I'm going to a mini-high school reunion this weekend, so I'll admit to being a little nostalgic about the good ole days. In remembering my salad days, one thought led to another, and I’ve been thinking about all the changes I’ve seen in the technical documentation / editing / technical illustration / training fields over my career.
When I started in the business a million years ago, there were distinct and separate job classifications in our industry: writer, editor, technical typist, technical illustrator, training specialist, trainer.
As a technical editor a million years ago, I edited (red-lined) hardcopy documents and then passed the paper documents along to the technical typists to input my changes. In fact, I didn’t type at all. Very few true desktop publishing programs were available then, and they certainly weren’t mainstream. Now editors input changes online and, to stay in the game, must know several sophisticated DTP programs very well, including ever-changing versions of Word, FrameMaker, and InDesign.
What changes have you seen during your career? I realize I’m (ahem) experienced, but I can’t be the only one? Right?
