Best software for making manuals

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2005-03-19 12:04am

Just what the topic says. We're going to have to start making technical/instruction manuals for products we're developing at work, and I'd like to know what software comes recommended by the big giant heads here for this purpose. Cost isn't a strong issue (i.e. I'm not looking for freeware), but user-friendliness and functionality are. The manuals will be primarily text with graphics, and the graphics will be primarily from sources like Autodesk Inventor or photographs.

I stand ready to bask in your collective wisdom.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2005-03-19 09:08am

Framemaker is the king of structured document creation but is also very expensive. You could also use LaTeX (free) but that has a steeper learning curve.

sketerpot · Post by **sketerpot** » 2005-03-19 10:44am

phongn wrote:Framemaker is the king of structured document creation but is also very expensive. You could also use LaTeX (free) but that has a steeper learning curve.

If you decide to go with LaTeX, you can make it easier on yourself by using LyX. It runs on Linux and Mac OS X well, and on Windows usably. It's very nice, and well documented so you can get started quickly with it.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2005-03-19 12:01pm

Meh, I wasn't too impressed with LyX. Also, font-handling is something of a nightmare in LaTeX. You can do it but it takes a non-trivial amount of work.

General Brock · Post by **General Brock** » 2005-03-20 03:59pm

If this is just for in-house use, you might consider an older version of Adobe Pagemaker. There may be trouble with exotic fonts in versions 5.0 and up, because of a lawsuit brought by font manufacturers, but 4.0 is used by a print shop I go to. If you can already make PDFs, this might be an option. Pagemaker 6.52 includes the PDF Distiller.

SCRawl · Post by **SCRawl** » 2005-03-20 07:49pm

General Brock wrote:If this is just for in-house use, you might consider an older version of Adobe Pagemaker. There may be trouble with exotic fonts in versions 5.0 and up, because of a lawsuit brought by font manufacturers, but 4.0 is used by a print shop I go to. If you can already make PDFs, this might be an option. Pagemaker 6.52 includes the PDF Distiller.

This is actually for business use, and not by me. The company I work for (we make elevators) also employs someone who is a giant in this field (and has been for decades), and he'll be the one using the software. He is only a fair-to-middling computer user, though, hence the requirement for user friendliness.

Still, Pagemaker sounds like an idea. My personal preference is to let a professional do the layout once he's got the text, but since that costs money, I might get the thumbs down.