 3:24 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Meaning of the slash (/) mark



We had a discussion at work about the meaning of the slash (/) mark.
In my
25-year career as a technical writer, I have always understood the
slash
mark to mean "or", as in "Select OK/Yes".



However, a developer here included options in the interface where the
administrator chooses a combination of protocols from a list. For
example,
the administration can choose the "LDAP/MAPI" combination. When
reviewing
the administrator's guide, I assumed that "LDAP/MAPI" meant "LDAP or
MAPI"
and asked the tech writer to clarify it for me. She told me that it
means
"LDAP and MAPI", which was a surprise to me. I didn't know that the
slash
could mean "or" and "and".



Searching for usage information brought some interesting information
to
light, including the fact that usage of the slash often lends itself
to
ambiguity. It appears that the "or" meaning is common in
instructional
documentation, but the "and" meaning is common in many other places
where
the writer simply wants to connect two items through the slash mark.



So, fellow techwhirlers, what is your understanding of the best
practices
for using the slash mark? I typically try to avoid using it at all,
and when
I do use it, it means "or".



Carol ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content

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------------------------------

Message: 43
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 16:50:08 -0400
From: "Bill Swallow" <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Re: How you take notes in SME interviews
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<375e3cb30609061350j538beca6pf011f20a82f185e3 -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

No one takes a printout of the specs with them? I realized that I do
this a lot, and use the back side of the specs for notes, diagrams,
and mockingly accurate caricatures of the SMEs I'm talking to.

Um, scratch that last one from memory. ;-)

But yes, I guess I do take notes and just don't think about it too much.

--
Bill Swallow
HATT List Owner
WWP-Users List Owner
Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
avid homebrewer and proud beer snob
"I see your OOO message and raise you a clue."


------------------------------

Message: 44
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 13:52:47 -0700
From: "Andrew Warren" <awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Simplified English
To: "A.H." <isaac840 -at- yahoo -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID: <17BFE0DC7BAA27499D73404F5902A93F238B69 -at- usexch1>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

A.H. wrote:

How does one become familiar with Simplified
English? Are there any generic docs, books, articles,
etc.?

Anthony:

The official spec is available, for a fee, from ASD-STAN and ATA;
ordering information may be found at:

http://www.simplifiedenglish-aecma.org/Simplified_English.htm

There is an unofficial, out-of-date spec summary, along with some
related links, at:

http://www.userlab.com/SE.html

There's lots of general information on the web; search for "Simplified
Technical English", "ASD-STE100", or "AECMA Simplified English".

-Andrew

=== Andrew Warren - awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com
=== Synaptics, Inc - Santa Clara, CA


------------------------------

Message: 45
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 15:53:23 -0500
From: "Pinkham, Jim" <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Looking for questions to ask in Arbortext training
To: "David Castro" <thejavaguy -at- gmail -dot- com>, "TECHWR-L"
<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<2BF7198089C96C438F66C74B3F43DD5EAC356F -at- apls0111 -dot- euro1 -dot- voith -dot- net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

What kind of publication environment will you be using this in?

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jim -dot- pinkham=voith -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jim -dot- pinkham=voith -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of David Castro
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 12:47 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Looking for questions to ask in Arbortext training

I will be going to training September 12-14 for Arbortext Editor.

I haven't used the tool yet, but have installed the 14-day demo. I plan
to try converting existing FrameMaker and Word documents into Editor's
XML to see where I might get stuck.

For those who have used or currently use Arbortext Editor, can you think
of good questions to ask in class, or procedures to have demonstrated?

--
-David Castro
thejavaguy -at- gmail -dot- com
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om


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------------------------------

Message: 46
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:53:24 -0400
From: "bryan johnson" <bryan -dot- johnson -at- motoman -dot- com>
Subject: TW Podcast
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID: <44FEFD040200007E0000074C@ MESSENGER.Motoman.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

A friend sent me this link to a technical writing podcast.
Only one show about controlled english, but maybe they'll do more.

http://www.thecomwellgroup.com/podcast/commtalk.htm

Bryan K. Johnson
Senior Technical Writer
Motoman Inc.
(937) 440-2606


------------------------------

Message: 47
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 13:55:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Dash It All! -- Lines in FM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID: <20060906205530 -dot- 47887 -dot- qmail -at- web36313 -dot- mail -dot- mud -dot- yahoo -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Assuming 7.1 isn't too different from 7.0: Look in
the references pages (View > Reference Pages) and the
paragraph styles. The lines may be put in the document
by a style that specifies a paragraph to be led or
followed by a rule or shape that is set on the
reference pages.

