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Open Source Tools for User Assistance
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You can produce quality user assistance and documentation without spending thousands of dollars on tools. A profile of five open source tools for user assistance. This is a version of a talk given at the 2009 WritersUA conference, and at the March STC Wisconsin chapter meeting.
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Open Source Tools for User Assistance
- 1. Exploring Open Source Tools for User Assistance Mike McCallister (ProTek Writing Services) [email_address]
- 6. Beware of potential malware!
- 8. Scribus: Desktop publishing, page layouts
- 12. Draw vector graphics tool – similar to Illustrator, CorelDRAW
- 13. Impress presentation – similar to PowerPoint
- 14. Calc spreadsheet – similar to Excel
- 17. OOo Writer vs. FrameMaker vs. Word Writer FrameMaker Word Master documents Book files Master documents Conditional text Conditional text Limited conditional text support Direct PDF export Acrobat Distiller PDF plug-ins available. Cascading styles Structure available Cascading styles; Strong outline tool Simple list numbering Simple list numbering Field codes
- 20. Graphics
- 23. Cleaner code than Word
- 24. XML Forms Wizard
- 25. Simple controls in toolbar
- 26. Gallery provides backgrounds, bullets, and sounds
- 27. Preview in (default) browser
- 29. Create text and graphics elsewhere, then import
- 30. Good for (short) manuals, quick reference guides, dynamic PDF
- 31. Export to print, PDF
- 32. Careful: Default templates in A4
- 33. Scribus
- 35. Fully separates presentation from text
- 36. WYSIWYM: What you see is what you mean
- 37. Exports to ODF, PDF, HTML
- 40. LyX
- 42. Book: Article with Chapters
- 43. Letter
- 44. Report
- 47. Raster graphics (JPG, PNG)
- 48. Layers
- 49. Screenshots
- 50. Beginning to support CMYK color rendering through GEGL
- 51. GIMP vs. Photoshop GIMP Photoshop Layer styles Layers Scripts, not macros Macro recording tool Many useful plug-ins Massive developer community writing add-ons GimpShop available, but not current Uses different terminology GIMP is great if it’s your first editing tool, but Photoshop experts may not find their skills transferable
- 54. Layers
- 55. Callouts & text boxes
- 56. Flowcharts
- 57. Built-in IM support client
- 63. Set font
- 64. Type
- 65. Add arrows as necessary
- 67. Open standards
- 68. Price is right
- 69. Learning curve comparable from app to app
- 70. Portability
- 72. OOo Doc Team: http://oooauthors.org
- 78. Wikipedia list of OSS packages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open_source_ software_packages
- 80. Dia flowchart tool: http://live.gnome.org/Dia/
- 81. Mike McCallister: http://www.michaelmccallister.com