Software that Technical Writer's Own
By Mimi Hill

Categories of Software

Book Creation | Imaging | Anti-virus | Other Software

Book Creation is the main task of a technical writer. FrameMaker is the main tool of our trade although others would dispute that and say that Microsoft Word is a good enough book creation tool too. For more information, see book creation.

Imaging takes place on 3 levels or more for technical writers: Screenshots, architectural and structural images and graphic design. There are a few well known tools for each of these tasks. For more information, see Imaging.

Anti-virus software is an absolute must for every computer these days. I provide some solutions for you on my anti-virus page.

Other software such as online help project creation, single sourcing software and interesting utilities can be found here.

 A tip, a trick and some troubleshooting

• Free Skills Tests are offered online from: Brainbench Skills Test. I think these tests are fun and if I don't end up surprising myself with how much I already know, I always learn something.
• Since Acrobat Reader is free from: http://www.adobe.com, I recommend downloading at least 2 versions. Download the latest version and an older version (like 4.0) since you never know which version your readers will be using to view your documents.
• Make sure (when you create your FrameMaker document, from the Acrobat Settings Preferences Window (at the book not the page level) you set all four settings to something like www.atechwriter.com. If you don't you may be exposing your readers to various information stored on your computer like your name, the path to the file and your initials. Identity theft is on the IRS's top ten list these days. Please be careful.

Test it yourself

Go to any Adobe Acrobat file and type: Ctrl+D. When your jaw stops dropping, imagine someone picking up the phone, calling your company and asking the receptionist to place a call to you all because you didn't fill in the Acrobat Settings Preferences Window.