--- "Pinkham, Jim" <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com> wrote:


I'm running FM 7.1 and futzing helplessly with some
rectangles that have
dashed lines that I wish to convert to solid lines.
I know there are
workarounds, such as redrawing the rectangles from
scratch, but I also
want to know how dashed lines get applied, how to
restore solid ones,
and WHY attempts to change the setting are proving
futile. I suspect
it's something simple having to do with my
combination of settings, but
the results feel very random.

For example, when I select the rectangle, set fill
to none, line width
to 0.2, I get a solid red line. When I change the
color to black, it
becomes dashed again. When I set the pen to solid,
the lines look solid
in FM, but print as dashed in the PDF.

When I set the pen to none, I see all my dashed
lines in FM, but no
amount of tinkering appears able to make them solid
again. When I choose
solid on the Set Dashed Line Pattern button on the
graphics toolbar, the
rectangle remains dashed. Same thing when I choose
the Make Line Solid
button at the top of my screen (the one with the
checkmark on top of the
solid line).

Closing FM and reopening doesn't seem to resolve
either.

Any help on what to do would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim

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and efficient content
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----------------

Keith Hood
Senior (only) tech writer
ACS, Inc.

__________________________________________________
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http://mail.yahoo.com


------------------------------

Message: 48
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 16:59:45 -0400
From: "Diana Ost" <pro -dot- techwriter -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Meaning of the slash (/) mark
To: C <cll01821 -at- lycos -dot- com>
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID:
<6b35bddb0609061359y7d7a173brb4682c9b5e9cacf2 -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

C said:

have always understood the slash
mark to mean "or", as in "Select OK/Yes".

We had that discussion here recently too.

I looked it up, and my sources* say that the / is not used alone (unless, of
course, you are parsing a directory name). It should be shown as "and/or.The
slash is supposed to be a replacement for "and" or for "or" in textual
writing. (Tabular data is different of course.) (*Gregg Reference Manual,
and I am pretty sure, Chicago Manual of Style).

However.

The slash can be used as "per" or "to" when used to indicate a ratio, such
as 29 mi/gal. It is also used in some abbreviations, such as w/o (without)
or c/o (in care of), but again, neither of these sould be used in formal
writing. (*Mirriam Webster's Manual for Writers and Editors)

As a general rule, I do not use a slash to indicate "and," "or," a hyphen,
or anything like that. It is much clearer to just say what is meant: "and,"
"or," "and/or."

There is too much room for misunderstanding, especially since so many people
have a different take on what it means, and use slashes for everything. My
personal opinion is that it is somewhat...oh, messy? But don't take it
personally. It's just one of my pet peeves!! (But it does not make my hair
stand on end like "John and Myself went to..."! I always want to say, so,
Myself went there too...and see the response I get!)

My career spans 23 years as a tech writer, Carol, close to your time served.
:-)
I started out as writer for the US government before that (4 years), and as
an English teaching assistant and tutor in college before that. So, I'm a
grammar nut.

-- Diana


------------------------------

Message: 49
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 14:59:54 -0600
From: "Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Dash It All! -- Lines in FM
To: "Pinkham, Jim" <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com>,
<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<AABEB232F95338499DF8F513EE2B2C7802D8F7 -at- WSTEXCH00 -dot- westminster -dot- polycom -dot- c om>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Pinkham, Jim wrote:

I'm running FM 7.1 and futzing helplessly with some
rectangles that have dashed lines that I wish to convert to
solid lines. <snip>

For example, when I select the rectangle, set fill to none,
line width to 0.2, I get a solid red line. When I change the
color to black, it becomes dashed again. When I set the pen
to solid, the lines look solid in FM, but print as dashed in the PDF.

Can't help with this part -- probably not understanding it.

When I set the pen to none, I see all my dashed lines in FM,
but no amount of tinkering appears able to make them solid
again. When I choose solid on the Set Dashed Line Pattern
button on the graphics toolbar, the rectangle remains dashed.
Same thing when I choose the Make Line Solid button at the
top of my screen (the one with the checkmark on top of the
solid line).

