Tools for Technical Communicators Save time and have fun doing it! Free tools and some COTS.

Clipname Shell extension for Windows Explorer Copy the UNC path to the clipboard. Copy filename and path to clipboard Copy filename/s to clipboard

Bulk Rename Utility Stand alone program – integrates into Windows Explorer Change file name case Replace characters Number/renumber files Remove characters Add/remove file extensions.

Agent Ransack/File Locator Lite Search for files on local machine or network Search for text in files Supports Office formats, text, PDF. Search with wildcards Boolean searches AND, OR, NOT Regular expressions Stand alone program – integrates into Windows Explorer

Notepad ++ Stand-alone program – supports plug-ins Copy text into other applications without formatting, supports drag-and-drop into Framemaker MDI - multi-document interface Add line numbers. Find and replace in files/folders Run macros and save them Color code samples

Throwback Thursday What is this?

Regular expression search. Notepad ++ View non-printing characters Extended search CSS and code editor – Syntax coloring and code folding

JPdfBookmarks Java program Edit PDF bookmarks without the full version of Acrobat.

Paint.NET Bitmap editor Supports transparency. Standard image editing tools, including layers, history MDI interface with icons on tabs Stand-alone program – supports plug-ins

Inkscape Vector graphics editor SVG file format. Stand-alone program – supports Add-ins

Inkscape

Fiddler Fiddler is a free web debugging proxy which logs all HTTP(s) traffic between your computer and the Internet. Use it to debug traffic from virtually any application that supports a proxy like IE, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and more. Use this to debug your online help on your web server.

Microsoft Word Customize it! Learn how styles work Learn how templates work Learn Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). COTS

Choosing a tool Word or FrameMaker ? Flare or Robohelp? CMS A or CMS B?

1.Make a list of requirements 2.Rank your requirements Required = 3 Useful = 2 Nice to have = 1 3.Make a matrix to compare your options 4.Account for incidentals Ex. Does the CMS require an Oracle database? Cost prohibitive? 5.Expertise required? Is open source software really free? 6.What is the learning curve? 7.Hire a consultant?

Why did Star Wars episodes 4, 5, and 6 come before 1, 2, and 3 Because in charge of scheduling, Yoda was!

Links Clipname: Bulk File Rename Utility and manual: Agent Ransack: NotePad++: Notepad++ Cheat sheet: JPdfBookmarks: Paint.NET: Fiddler: Inkscape: