What programs do you use for creating technical documents???.....

[fcb]

We've just gone over to HelpNDoc for writing manuals.

[Conrad Hoffman]

Office 365 at work and home, so Word for most things. I find the biggest problem with Word is most people aren't very good at using it. Hate working on other people's documents. I'm no world-class user, but it does most things well, once you figure out the right way to do them. It's definitely not a page layout program and if I were doing a book of mostly photos or something, it's the last thing I'd use. MS Publisher works OK, but it's sort of clunky and limited. My reports have a lot of CAD drawings and photos, but not fancy layouts, so Word is perfect. I use Affinity Photo to tune up images and output them at a reasonable resolution.

[David Hess]

I make drawings in very old AutoCad and import into whatever word processing or page layout software I happen to be using.

The pitfall using proprietary packages is that:
- they are non portable
- they depend on some specific OS and version
- they require apart that licensing and re-licensing.
- they are programmed to obsolete your work and re-license
- they fail to export (escape the jail)
- they fail even to keep pace with new OS and formats

The whole sum equals to a very bad workflow and expensive TCOs

All solved by using open standard TeX and open classes and formats.

I agree but in the past AutoCad is what I had, and I have not found an adequate replacement.

[PKTKS]

I agree but in the past AutoCad is what I had, and I have not found an adequate replacement.

AutoCAD much like MS is a shitshow by itself.

But orders of magnitude harder to get rid of.
I remember when they "locked" R12 with "original" "authentic" format stuff..

So .. the bottom line is not AutCAD but the formats underneath.
Nothing is really close in that particular arena.

Closest thing I have always fallback is PostScript.
DXF may have some interesting export/import results...50% chance.

Best thing is to get rid of these locked formats.. if possible at all

Paul

[voltsandjolts]

LaTeX.
Nothing - really nothing - can even come close to what it can be done in TeX.

I like the \$\LaTeX\$ workflow, ascii entry, easy version control and TexMaker is quite a good cross-platform "IDE", if you want an IDE.
But the scary thought is trying to create a customised package for a report document format I want.

[voltsandjolts]

We've just gone over to HelpNDoc for writing manuals.

Interesting, outputs to PDF, HTML, ePub and others.
Price is a reasonable 299€
Let us know how you get on with that!

https://www.helpndoc.com/

[tszaboo]

MS Word for text. We don't have the money for the free tools.
Altium Draftsman for drawings.
Wireviz for cables, and Jupyter notebook for calculations plots, visualizations.
Mechanical drawings are ... who cares.

[Renate]

If you use per-seat tools do you not have to pay if you have a standing desk?

I'm moving to online HTML, Windows (ancient HTML Help, .chm) and EPUB, all generated automatically.
The documentation source is (Notepad++ editted) HTML and PNG.
The source HTML includes multiple output HTML files in a single file.
So you could have a file named "config.htm" that gets converted into cfg1a.htm, cfg1b.htm, cfg2.htm, cfgerrata.htm
The source file doesn't include boring stuff like body or link css, that's part of the wrapper that gets put in during expansion/splitting part.

[PKTKS]

LaTeX.
Nothing - really nothing - can even come close to what it can be done in TeX.

I like the \$\LaTeX\$ workflow, ascii entry, easy version control and TexMaker is quite a good cross-platform "IDE", if you want an IDE.
But the scary thought is trying to create a customised package for a report document format I want.

Never bothered making my own..
All layouts or doc types I ever needed I could find a class near perfect fit for it.

The capabilities to generate BodePlots BarCodes and circuit symbols (using TikZ aka CIRCUITIKZ) and chemical symbols and absolute perfect math..  it all fits with no possible comparable result using some proprietary software

I just took me time to learn each new class or package needed..
The GUI never really helped as much as latex PERL does.

always fallback using latex front end..  it helps to debug

Paul

[fcb]

We've just gone over to HelpNDoc for writing manuals.

Interesting, outputs to PDF, HTML, ePub and others.
Price is a reasonable 299€
Let us know how you get on with that!

https://www.helpndoc.com/

Yeah - will do. So far I really like it, very fast to use.

[SiliconWizard]

LaTeX.
Nothing - really nothing - can even come close to what it can be done in TeX.

I like the \$\LaTeX\$ workflow, ascii entry, easy version control and TexMaker is quite a good cross-platform "IDE", if you want an IDE.
But the scary thought is trying to create a customised package for a report document format I want.

Never bothered making my own..
All layouts or doc types I ever needed I could find a class near perfect fit for it.

