TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
-----------------------
Dana Worley wrote:
...but there are so many functions and so many things that can be done with the tool that it would be near impossible to document them all (and no one would read it anyway :) There's no way to overwrite your original data file so there's no harm in experimenting.
We've had customers come up with things that I would never have
even thought was possible using the tool. They figured it out
because they weren't afraid to experiment.
-----------------------
I've documented a couple of things that lent themselves to that sort of customer innovation. We, in fact, relied on it in some cases to expose ideas and topics that our inexperience in the _field_ left us blind to. Those programs were a far cry from the database management system I'm documenting now. No room for innovation when all you're doing is populating columns in a table.... :-(
But I'd like to get back to this historical transition from Documents-that-train to documents-that-describe. I've only been doing this stuff for a little over 3 years now, so I'm lacking the historical perspective that some of the more experienced on this list has. What are your opinions about this? Has such a general shift taken place, and what do think the causes of this shift are? Better research? Shorter development time? A shift in the background of technical writers? The fall of the Berlin wall? Or something else?
********************************************
"And in the morning, I'm makin waffles." ~ Donkey
Sean Hower - tech writer http://hokum.freehomepage.com
_____________________________________________________________
Create your own web site for FREE at http://www.freehomepage.com
_____________________________________________________________
Select your own custom email address for FREE! Get you -at- yourchoice -dot- com w/No Ads, 6MB, POP & more! http://www.everyone.net/selectmail?campaign=tag
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Check out SnagIt - The Screen Capture Standard!
Download a free 30-day trial from http://www.techsmith.com/rdr/txt/twr
Find out what all the other tech writers, including Dan, already know!
Order RoboHelp X3 in December and receive $100 mail in rebate, FREE WebHelp
Merge Module and the new RoboPDF - add powerful PDF output functionality
to RoboHelp X3. Order online today at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
