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Technical Writing on a Shoestring: Open Source Tools That Can Save Your Technical Writing Department Money

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The current economic decline has decimated many technical writing department budgets. But, the demand for quality documentation and training material has not abated. As more companies compete for a smaller customer base, the ability to create software that is easy to use and that also provides the customer with a wide variety of options for help is critical. How can you, as a technical writer offer top-notch documentation and help materials on a tight budget? While there are several facets to this question, selection of tools is paramount. One of the most obvious ways to save money is to use open source, low cost, or free software. Read more of this technical writing article »

Replacing FrameMaker with OpenOffice.org Writer

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Replace Adobe FrameMaker with OpenOffice.org Writer? Most people’s first reaction is amused disbelief. “FrameMaker is a hugely capable publishing product,” my editor at Newsforge admonished me. “OOo is a marginally competent word processor.” However, a functional comparison of several important desktop publishing features in both products shows that the products are more comparable than you [...] Read more of this technical writing article »

Hitching with Clipboard and Pen Along the Open Road: A Tech Writer’s Guide to the Open Source Movement (Part Two)

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In Part One of this two-part series, you got a look at the history of the Open Source movement, saw how Open Source projects can be a positive environment for technical writers, and got an introduction to the Free Documentation License. Following in Part Two, you’ll find out about tools that Open Source writers use, [...] Read more of this technical writing article »

Tech Writer’s Guide to the Open Source Movement (Part One): Hitching with Clipboard and Pen Along the Open Road

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As a tech writer, you may be exploring single-sourcing–producing multiple document outputs from a single information source–as a possible option for easing document development and production. Although solutions such as databases, SGML, and XML are available that can enable you to reuse information to produce multiple outputs, single-sourcing doesn’t have to involve such complex solutions, [...] Read more of this technical writing article »