I have. If you want your docs to look decently "custom", your pretty much have to. But this is no rocket science. And, I've stuck to simple layout stuff too. Cover pages, chapter and section titles, footers and headers, things like this. But at least then it looks a bit less like your basic student report (which is not bad per se, but doesn't cut it for professional document IMHO, at least if this is on behalf of a company and it is going to be deployed outside of it.

[m98]

I use Sphinx for HTML documentation and manuals. Everything else, Word or InDesign.

[SilverSolder]

Many people find MS Publisher a toy. Actually, for regular reports and manuals that need an extra touch up, it is just right. It comes as part of MS Office bundles but is often overlooked. Easy to learn without too many unnecessary complex handles.

+1 for Publisher, it is a hidden gem in the Office suite that nobody has paid much attention to, so it isn't bloated with useless features and is a great little problem solver.  It supports VBA so can be automated to the max if you have regular reports.

[rsjsouza]

I've used several versions of Word: 2.0 (for DOS), 6.0 for WfW and 95, 1997 through 2019 (without skipping) and I like it as long as you play along with it. As Conrad mentioned, when too many hands touch a document, it becomes messy quite quickly.

Other curiosities that I used were Chiwriter (quite nice for the DOS PCs), LaTex, Wolfram's Mathematica... Then HTML, Twiki, MediaWiki, Markdown, Rest/Sphinx and I am starting on SDL Tridion/Oxygen. I never got into the Wordperfect bandwagon, but the irony is that I have a sealed copy here, bought last year on a large ancient SW package from a local guy.

Of all these, the one I absolutely love for online documentation (not printing) is MediaWiki. It also scaled quite well across many teams (tables were crap with it). Rest/Sphinx creates better structured documents, but it does not allow great formatting (IMO). Markdown is way too simple, but the way we used (an HTML file with markdown css wrappers) actually allowed a lot of flexibility with raw HTML (my boss called "hacking"). I would love to use LaTEX professionally, but it is simply a null ponter everywhere I worked.

[Zucca]

Once you know LaTeX all the rest is just noise.

[tooki]

Word for text , Adobe Illustrator for drawing ( vector drawings ) Adobe InDesign for makeup.

Simply the way to go. Consider Word as a word processor with added layout functions.
Will do for simple layouts (single column) up to say 4 to 8 standard pages with few
figures and no footnotes avoiding most of the automation offered like Table of Contents,
indexing, macros, changing headers, format templates and footers.

Well that’s what Word is. I think that 95% of the hate for Word comes from people either a) thinking it’s a layout program, which it really isn’t, or b) simply not understanding how Word “thinks” (in particular, not understanding the role of styles, paragraphs, and sections).

P.S. Speaking of layouts, please leave the layout of forum posts up to the browser: please do not insert line breaks manually. When you do, you’re forcing a layout for a specific screen size, and when someone comes along and looks at it on their phone on the way to work, for example, you get the mess in the attached screenshot.

[tooki]

If you use per-seat tools do you not have to pay if you have a standing desk?

I'm moving to online HTML, Windows (ancient HTML Help, .chm) and EPUB, all generated automatically.
The documentation source is (Notepad++ editted) HTML and PNG.
The source HTML includes multiple output HTML files in a single file.
So you could have a file named "config.htm" that gets converted into cfg1a.htm, cfg1b.htm, cfg2.htm, cfgerrata.htm
The source file doesn't include boring stuff like body or link css, that's part of the wrapper that gets put in during expansion/splitting part.

At my old job where I worked as a technical writer, we used a program called Help and Manual to write the manual. It outputs chm, regular HTML, and PDF (among other things). With a bit of care in setting up templates, the output is not bad at all.

But man did I hate its editor, simply because of a few quirks of text selection behavior that differ from the behavior of every other text editing environment I used (Word, Outlook, and Chrome on Windows, and everything on Mac), which just slowed me down because I could not unlearn decades of muscle memory specifically within one program…

[tooki]

The thing is that people in OpenOffice Writer is not pushed to format all page elements like that requires more specialized tools. Therefore they never develop a discipline to use extensively e.g. characters, paragraphs and pages styles. That makes them pretty soon miserable and think that OOW (same is with the MS Word) worth much less for such purpose than it is really the case.
Until now I published 5 illustrated books (most of them are 300+ pages) using Print-on-Demand and traditionally printing shop that was with exception of cover page (I'm using Scribus) prepared in OOW.

Am I correct that what you’re saying is that most OOW and Word users largely fail to invest the time to set up and then consistently use styles, and then think it’s the program’s fault?

