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Subject:Re: What tools to learn? From:Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM> Date:Sat, 25 Feb 1995 11:03:27 PST
It's not the tools so much as the underlying skills. The most useful
course I ever took was one in Technical Illustration. This particular
course was done without reference to computers, but with a roomful
of students sitting at drafting machines, drawing first in pencil,
then tracing onto vellum with india ink.
My illustrations improved tenfold from that course alone. I had learned
how to use several fancy drawing packages before this, but I hadn't learned
much about illustration itself.
In the technical writing biz, you should learn how to write, learn
how to edit, and learn how to illustrate. Once you know these things,
tools fade greatly in importance.
The trick, by the way, is to read the entire manual set when you get
a new package. No one ever does this; it will give you an instant
reputation for both specific knowledge and universal genius.
-- Robert
P.S. But, since you asked, you should learn Interleaf. It walks on water.
Most of the other desktop publishing packages out there aren't
Tech-Pubs-Aware, are horribly compromised, or both.