For this part, I can take a guess. I suspect you're not dealing with
rectangles, but with frames (graphics or text). When you set pen to
None, you're telling FM you don't want a border at all. But if View >
Borders is selected, and the object is a frame, FM shows the frame
border as a dotted line -- it's screen display only, like text symbols,
it doesn't print. It's just for your convenience in sizing and placing
the frame.

Right-click the object, select Object Properties, and see if Type is
Rectangle or maybe Graphic Frame. Or turn off View > Borders and see if
the dotted line disappears.

HTH!
Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------







------------------------------

Message: 50
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 16:26:27 -0500
From: "Pinkham, Jim" <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Dash It All! -- Lines in FM
To: "Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>,
<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<2BF7198089C96C438F66C74B3F43DD5EAC35BA -at- apls0111 -dot- euro1 -dot- voith -dot- net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Thanks, Richard -- Guesses much appreciated at this point :) Also, great
idea on checking type in the Object Properties. I think part of my issue
may be tied to funky grouping of objects.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: Combs, Richard [mailto:richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 4:00 PM
To: Pinkham, Jim; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Dash It All! -- Lines in FM

Pinkham, Jim wrote:

I'm running FM 7.1 and futzing helplessly with some rectangles that
have dashed lines that I wish to convert to solid lines. <snip>

For example, when I select the rectangle, set fill to none, line width

to 0.2, I get a solid red line. When I change the color to black, it
becomes dashed again. When I set the pen to solid, the lines look
solid in FM, but print as dashed in the PDF.

Can't help with this part -- probably not understanding it.

When I set the pen to none, I see all my dashed lines in FM, but no
amount of tinkering appears able to make them solid again. When I
choose solid on the Set Dashed Line Pattern button on the graphics
toolbar, the rectangle remains dashed.
Same thing when I choose the Make Line Solid button at the top of my
screen (the one with the checkmark on top of the solid line).

For this part, I can take a guess. I suspect you're not dealing with
rectangles, but with frames (graphics or text). When you set pen to
None, you're telling FM you don't want a border at all. But if View >
Borders is selected, and the object is a frame, FM shows the frame
border as a dotted line -- it's screen display only, like text symbols,
it doesn't print. It's just for your convenience in sizing and placing
the frame.

Right-click the object, select Object Properties, and see if Type is
Rectangle or maybe Graphic Frame. Or turn off View > Borders and see if
the dotted line disappears.

HTH!
Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------







------------------------------

Message: 51
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 16:28:19 -0500
From: "Thomas Mereen" <tmereen -at- wi -dot- rr -dot- com>
Subject: Creating Thumbnail Index from an Acrobat Text Index
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID: <200609062128 -dot- k86LSJcZ007436 -at- ms-smtp-04 -dot- rdc-kc -dot- rr -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I have a DVD that contains an Acrobat text Index with links to either a
sub-index or hundreds of PDF files. I would like to change the Index so when
you move the cursor over the link a thumbnail of the first page of the
linked PDF files appears. Does anyone know of such a solution?





Tom Mereen

tmereen -at- wi -dot- rr -dot- com





------------------------------

Message: 52
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 15:31:09 -0600
From: "Paul Pehrson" <paulpehrson -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.
To: "Joe Malin" <jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com>
Cc: ck1168 -at- yahoo -dot- com, techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID:
<c0ca6e5c0609061431h10cd00b3h69d0fccbd34c6aa -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

I recently had to make the InDesign/Frame decision, and I agree with what
Joe said.

For my company's needs, Framemaker is a better solution than InDesign for
the following reasons:

1. Cross-Reference capability. Framemaker allows me to cross reference to
other locations in my book file, and updates the text and page numbers as
they re-flow. So, if I'm documenting Widget X, but I want my users to refer
to other documentation on Widget Y, I can enter some conditional text that
will say "For more information on Widget Y, see <heading> on <page>" and
Frame replaces <heading> with the heading I specify, and it replaces <page>
with the page that heading is found on. When that heading moves to a
different page, the cross reference updates automatically. InDesign does not
provide this functionality.

