Free Alternatives to Expensive Technical Writing Software

One of the most difficult things about being or becoming a technical writer is learning and becoming skilled at all of the different software tools that technical writers use. It wasn't just that they took a lot of time to learn, it was that they cost so much money. The three most commonly used software tools--Adobe FrameMaker, Adobe PhotoShop, and RoboHelp--combined will cost close to $2000.00.

But, where there's a will there's a way. There are a multitude of free--or open-souce--alternatives to those costly tools technical writers absolutely need to know when going on the job market. I've compiled a list of these alternatives and included outside reviews of the software tools and links to the tools themselves. Before moving on though, some have asked me whether or not it's really worth it to learn a tool different than the actual tool they may be using in the workplace.

My answer is yes, it is, because transferring the knowledge from one type software to another software isn't the difficult part, its learning the knowledge domains in the first place. For example, once you learn how to drive one car you can probably drive different cars. Sure, the knobs may be in different places, and they may call different features by different names, but you already know how to drive it, and that's the most important part.

So, below is the list of free alternatives to expensive software that technical writers use.

Gimp: Simply put, technical writers need to understand how to manipulate images. The most used graphics software is Adobe Photoshop, but the retail version (now bundled into the Creative Suite line) costs over $700.00. Gimp, however, is the best free alternative because it retains the same functionality as PhotoShop, and when you learn it on Gimp, you can do it on PhotoShop.

From osalt.com
Among its features you find: powerful painting tools, layers and channels support, multiple undo/redo, editable text layers. Gimp as a plug-in architecture and a scripting engine that allow easy extension of it's functionality. More than a 100 plug-ins and scripts are already available. Also Gimp imports files from Photoshop (psd) and can also read scalable vector graphics (svg) files.

Dia: Technical writers are increasingly using Microsoft's Visio to create flow-charts, especially of various processes. This is really common in the software industry. Dia presents perhaps the best alternative to buying Visio. And after learning on Dia, moving to Visio shouldn't be a problem.

From osalt.com
Dia is designed to be much like the commercial Windows program 'Visio'. It can be used to draw many different kinds of diagrams. It currently has special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flow charts, network diagrams, and simple circuits. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of SVG to draw the shape.

OpenOffice Writer 2.4: Part of the OpenOffice Suite of tools, this is an important component for someone who can't afford MS Word. Many technical writers simply use MS Word as their primary word processing system. What's important for technical writers to learn is how to create styles. Actually, it's not so much learning how to do it, but what it means to create styles: what are they, how are they used, etc.

From osalt.com
Its a full featured word processor with all of the advanced features found in commercial word processors. Also Writer exports directly to HTML or PDF for use on websites - or just for e-mailing without loss of layout or design and while staying compatible with the receiver's software solutions.

HelpMaker: RoboHelp is one of the most expensive software tools technical writers work with, yet writers--especially those in the technology fields--will need to be familiar with creating online help documentation. HelpMaker is the only open-source alternative to commercial online help sofware that I've found. Most importantly through learning HelpMaker, technical writers will learn many of the fundamentals important to creating online help files.

Wink: Screencasting software, such as Adobe Captivate and TechSmith's Camtasia, are becoming increasingly popular for creating tutorials, especially software tutorials. Essentially, these software tools create a movie from what occurs on the computer's screen. But more than that, they can combine your voiceover instruction, a video of you (for creating training modules), and text to reinforce the oral instruction. Wink is a free--and quality--alternative to these expensive systems.