Category Archives: Mac

iMovie

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iMovie is a video editing software application available on Apple devices. It turns video clips into movies and trailers. Users can add special effects, captions, and still images to videos.

How it is useful to technical communicators:

Technical communicators can use iMovie to create videos for client websites, product tutorials, demos, or instructional videos.

Learn more:

iMovie is an application that comes installed on Mac computers. For mobile use, iMovie can be downloaded from the App Store.

Similar software:

Light works, Fantashow, Windows Movie Maker, Adobe After Effects

Camtasia

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Camtasia provides screen recording and video editing tools to create professional videos. You can record movements on the screen, or import existing video files to edit.

How it is useful to technical communicators:

Camtasia can be used for creating instructional videos.

Where you can learn more about it:

You can learn more about Camtasia and purchase the software through the TechSmith website.

Other software like it:

Jing, SnagIt

Audacity

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Audacity is free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds.

How it is useful to technical communicators:

Audacity can be used to add/edit audio when working on video assignments. It provides more audio manipulation techniques that are not available through video software.

Where you can learn more about it:

You can learn more about Audacity and download the software through the Audacity website.

Other software like it:

Adobe Audition

DITA

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DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is an XML markup language created by IBM and used by many technical communication groups.  DITA content is most often created as a task, concept, or reference topic.

How it is useful to technical communicators:

DITA is useful to technical writers and their businesses because it allows for single-sourcing and content reuse.  DITA also allows the writer to focus solely on the content as formatting is determined by the output format.

Where you can learn more about it:

What is DITA and why should you care?

Learn DITA on Your Own

Oasis

DITA Open Tool Kit (for creating DITA outputs)

Other software like it:

Adobe Framemaker

PureText

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PureText is a program which removes formatting from webpages and other documents to paste as plain text without going through Notepad.  This program does not install and is easily started from whereever the user has placed the file by double-clicking on the icon.

How it is useful to technical communicators:

Many a times we need to copy content and paste it to our workspace. In order to remove formatting we need to copy and paste it first to a notepad and then to our workspace. PureText saves this time. Instead of copying it on to another editor we can simply use a different key press combination to paste text which is cleared for formatting.

For applications like Microsoft Word an Adobe Framemaker, where formatting takes a little more time, PureText comes handy as it pastes content with the formatting style which exists on the line that it is pasted to.

Where you can learn more about it:

PureText

Other software like it:

Ditto
CopyQ