Byrd Writes Communications, as a service to the help authoring community, provides links to these additional resources.

  • Society for Technical Communications, the professional organization for technical communicators.
  • American Society of Indexers, the only professional organization in the United States solely devoted to the advancement of indexing, abstracting, and database building.
  • HTML Writers Guild, the world's largest international organization of Web authors with over 123,000 members in more than 150 nations worldwide. The Guild has both trial (free) and regular memberships.

Listservers

The following listservers provide a lively community of experts willing to provide answers, moral support, and a sense of community, especially for those working in isolated environments.

Help Authoring Tools

This is not a comprehensive list of help authoring tool vendors. We have included the ones we feel provide the most information and support concerning the development of online help.

  • Adobe, maker of FrameMaker, RoboHelp, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, and graphics packages used by both help authors and web developers as well as documentation specialists.
  • AuthorIT, makers of AuthorIT, a powerful collaborative authoring environment. All your authors and contributors work together from the same single source database to create and maintain consistent, quality documentation.
  • Component One, makers of Doc-To-Help, provides information about the Component One family of products, support options, and a knowledge base.
  • Madcap, maker of Madcap Flare, Mimic, Captivate, and Echo, all tools used by help authors.
  • Virtual Media Technology, makers of HDK (Hypertext Development Kit), provides information on single-source online solutions, their product lines, and the support services and options.

Training and Information Resources

  • The Paul Neshamkin Group, the home ofhelpauthors.com, has online documentation experts specializing in developing HTML Help and Windows Help solutions for large and small businesses. They do consulting and training in Doc-To-Help.
  • Helpful Solutions provides consultation and custom software development services for Online Help authors and application developers.
  • HyperTrain dot Com, a San Diego-based firm specializing in training and consulting for technical writers who develop Help files, User Assistance pages, Web sites, and other hypertext systems.
  • Hyper/Word Services specializes in expert training, consulting, and development for Windows Help, HTML Help, and general online documentation.
  • Knopf Online is a leading provider of training and consulting services for the high-tech industry in the San Francisco, Chicago, and Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan areas. The site contains helpful hints, tips and workarounds for technical communicators.
  • Peter Gainge's Site has a wide variety of tips and information related not just to help authoring, but technical writing.
  • RoboWizard, Rick Stone's site contains useful information regarding using RoboHelp and other Adobe products.
  • Sageline Publishing contains articles and white papers pertaining to online help development, and provides RoboHelp training and links to additional resources.
  • Shadow Mountain Tech contains all sorts of goodies for help authors, from links for rare and out of print books, to handy tips for help authors.
  • Work Write, Inc. specializes in the design and development of integrated user assistance and training for documentation development tools.