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. . . continued from August 28, 2005 Show Notes
Technical Writing Resources
Here's Managing Editor Howard Carson's list of Favorite Technical Writing Resource Books. The "Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications" and the "Chicago Manual of Style" remain two of the best books for all technical writers. Whatever else you buy, make sure you've got these two. All writers should also have a copy of "Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. The 4th edition is now available.
Working technical writers should consider adding some or all of the following list to their reference libraries:
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- Handbook of Technical Writing
by Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, Walter E. Oliu St. Martin's Press, (January, 2003)
- Survivor's Guide to Technical Writing
by David Ingre
South-Western Educational Publishing, (January, 2003)
- Technical Writer's Handbook : Writing With Style and Clarity by Matt Young University Science Books, (March, 2002)
- Technical Writing: A Practical Approach (5th Edition) by William Sanborn Pfeiffer Prentice Hall, (February, 2002)
- Technical Writing Basics: A Guide to Style and Form (2nd Edition) by Brian R. Holloway Prentice Hall, (June, 2001)
- The Complete Idiot's Guide to Technical Writing by Krista Van Laan and Catherine Julian Alpha Books, (February, 2001)
- The Technical Writer's Companion
by Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, Walter E. Oliu Bedford/St. Martin's, (December, 2000)
- Technical Writing 101 : A Real-World Guide to Planning and Writing Technical Documentation by Alan S. Pringle, Sarah S. O'Keefe, Bill Burns Scriptorium Press, (September, 2000)
- Handbook of Technical Writing
by Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, Walter E. Oliu St. Martin' Press, (March, 2000)
- The User Manual Manual
by Michael Bremer
Untechnical Press, (November, 1999)
- Untechnical Writing - How to Write About Technical Subjects and Products So Anyone Can Understand by Michael Bremer Untechnical Press, (September, 1999)
- Bugs in Writing; A Guide to Debugging Your Prose by Lyn Dupre Addison Wesley, (April, 1998)
- Technical Writing Basics; A Guide to Style and Form by Brian Holloway Prentice Hall, (July, 1998)
- Professional and Technical Writing Strategies : Communicating in Technology and Science by Judith S. Vanalstyne Prentice Hall, (January, 1999)
Try a couple of these titles — whichever you feel will fill the gaps in your knowledge or experience thus far. All of these titles are quite good, there is obviously some overlap in coverage from title to title, but the concomittant reinforcement never hurts.
In addition, here's is an excellent article on using OpenOffice for technical writing.
A robust reference guide for Adobe Framemaker should also be in every technical writer's arsenal:
- Adobe FrameMaker 7 Classroom in a Book, published by MacMillan
Keep a couple of Word references around including:
- Word Pocket Guide, Second Edition
By Walter Glenn
Second Edition April 2004
Series: Pocket References
ISBN: 0-596-00684-5
and
Don't forget that WordPerfect also remains a widely used technical writing tool. Here's a very good reference guide for WordPerfect 12:
- Using WordPerfect 12, Special Edition
Laura Acklen, Read Gilgen
Que, Paperback, Published August 2004, 887 pages, ISBN 0789732432
There are always more books to add. For example, we could get into RoboHelp X5 reference books (can't forget about online help and web help systems!) and a decent reference text for Adobe Acrobat with thorough PDF guidance for technical publishing.
Belkin Card Reader for iPod
Belkin advertises the card reader as being compatible with 3G iPods. We tried the card reader with a 4G 20GB and a 60GB iPod Photo and the card reader worked properly—the devices communicated with each other properly. Nonetheless, Belkin does not specifically advertise the card reader for connection with anything other than 3G iPods. Very exasperating! Here's the link to the Apple iPod Camera Connector.
Of course, the Belkin Card Reader will work only if you ensure that the media card you're trying to read is actually fully inserted into the device.
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