Software for Installation/Operation/Maintenance manuals 9

[geesamand]

I hope I've found an appropriate forum for this question.

We make basic IO&M manuals in Microsoft Word. These range from 1 to 100 pages, and given the complexity of Word's formatting capability and the size of the documents, can be unproductive and extremely frustrating. Our users are not desktop publishers either - I would describe this as a graphics-laden word processing application. The final output is a PDF file or print copy of the manual (we're not into those fancy hyperlinked digital manuals I've seen in some industries). A feature for handling multiple languages would be nice but not a priority. We need to keep the editing of these documents easy enough that multiple users in the company can be competent to work with these documents.

Instead of Word, here are some options:
- WordPerfect (same capabilities of Word, just 'better')
- Adobe Framemaker (more desktop publishing in nature, more training required)
- Madcap MadPac (seem geared directly toward technical manuals)
- Others?

I welcome your input, as we are not a big organization and we need this to work well.

 

[IRstuff]

Word can be worked. The biggest issue with Word is that there is generally several different ways of getting nearly identical print results.

However, you aren't really just asking for something the writes documents, per se., you are trying to publish books. Here's a comparison of Adobe InDesign and Quark Xpress, which appear to be the two obvious choices for book publishing.

Also, there are lots of online resources for publishers:

http://www.bookcatcher.com/index.php

One option is to query actual publishers for their requirements for book submissions.

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[MintJulep]

I've never used it, but I just noticed that my full MS Office installation included "Microsoft Publisher".

 

[drawoh]

I completely agree with SnTMan about graphics jumping all over the place in Word.
...

Word's default behaviour is to attach the graphic to a paragraph, and treat it like an enormous character. Right click on the graphic and look for menus. There are all sorts of options for determining what part of your document the graphic should be attached to, and how text should be formatted around it.

--
JHG

 

[geesamand]

We do use publisher to write a particular type of graphics-laden report (think multipage brochure). I spoke to our one user who uses it regularly and she was not excited about using Publisher to write our manuals. The operations manuals are definitely more like a short book than a multipage brochure.

 

[blucas1]

If you want to get around the formatting issues, there are now commercially available packages (free to enterprise) designed to allow rapid knowledge capture for work instructions and SOPS with text and images through a functionally specific user interface and then autoformat the information in a PDF document in a variety of styles. Many of these packages include full revision control capabilities and higher end packages include the ability to integrate with other business systems (ERP) and allow for paperless deployment, electronic sign-off etc.

 

[dgallup]

Such as?

----------------------------------------

The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[KENAT]

Well, depending what blucas means, Interactive Product Animator is partially CAD integrated. It will produce a canned interactive web page and a pdf version. Or at least it would about 5 years ago, it may be better, different, extinct... now.

Adobe 3D does some stuff to.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[blucas1]

@dgallup -

In full disclosure, I work for one of the software companies that provides such a solution but try to provide information on forums such as this in a noncommercial manner. The most commonly seen packages (in alphabetical order) can be found at

http://www.proplanner.com

http://www.proworksinfo.com

http://www.sequencesoftware.com

http://www.visualfactory.net

I would be happy to talk with you further.

Barry Lucas

http://www.sequencesoftware.com