2. Conditional Text. Framemaker does a good job with conditional text. This
is something you might really appreciate, since you have 16 guides with
basically the same content. Using conditional text, you tag text for a
specific condition. At my company, we produce our guides for some government
contracts, and for some private sector clients. In my government docs, I
have to include their contract number on the back of the title page. I have
this marked as conditional text. When I print a government version, I set
that condition to "visible" and it prints. When I am printing for the
private sector, I set the government condition to "hidden" and the
government contract information doesn't print. It's only one guide, but I
basically have two different outputs from it.

With your guides, you could have 16 conditions; The text they all share in
common is not marked conditionally. The text that appears in only one
version you mark with a condition. Then when you get ready to print, you
just hide the conditions you don't want to see. One guide with 16 different
outputs. Very powerful functionality that InDesign doesn't have.

3. Running Headers and footers. My company style guide dictates that the
heading level 1 should always appear in the footer of verso pages. My
heading level 2 should always appear in the footer of recto pages. With
Frame, I can set this up. As pages re-flow, the footers are updated
automatically. With InDesign, I would have to set up these footers manually
for every page. If my document re-flowed at the last minute, I'd have to go
back in and re-check every page to ensure my heading levels were
appropriately reflected in the footers.

4. Variables. Framemaker allows me to use variables. I have the company name
and the product name and the product version as variables. Every time I
reference the company, product, or version, I update the variable once, and
it is changed for the whole file I'm working with. I can then import the
variable into the other book chapters. Change it in one place and then
import. No more hunting through all pages of the documentation simply to
change the version number of the product.

Based on these four reasons, I decided to go with Framemaker for my
technical publications. Is InDesign a great product? Sure. It just isn't the
tool that best fits my needs at my current employer. These four areas were
deal breakers for me, and there are ways that Frame blows InDesign out of
the water.

If you are more interested in a great layout tool, go with InDesign. If you
are more interested in a tool designed for technical publication, I suggest
you give serious consideration to Framemaker. Especially if any of the four
features listed above are "must-haves" for you.

Best wishes. Hope you make the right decision for your company's needs.

-Paul Pehrson


On 9/6/06, Joe Malin <jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com> wrote:


InDesign does not focus on the technical documentation area. If you are
given the choice, choose FM.

Joe


-----Original Message-----
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Novice tech writer seeking advice on tools.

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this list and to tech writing as well. This is my first tech
writing job. The company makes software and I write the manuals.

I manage about 27 documents, of which 16 are variants of two basic
documents i.e. 95% of contents are the same. The manuals are small
averaging 120 pages with around 100 odd images. I'm using Word 2000 and
RoboHelp to produce MS Word, PDF and Windows HTML Help.



--
Paul Pehrson
Midvale, UT
AIM: nelspaul2004 MSN: paulpehrson(at)gmail.com
www.paulpehrson.com blog.paulpehrson.com


------------------------------

Message: 53
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 16:07:37 -0600
From: <laura_johnson -at- agilent -dot- com>
Subject: RE: The Documentation Being Put Through Qual Assistance
Process
To: <zigrocstarr -at- yahoo -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<B67FD01EF733094D884845AB8D5EDAB0E4F950 -at- wcosmb01 -dot- cos -dot- agilent -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi Agnes,

There are two issues here: writers reporting to the QA department, and doc being subjected to the QA process. Others have noted (and I agree) that it's always hard to report to someone who doesn't understand your job. I suppose the only answer is to train your boss....

I report to R&D (which is lovely), but we've recently been working with a QA team in India. As part of this shift, I've begun including my documentation (mostly online help) in the QA process. I think it's a good thing .... BUT ...

This sort of QA is NOT a substitute for SME review and the other levels of edit you describe. SME review is part of the development process (sort of like Unit Test for software, if that helps to explain it to the QA manager). It should be done before the QA people get the doc, because the doc will naturally change a lot during & after SME review. Does your manager actually think you don't *need* SME review? If so, as another poster noted, you need to somehow revise your manager's idea of what "quality" means in documentation.

