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I have done this at two companies now. The first company I went in
as the first and only full time tech writer. I worked there for
three years, but I didn't have the luxury of picking the package I
was using and it got to be a pain.
I ended up using Word For Windows which is less than ideal for
producing manuals. It really is not designed for doing that. Trying
to compile and index a document in Word For Windows is very painful.
You don't have control over the document. It breaks pages where it
wants to. YES, you can put in hard page breaks, but that also
effects the rest of your document. (I used it on a pc, by the
way...)
I was going to suggest FrameMaker which is what I am using for
documentation at my current company. I think it is the best sort of
"over the counter" software for creating documentation. I use it on a
486/50 and it is plenty fast. You need a big monitor though.. (I
use it on a PC, but you can use it on one of about 20 platforms...)
I use Word For Windows to create help files for windows applications
just because it is designed for that.
Hope this is helpful. I wich you luck in your new position. I love
being the only writer. Sometimes there is a lot of pressure, but
there is also a lot of satisfaction and learning that goes with that
type of job.
