Re: Recommended Applications

["Kelly K. Hoffman" <hoffman -at- LOGICRAFT -dot- COM>]

John Sanders <uupsi5!TBOSCH.DNET.GE.COM!sanders_j> writes:

>I suspect I'll be using a higher-end PClone, but it could also be a
>UNIX-workstation.

If the primary reason for using the PC clone is price, shop carefully and
compare prices *first*. By the time you get a decent processor, large
monitor (a must no matter what software package you use), video card,
sufficient disk space,  memory, network card, etc., you can probably buy a
suitable Unix workstation. (You can definitely buy a suitable Macintosh.
:-)

Find out how the company plans to produce the output, if possible.  If
you'll be dealing with a service bureau, make sure they can cope with
whatever you choose.

>The documentation is for a combination of hardware and software sold
>in a package, and I think the audience will be relatively advanced.

What platform does the company's package use? Will you be able to work with
the product from your desktop if you have either the Unix system or the PC
clone? (Depending on what the product does, obviously, this may not be an
issue.)

My company produces several hardware/software network products, which I get
to document all by myself :-).  I use a Macintosh with FrameMaker to
produce all of our technical docs.  One of the big plusses of the Mac is
that I can use it to access all of our engineering computer systems (a mix
of Unix and VMS platforms) and I can connect to our company products, too.
This makes it easy to handle the little details -- screen captures, for
example -- with a minimum of fuss and without having a bunch of boxes on my
desk.

FrameMaker's very nice, as you already know. Before you decide to use it,
you really should estimate how long you expect the docs to be and how
....um... splashy.  If you anticipate doing any color work, for example,
FrameMaker will slow you down.

You should also think about what other software will be needed.  Graphics?
Frame's tools are nice, but somewhat limited. Will you need to do screen
captures?  (will you need to edit those screen captures to "clean them
up"?) How about scanned images?

>I may not
>have time to worry much about nice things like structure and appearence,
>at least at first.

Trust me, it will be well worth the time to develop a reasonable set of
templates first.  It will save you lots of headaches, even in the short
run, and *definitely* in the long run.

                                        -- Kelly
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kelly K. Hoffman              Logicraft                "Reading the manual
Technical Writer              22 Cotton Road            is admitting
hoffman -at- logicraft -dot- com         Nashua, NH  03063         defeat."