If so, I completely agree with you 100%.

[tooki]

Regarding LaTeX: Last time I looked into it (which has been a while), one thing I didn’t like was the meager selection of fonts. (Which is why so many LaTeX documents look alike.) Has this gotten any better?

[armandine2]

I've used paint and converted it to Adobe to make P&I Diagrams - not tried to do schematic wiring or anything electronic but imagine it would be the same. The paint drawing skill takes a while to get but you can soon get it to a presentable level, I found.

[emece67]

.

[joeqsmith]

Hi,

I've started using LaTeX about ~15 years back. Previously I was a user of WordStar → WordPerfect → Word

.....

Regards.

This is the path I followed as well.   When I first started using the IBM PC (pre hard drive days and no scan for additional BIOS to support one), WordStar ran fine.   Eventually, we started to add memory and WordStar would no longer run.   It came up with an error about the PC not having enough memory.   I used Debug to disassemble the code and then stepped through until I found the fault.  It seems they had a sign problem with their compare.  So I modified it (guessing that was my first hack ever on a PC) and we were back in business. 

Eventually as we continued to add even more memory were changing the dip switches to tell BIOS there was less memory than there really was and would over right the values after the PC booted to avoid the VERY long memory checks.   

By the time WordPerfect came out, I had those stupid WordStar control codes stuck in my memory banks and rather than learning all new, I macro'ed the crap out of it.   

[SilverSolder]

Yeah, I remember WordStar as well -  funny, I think I would still be able to use it if confronted with it today, with all the codes stored in muscle memory! 

[perdrix]

Come back Ventura Publisher all is forgiven - I never forgave Corel for ditching it.

D.

[PKTKS]

I started using \(\LaTeX\) about ~15 years back.

A LOT   has gone under TeX last 15y.

Try the following snippet under a decent TeX installation

Code: [Select]

%& -shell-escape

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{verbatim}
\usepackage[active,tightpage]{preview}
\usepackage{ifthen}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgf}
\usepackage{pgffor}
\usepgfmodule{shapes}
\usepgfmodule{plot}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows,intersections,decorations,snakes}
\setlength\PreviewBorder{5pt}%

\newcommand{\Gitter}[4]{
    \draw[very thin,color=gray] (#1,#3) grid (#2,#4);
}
\newcommand{\Koordinatenkreuz}[6]{
    \draw[->, >=latex, color=green!50!black] (#1,0) -- (#2,0) node[right] {#5};
    \draw[->, >=latex, color=green!50!black] (0,#3) -- (0,#4) node[left] {#6};
}
\newcommand{\KoordinatenkreuzOhneLabelsVerschobenKeinPfeil}[5]{
    \draw[-] (#1,0) -- (#2,0);
    \draw[-] (#5,#3) -- (#5,#4);

}
\newcommand{\ZeigerdiagrammText}[4]{
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=.72, samples=100, >=latex]

    \def\Alpha{#1}
    \def\Phase{#2}
    \def\AmplitudeSpannung{#3}
    \def\AmplitudeStrom{#4}
    \def\SpannungsWert{{\AmplitudeSpannung*sin(\Alpha)}}
    \def\StromWert{{\AmplitudeStrom*sin(\Alpha+\Phase)}}
    \def\FarbeSpannung{blue!90!white}
    \def\FarbeStrom{red!90!white}
    \def\FarbeWinkelZeichnung{green}
    \def\Beta{\Alpha+\Phase}
    \def\AlphaRad{\Alpha*3.141592654/180}
    \def\PhaseRad{\Phase*3.141592654/180}
    \Gitter{-.1}{7.1}{-3.1}{3.1}
    \Koordinatenkreuz{-.2}{7.3}{-3.2}{3.3}{$\omega t$}{}
    \draw (1.570795,0) node[below]{$\frac{\pi}{2}$};
    \draw (3.14159,0) node[below]{${\pi}$};
    \draw (4.71238898,0) node[below]{$\frac{3\pi}{2}$};
    \draw (6.283185307,0) node[below]{${2\pi}$};
    \draw (-4,0) circle (3cm);
    \KoordinatenkreuzOhneLabelsVerschobenKeinPfeil{-7.2}{-.8}{-3.6}{3.6}{-4}