The QA people can be very helpful for two types of review/testing:
- Naïve eyes on the documentation. If your QA folks are less familiar with the overall functioning of the product than the developers are, they may find holes that the developers miss. In particular, they may follow procedures the way you've documented them instead of the way they "really work", thus finding discrepancies that others miss.
- Mechanical testing of the online help: Do the links work? (Having someone else test that is GREAT if you have a big help system!) Are the intended entries present in the table of contents and index, and do they go to the right place (or at least to a place that makes sense)? Does the online help actually come up & look normal on all supported platforms?


regards,
Laura Johnson
Learning Products Engineer
Agilent Technologies
Loveland, Colorado


-----Original Message-----
From: Agnes Starr [mailto:zigrocstarr -at- yahoo -dot- com]
Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 10:26 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: The Documentation Being Put Through Qual Assistance Process

Hello Techwhirl

At my job we just had a reorganization and they put documentation under Quality Assurance of all places. Our documentation is fully RoboHelp - fully electronic. They want to put the documentation fully through the Quality Assurance process which means that it is run through the Bug write-up process. They told me that this means that I have to learn the Quality Assurance process and employ that same process for the upkeep of the documentation. First the "Development" phase, and then the Qual Assurance first phase, then it goes back to Development for Development Second Phase (which means Documentation) and then the Qual Assurance Second phase and then it is "Production Ready. They told me that I have to oversee all of this for me, (I am the only person documenting) and for two Quality Assurance people who are assigned to review the documentation.

I have a question. Everywhere I have ever worked, in order to put the documentation through a review cycle, we had "Levels of Edit." We had the levels of "SMEs". We didn't have it run through the Quality Assurance department like is done for software. But then again I have never worked anywhere that was 100% electronic. We have always done it where it was first a peer review edit, then the programmer, then the manager, then a person close to the customer, some type of SME. That was our type of "Quality Control" process.It was levels of edit because it is writing that is to be read and understood. It is not production and deadlines. It was not this type of "Quality Control" process.

I feel like I am being given a new hat and I am not sure I like it, or that I have the background. I can handle it if I am trained but it is like strict deadlines with all this talk of production schedules and keeping up with where the Quality Assurance people are which is not even my department. I have never had to do this.

Did I just miss something in my career path? Is this a common way of doing things? An uncommon way? Is it wise? Unwise? Or neither?

Can someone give me some idea or their thoughts about what I am being asked to do because it feels weird. This does not feel like documentation. My new boss is a QA person and knows little to nothing about documentation. His only way of judging me is whether or not a deadline is met. His only way of judging the documentation is whether we can make it fewer topics so that we have less to maintain and if we can shorten the topics.Nothing is about how well things are explained and developed for the user. It is like his whole orientation is from a Qa standpoint and my new hat just feels like it is very production and QA oriented.

Your thoughts?

Agnes S.


---------------------------------
Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr. We'll help. Yahoo! Small Business.


------------------------------

Message: 54
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 15:38:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: John Werfelmann <jwerfmail-techwr -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Subject: Consulting Fees
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Message-ID: <20060906223800 -dot- 49649 -dot- qmail -at- web52808 -dot- mail -dot- yahoo -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hi Folks,

I'm getting "outside" requests for my technical writing services; on a "single-job consulting basis", if you will... I'm not quite sure what "industry-standard writing fees" currently are, so I really don't know what to charge without over/undercharging.

The jobs are standard documenting of software systems and updating/templating existing documentation. I'm not sure what to charge though... $40/hr, $80/hr, $500 to update/template an existing 300 page User Guide???

Can anyone direct me to a source that lists some current charges? Or, would a few folks be willing to respond with their rates (hourly or per-job)?

Thanks,
JW
John Werfelmann
Technical Writer


------------------------------

Message: 55
Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 19:55:36 -0400
From: "David Castro" <thejavaguy -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Re: Looking for questions to ask in Arbortext training
To: "Pinkham, Jim" <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com>
Cc: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Message-ID:
<8319ca490609061655j342a011amfa53b23b992c7ddc -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

On 9/6/06, Pinkham, Jim <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com> wrote:
What kind of publication environment will you be using this in?

Good point. I'll be using this as an employee of a government
subcontractor. I believe that this will only be used for new long
documents (user manuals, system administrator guides, installation
guides), though it may be used for new versions of existing documents.
We will be using the S1000D DTD, and will generate PDFs to be sent out
(primarily) to the fleet.

--
-David Castro
thejavaguy -at- gmail -dot- com


------------------------------

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