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Below is a list of tools that we have lots of experience using, and usually we know
the ins and outs of these tools on multiple platforms. In house, we support Mac OS,
many flavors of Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Solaris.
We're also happy to tell you about the tools we prefer to use and why.
Desktop Publishing Tools
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Adobe FrameMaker
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Microsoft Word
- Microsoft PowerPoint
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StarOffice
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Adobe PageMaker
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QuarkXPress
Online Documentation and Web Publishing Tools
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Adobe Acrobat
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RoboHELP/RoboHTML
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Microsoft Front Page
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Macromedia Dreamweaver
- Macromedia Fireworks
- Macromedia Flash
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Converters (WebWorks Publisher, WebMaker, Help-to-HTML)
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WinHelp
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Adobe PageMill
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Claris Home Page
Graphics Tools
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Adobe Illustrator
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Adobe Photoshop
- CorelDraw
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Equilibrium DeBabelizer
- Macromedia Fireworks
- Macromedia Flash
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Visio
- PaintShop Pro
- StarOffice
Documentation Application Preferences
Expert Support writers
have used many different applications to create documentation over
the years. Based upon our experiences (both bad and good), we have
developed some pretty clear preferences about which tools allow
us to get the job done in the most efficient manner. Having said
that, please note that we will use whatever software you want us
to use. If you hire us for an engagement and let us use our favorite
software, here are the software packages we will probably pick.
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If you need: |
We prefer: |
Why? |
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Hard copy or PDF |
Adobe FrameMaker |
If we are creating
a hard copy or a PDF document, we prefer to create it in Adobe
FrameMaker. We prefer not to use Microsoft Word. It is our
experience that Word is designed primarily for short office
documents like letters or memos. It tends to become unreliable
when dealing with large, multiple file, documents with cross-references,
indexes, auto-numbered tables, figures, tables of contents,
and so on. Word is also less sophisticated in its understanding
of fonts than FrameMaker, leading to some unexpected and undesirable
results when you print the master copy of the document.
We believe that
the cost of producing large manuals with lots of tables, graphics,
indexes, and so on is about 20 to 30% higher using Microsoft
Word than FrameMaker. And, we aren't the only people who believe
this.
To see a comparison between Word and FrameMaker: 
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Print, web pages, or help files |
Adobe FrameMaker with Quadralay WebWorks Publisher |
If we are creating a document that will have multiple uses, such as print, web files, and
help files, we prefer to create it in FrameMaker and then use Quadralay WebWorks Publisher to
convert the FrameMaker files to HTML and/or help files.
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Stand-alone help files |
RoboHELP/RoboHTML |
RoboHELP and RoboHTML have excellent help project tools and are very flexible in the types
of help files you can create. RoboHELP and RoboHTML are built on top of Microsoft Word and use
Microsoft's help compiler. |
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Stand-alone web files |
Macromedia Dreamweaver |
Dreamweaver's HTML code is fairly clean and the application has a good UI. Dreamweaver allows you to see your
web pages in design view (WYSIWYG), code view, or a combination design and code view. You can edit
pages in any of the views.
One of its most useful features is the check-in/check-out facility, allowing you to
control who is working on a particular file. In addition, it contains a template feature
that makes it easy to keep pages consistent across a site.
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Documents to distribute for review |
Adobe Acrobat |
When we distribute documents for review, we prefer to distribute PDF files for comments.
If the reviewers have, or can easily access, Acrobat, we prefer to receive comments as
markup comments to the PDF files. |
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