    \draw[color=\FarbeSpannung, very thick] plot[id=voltage, domain=0:7] function{\AmplitudeSpannung*sin(x)} node[right] {$U(t)$};
    \draw[color=\FarbeSpannung, loosely dashed] (-4,0) circle (\AmplitudeSpannung cm);
    \draw[color=\FarbeWinkelZeichnung!50!black, thick] (\AlphaRad, \SpannungsWert)--(\AlphaRad,\StromWert) node[below=18pt] {$\alpha$};
    \filldraw[fill=\FarbeWinkelZeichnung!20,draw=\FarbeWinkelZeichnung!50!black] (-4,0) -- (-3,0) arc (0:\Alpha:1) -- cycle node[right] {$\alpha$};
    \draw[<-,color=\FarbeSpannung, very thick] (\Alpha:\AmplitudeSpannung)++(-4,0) --(-4,0);
    \draw[color=\FarbeSpannung,  dashed] (\Alpha:\AmplitudeSpannung)++(-4,0) -- (\AlphaRad,\SpannungsWert);
    \draw[color=\FarbeStrom, very thick] plot[id=current, domain=0:7] function{\AmplitudeStrom*sin(x+\PhaseRad)} node[right] {$I(t)$};
    \draw[color=\FarbeStrom, loosely dashed]    (-4,0) circle (\AmplitudeStrom cm);
    \draw[<-,color=\FarbeStrom, very thick] (\Beta:\AmplitudeStrom)++(-4,0) --(-4,0);
    \draw[color=\FarbeStrom,  dashed](\Beta:\AmplitudeStrom)++(-4,0) -- (\AlphaRad,\StromWert);
    \ifthenelse{\Phase<0}{
        \draw[snake=brace] (pi/2 ,3.3)--(pi/2-\PhaseRad ,3.3) node[above=7pt, left=10pt] {$\phi$};
    }
    {
        \draw[snake=brace] (pi/2-\PhaseRad ,3.3)--(pi/2 ,3.3) node[above=7pt, left=10pt] {$\phi$};
    }
    \draw[->, xshift=-4cm]  (120:2.4cm) arc (120:170:2) node[below] {$\omega$};
\end{tikzpicture}
}

\newcommand{\Regression}[0]{
\begin{tikzpicture}[
    thick,
    >=stealth',
    dot/.style = {
      draw,
      fill = white,
      circle,
      inner sep = 0pt,
      minimum size = 4pt
    }
  ]
  \coordinate (O) at (0,0);
  \draw[->] (-0.3,0) -- (8,0) coordinate[label = {below:$x$}] (xmax);
  \draw[->] (0,-0.3) -- (0,5) coordinate[label = {right:$f(x)$}] (ymax);
  \path[name path=x] (0.3,0.5) -- (6.7,4.7);
  \path[name path=y] plot[smooth] coordinates {(-0.3,2) (2,1.5) (4,2.8) (6,5)};
  \scope[name intersections = {of = x and y, name = i}]
    \fill[gray!20] (i-1) -- (i-2 |- i-1) -- (i-2) -- cycle;
    \draw      (0.3,0.5) -- (6.7,4.7) node[pos=0.8, below right] {Sekante};
    \draw[red] plot[smooth] coordinates {(-0.3,2) (2,1.5) (4,2.8) (6,5)};
    \draw (i-1) node[dot, label = {above:$P$}] (i-1) {} -- node[left]
      {$f(x_0)$} (i-1 |- O) node[dot, label = {below:$x_0$}] {};
    \path (i-2) node[dot, label = {above:$Q$}] (i-2) {} -- (i-2 |- i-1)
      node[dot] (i-12) {};
    \draw           (i-12) -- (i-12 |- O) node[dot,
                              label = {below:$x_0 + \varepsilon$}] {};
    \draw[blue, <->] (i-2) -- node[right] {$f(x_0 + \varepsilon) - f(x_0)$}
                              (i-12);
    \draw[blue, <->] (i-1) -- node[below] {$\varepsilon$} (i-12);
    \path       (i-1 |- O) -- node[below] {$\varepsilon$} (i-2 |- O);
    \draw[gray]      (i-2) -- (i-2 -| xmax);
    \draw[gray, <->] ([xshift = -0.5cm]i-2 -| xmax) -- node[fill = white]
      {$f(x_0 + \varepsilon)$}  ([xshift = -0.5cm]xmax);
  \endscope
\end{tikzpicture}
}

\begin{document}
\begin{preview}
\ZeigerdiagrammText{60}{0}{2.7}{1.8}
\ZeigerdiagrammText{60}{-90}{2.7}{1.8}
\ZeigerdiagrammText{60}{90}{2.7}{1.8}
\Regression
\end{preview}
\end{document}


A simple example taken from proper places.

No software package can do that thing in any proper format that easy

Paul