What writers do
One of the things that most tech writers say in a job interview is that they are very good at learning new systems. That's part of what makes them a tech writer - they try out the system, understand it, then write about it for all the other people who need to know it, using proper grammar, of course.
So what do you expect when a new help authoring tool comes on to the market? Does an authoring tool need a help file? Can the tech writers who want to use it just use their super-hero style abilities to learn the new system quickly by trial and error?
Ah, yes, it does, and no, they can't.
What writers use
I have recently had the pleasure of moving from RoboHelp to Flare (where recent is about 18 months). There were a number of technical reasons and a number of support issues for the move - all have been discussed at length by others elsewhere. I am one writer in a group of 5, all with RoboHelp experience, and all with extensive Word experience. There is a smattering of Framemaker, PDF, HDK in amongst our collective resumes as well.
How do they learn
So what did we, the team and I, do to get up to speed on this new authoring tool?
