Monday, June 11, 2018

Technical Writing Tools: The Ultimate Choice of 83 Experts (2018 UPDATE) by Ferry Vermeulen



Over 80 Techcomm experts reveal their favourite technical writing tools. Every technical writer knows it: writing user manuals requires many,many skills. Sadly, not all writers make use of available software tools (maybe there are just too many types of authoring tools to choose from, or often the learning curve can be quite challenging).

However, there are also people that USE awesome technical writing tools to create better content, run a successful business or to support them in a successful career.
I gathered over 80 industry experts and asked them just one question:
If you could use just three technical writing tools in your company, which ones should you use (in the technical writing tools definition, standards and other helpful attributes are included)?

Let me tell you, the insights I received from these more than 70 established techcomm experts were nothing short of amazing. I have listed all of them below. It includes methods, standards, ‘standard’ authoring software, web authoring tools, multimedia authoring tools et cetera.

I hope this post will be of great value for all new to techcomm or for those wanting to broaden their horizon.

Here is the link to scroll through all the tech expert's recommendations.


Ferry Vermeulen 
Founder and director of business development at INSTRKTIV GmbH. After first starting his own industrial design agency back in 2006, Ferry co-founded the company Manualise in 2009. In 2015 Ferry started INSTRKTIV. INSTRKTIV helps brands and organisations create their user manuals and technical documentation. By the strong focus on both usability and liability, clients like Electrolux, Lidl, AkzoNobel, AEG, Skil and Scheider-Electric are part of his portfolio.

Ferry's Top 3 technical writing tools:

Ferry's explanation:
Solidworks Composer: The only powerfool tool to create userfriendly images in my opinion.
Madcap Flare: A user friendly CMS from a brilliant company that has never let me down.

The IEC 82079-1:2012: The international standard for User Instructions. 
User Manual Templates: These templates help to create compliant manuals for Machinery, Medical Devices, Toys and Electronics for the EU marketThe international standard for User Instructions. 

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