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.
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
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