Re: Hardware requirements for Technical Writers

["Taylor, Steve" <steve -dot- taylor -at- ALLEGIANCETELECOM -dot- COM>]

All I can tell you is what I use, and it works very well, for about the same
software apps you are using, except I also use PageMaker and Adobe
Photoshop, and sometimes I use Word 97 AND PageMaker AND PhotoShop, all at
the same time...or instead of PageMaker, RoboHelp 5.5

Pentium 266
3.2 GB Hard Drive
96 MB Ram
17 - inch monitor.
I also have a backup directory on the network server
Use network printers for printing.

I use NT workstation (which I highly recommend over Windows 95/98)...

This works very well...and with NT, I have very few crashes (less than one a
week on average) and have not lost any data since inception in late April.

------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Taylor
Consultant for Technical Directions, Inc.
On location at:
Allegiance Telecom, Inc.
Dallas, TX
(214) 853-7182
steve -dot- taylor -at- allegiancetelecom -dot- com
http://www.alegiancetele.com
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Janet Russeau [SMTP:janet -dot- russeau -at- LA-Z-BOY -dot- COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 1998 1:05 PM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Hardware requirements for Technical Writers
>
> Hello everyone,
> our Technical Communications department is trying to put together a
> business case and requirements proposal for upper management.  In it, we
> must show exactly what our PC hardware requirements are.  We are currently
> using the following setup:
>
> Pentium 166
> 64MB RAM
> 2.5 GB hard drive
> 17" color monitor
> connected to a network printer for all printing needs
>
> We use the following applications for projects:
>
> MS Office 97 for all hard copy
> RoboHELP Office 5.5 for electronic/HTML help
> FrontPage 98 for web page development
> Image Composer 1.5 for some graphics manipulation
> Visio Professional 5.0a for flow charts and layout design
>
>
> We have experienced several problems with PC lockups, corrupted files,
> General Protection Faults, and Illegal Operations.  Our research into
> these
> problems has lead us to believe that we can eliminate some of this by
> upgrading to faster processors and adding memory.  Unfortunately, we do
> not
> have any conclusive proof or facts to back this up.
>
> If we were able to show them the hardware configurations being used by
> Technical Writers in the industry, we may have a better chance at getting
> what we need.
>
> Please respond to the following questions directly to me, I will then
> summarize for the list.
>
> 1)  What size processor does your PC have ?
>
> 2)  What size hard drive does your PC have ?
>
> 3)  How much RAM do you have loaded ?
>
> 4)  What size monitor do you have ?
>
> 5)  Do you have a sound card and speakers ?
>
> 6)  Do you have any additional devices to enhance your PC
>      (example: accelerated graphics/video/audio card or additional video
> memory)
>
>
> Your assistance is greatly appreciated,
> Janet Russeau
> La-Z-Boy Incorporated
> janet -dot- russeau -at- la-z-boy -dot- com
>
>
> ~