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Subject:Re: The Writer's Kit From:Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 5 Jan 1998 13:12:44 -0800
Dana Utz wrote:
>
> Microsoft Office is an essential, but not necessarily Office 97 (IMHO).
>
> In unsolicited calls from headhunters for freelance jobs, I have found the
> software tools Framemaker and RoboHELP to be the ones most commonly
> requested. A knowledge of HTML is also a big plus, but no one has mentioned
> a specific web-authoring tool.
>
In our experience, having both Word and Framemaker is essential,
although you can get away with less-than-most-recent versions of both.
You don't need WordPerfect, since Word will export to just about
anything, including WordPerfect.
We have Pagemaker around because of problems we run into with legacy
files from some of our clients, but we rarely use it otherwise since
both Word and Frame let you do the same things. We have several Help
engines, but teach our interns RoboHelp because it seems to be the de
facto standard. We insist that our staff know HTML, but there are so
many good tools available that the tool of choice is up to the
individual. We are trying to get everyone up to speed on Photoshop, but
have a problem with people who know it cold leaving us before they can
finish training the rest of us. We have a variety of other graphics
programs around, and our people choose the ones they want to use.
All that said, we feel that the 'basic toolkit' a good technical writer
should include the following, as well:
* Basic team operating skills (MOST important)
* PowerPoint or equivalent
* Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 (basic level skills)
* Basic knowledge of database structure and SQL
* Basic UNIX skills
* Knowledge of cross-platform issues
* Basic networking knowledge (LANs, Internet structure, etc.)
* Basic programming knowledge (including Javascript, Java, VB, or C++)
* Understanding of the differences between Netscape and Microsoft
environments
Beyond that, we find that people tend to develop specialties in things
that they find particularly interesting, and we encourage that.
