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.
Mary, it depends on the price. I think if the price is reasonable
Photoshop is invaluable even if you aren't a writer. I use Photoshop all
the time and not always for work. Frankly I think it's lame to take
screen grabs and use those other programs for it. I think every writer
of documentation should know all the ins and outs of Photoshop. Gosh, I
teach Photoshop classes and you can tell with all my profuse gushing
over the sw. <grin>
In my experience I have only had to use InDesign for one project in the
past year. I, however, use Framemaker. I think it's a good idea as a
consulting writer to know your apps. My current sw client had an
existing manual and wants two manuals. They don't have Frame, but the
original manuals were in Frame. They didn't know what an .fm extension
was, thank goodness I do, and I have Frame so I could pull all the files
and dump them into Word for them. So, even if you rarely use something
it's good to have some knowledge about that app. even if it's only to be
able to export your content.
Personally I despise Illustrator and have since my old graphic designer
days on a Mac in the late 80's! But, the husband loves Illustrator, so
we have it.
Acrobat is also a very good investment. You'll need the whole Acrobat
program if you're going to do freelance technical writing.
On my PC I have InDesign, Pagemaker, Quark, MS Office Suite, Photoshop,
Acrobat, Framemaker, the Macromedia Suite of Freehand, Dreamweaver,
Fireworks, Flash; the OpenOffice Suite, and I think that's all. On my
Mac I have Word, Photoshop, Quark and Illustrator.
Some of my applications are older since I can't justify upgrading them,
but I know all these app's and I've been a consultant my entire career.
I've never been captive and I believe at this point in my non-captive
career that I won't be presented with a captive offering.
Michele
---------------
Michele E. Davis, Writer
Kraut Companies
612-824-3516
612-309-6903 (cell)
www.krautgrrl.com
www.krautboy.com
and the uber geek empyre
Mary Elizabeth wrote:
<>For a technical writer interested in starting freelance work,
would it make sense to purchase Adobe Creative Suite? I have the
opportunity to purchase the full suite at a student discount (my
partner is
currently a graduate student), but I don’t want to purchase it if it
doesn’t
make sense to have it. Is InDesign (or Acrobat/Photoshop/Illustrator,
etc.) important enough for freelance technical writing to justify the
expense, or would Word work just as well?
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