By Cindy Pao

At the networking meeting in October, we (Stephanie Donovan and me) divided the room into teams and asked some tech-comm related questions.

The teams fought valiantly and well, giving me newsletter-article fodder!

Note: I tried to record these items correctly, but might be slightly off. If I am, leave a comment with your correction.

Name Your Favorite Help Tools

  • Author-it
  • Doc-To-Help
  • MadCap Flare
  • RoboHelp
  • DocBooks
  • XHTML
  • Google
  • Framemaker
  • Far
  • XMetal
  • ArborText
  • HTML Help Workshop
  • Oasis
  • Oxygen
  • Handbook of Technical Writing by Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, and Walter E. Oliu
  • Technical Writing for Dummies by Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts
  • Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications by Microsoft Corporation
  • The Elements of Technical Writing by Gary Blake and Robert W. Bly
  • Thesaurus (any will do)
  • Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White
  • SPE Publications Style Guide by the Society of Petroleum Engineers
  • S. Government Printing Office Style Manual
  • Handbook of Effective Tech Writing (could not locate this book)
  • APMP Style Guide
  • Shea Technical Writing Guide
  • Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by American Psychological Association
  • The Chicago Manual of Style by University of Chicago Press Staff
  • The Associated Press Stylebook 2013 by Associated Press
  • The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams
  • Shipley Associates Style Guide by Lawrence H. Freeman and Terry R. Bacon
  • Dictionary (any will do)
  • Managing Your Documentation Projects by JoAnn T. Hackos
  • Technical Editing by Carolyn D. Rude and Angela Eaton
  • Technical Writing 101: A Real-World Guide to Planning and Writing Technical Content by Alan S. Pringle and Sarah S. O’Keefe

Name Some of Your Favorite Technical Communication Reference Books

Have you read this far? We also asked who are some of the winners of the Distinguished Chapter Service Award from the Houston chapter. The first person to email me with a link to the web page that tells you this information wins a book from me, Cindy Pao.

 

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