Documentation tools
by Mike Stoddart · in General Discussion · 07/02/2002 (5:17 pm) · 11 replies
What alternatives are there to using Word for creating documentats in a team environment? It would be on a Windows platform.
I know that Word is used by pretty much everyone (near enough), but there are different versions and someone people who view the documentation may not have it installed.
I thought of PDF, but I don't know what is needed to create them (is it free?) and people need to install software to view the document. Although I do personally like PDFs.
I could use HTML, but creating and maintaining the formatting would require too much work.
So what else is there?
I know that Word is used by pretty much everyone (near enough), but there are different versions and someone people who view the documentation may not have it installed.
I thought of PDF, but I don't know what is needed to create them (is it free?) and people need to install software to view the document. Although I do personally like PDFs.
I could use HTML, but creating and maintaining the formatting would require too much work.
So what else is there?
#2
Acrobat is the program to make .pdf files and it's not free, only the reader is, so your stuck in the same problem as with .doc's.
Alc
07/02/2002 (7:20 pm)
Windows comes with WordPad which can open Word 6.0 documents. Just be sure to save it in that format from Word.Acrobat is the program to make .pdf files and it's not free, only the reader is, so your stuck in the same problem as with .doc's.
Alc
#3
07/02/2002 (7:33 pm)
Greg, I thought that was the case with PDFs. I'd forgotten that Wordpad can read Word documents. Thanks for your help folks.
#4
If you make a common stylesheet, maintaining html can be pretty ok.
07/03/2002 (4:22 pm)
Staroffice!!! or OpenOffice!!!If you make a common stylesheet, maintaining html can be pretty ok.
#5
-Tim aka Spock
07/03/2002 (4:30 pm)
Openoffice.org can read and write MS word docs...and Openoffice.org is free and less of a memory footprint than MS word.-Tim aka Spock
#6
07/03/2002 (4:42 pm)
I ditched MS Office and switched to OpenOffice.org. The downside is the latter takes quite a bit of time to open up.
#9
07/03/2002 (6:03 pm)
Is there a big difference between StarOffice and OpenOffice?
#10
Rob
07/23/2002 (12:28 am)
Hey what about MikTeX. For windows users and latex for every body else.. It is free. and you can make PDF, Postscript, RTF, HTML. and its free. It is a little difficult to figure out how to use it but once you get started there is no going back. It is based on the theory What You Get Is what you Mean. There is alot of support for in on the web just google Latex.Rob
#11
There are toolsets out there that let you create one set of data files that can be exported as PDF, HTML, plain text, and much much more. I'd strongly suggest using that as your documentation format (and distributing docs intended for on-computer viewing as HTML. There's nothing I hate more than loading Word for a stupid readme - not only can it be a potential security hole, but it seems unprofessional to me, too.)
Here's one (it does HTML, LaTeX, RTF, more, is free, too):
http://www.maplefish.com/todd/aft.html
DocBook is supposedly very good, too:
http://docbook.org/
http://www.dpawson.co.uk/docbook/reference.html - a FAQ
If you want to write nice documentation, you'll have to expend some effort - good docs don't write themselves.
A (human) editor could be of inestimable value.
07/23/2002 (1:24 pm)
Yes...There are toolsets out there that let you create one set of data files that can be exported as PDF, HTML, plain text, and much much more. I'd strongly suggest using that as your documentation format (and distributing docs intended for on-computer viewing as HTML. There's nothing I hate more than loading Word for a stupid readme - not only can it be a potential security hole, but it seems unprofessional to me, too.)
Here's one (it does HTML, LaTeX, RTF, more, is free, too):
http://www.maplefish.com/todd/aft.html
DocBook is supposedly very good, too:
http://docbook.org/
http://www.dpawson.co.uk/docbook/reference.html - a FAQ
If you want to write nice documentation, you'll have to expend some effort - good docs don't write themselves.
A (human) editor could be of inestimable value.
Torque 3D Owner Phil Carlisle
In that way, ANYONE could view it. Of course they couldnt alter it.
Alternatives? try staroffice?
Phil.