John There are a reasonable number of techwriters associated with the defence industry where we certainly document physical systems and equipment, although if my company is any indication, our Defence clients are increasingly interested in having the documentation delivered electronically to the end users. That is certainly the case with ships and submarines, and even the Army may go down that path for its armoured vehicles. However, even though our products are delivered electronically, in most cases we still follow the structure of paper documents as a model, but requirements interactive electronic technical manuals are definitely going to become more common in the future. As you would probably know, the heavy engineering industry (i.e., power stations, chemical plants, etc. also have similar documentation requirements. However, for whatever reason, technical writers in the defence and heavy engineering disciplines are not heavily represented in the forum - perhaps because their jobs are more stable and inward focussed than the jobs of those writing help systems for computer software. The latter are frequently on the Web for all kinds of good reasons. In some cases the former won't even have on-the-job access to the Web. Anyway, welcome aboard. Bill Hall Documentation Systems Analyst Head Office, Engineering Tenix Defense Williamstown, Vic. 3016 Phone: 03 9244 4820 Email:bill (dot) hall (at) tenix (dot) com URL: http://www.tenix.com Honorary Research Fellow Knowledge Management Lab School of Information Management & Systems Monash University Caulfield East, Vic. 3145 Phone: 03 9903 1883 Email: william (dot) hall (at) sims (dot) monash (dot) edu (dot) au URL: http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/km/ =20 -----Original Message----- From: John Bennett [mailto:john@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Wednesday, 29 October 2003 1:56 PM To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: atw: New Subscriber Saying Hello Are there any other writers out there who are still involved in mostly paper based operating, maintenance, and training style documentation for mechanical, electrical, or electronic systems and equipment? Surely there is still a need for this type of documentation and writers with the technical knowledge and background! John ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ************************************************** ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************