Equipment manual creation software

[bibleje]

Let me start by saying our company is on release 11 and I see no way of persuading them to upgrade at all.  I feel its going to take a major I.T. life changing event to get them to do so.  Using this software after being on 2017 also makes me feel like Trog the caveman as well.  With that said you see what I will be working with here.  I have been tasked to start putting together a manual for our products.  We manufacture attachments for excavators and wheel loaders.  I will certainly be incorporating exploded views of certain pieces of our products and BOMs as well.  My question at this point is what other software would someone suggest to incorporate the jpegs/pdfs I create in Inventor and all the other graphics I'll need to place into the manual.  Graphics such as CAUTION and HAZARD icons/text will need to be in this document as well.  I know that at some point I'll just have to get started and work my way thru the process but I'm also looking for pointers/suggestions from anyone that may be doing something similar.  I don't want to fall into a no win pitfall if I can help it.  Please just bring on the suggestions.  I welcome any and all input.

Thank you,

John E. Bible

[mcgyvr]

Inventor is the wrong software to use as the main content creation software for that type of documentation hands down..

Its fine to generate images/isometrics,etc.. of the actual models but do not use it to create the documentation like you are talking about..

Use Microsoft Word or Publisher or Adobe Illustrator or other document/content creation software from Adobe (framemaker is one I just ran across that may be worth looking into). Pagemaker, indesign,etc...

I use Word for all our product manuals because I have it and it works just fine for my needs..

[bibleje]

Totally agree with not using IV as the main software for sure.  But I do like the options you provide.  I find Word to be 'clunky'.  I cant simply place an image anywhere on a page because it seems to be bound by margins or page justification.  I am very interested in the other 2 suggestions.  Illustrator and Publisher.  In your opinion, of these 2 which one would you seriously consider?

In Him,

John

[-niels-]

We work with (Adobe) Illustrator and Indesign, they are not exactly the same type of software.

Indesign would be the better choice for page layout and manual creation.

Illustrator is a vector image program, which can help create the scalable images you need for use in Indesign.

I'm not familiar with Microsoft Publisher, so i can't comment on how it would compare to the Adobe software.

All i can say is that i agree with Word being "clunky" and that i love the precision of the Adobe software.

I think you'd best compare Publisher to Indesign, not to illustrator.

[bibleje]

Thank you very much for the input.  I'll take a look at Illustrator. 

In Him,

John E. Bible

[mcgyvr]

---

@bibleje wrote:

Totally agree with not using IV as the main software for sure.  But I do like the options you provide.  I find Word to be 'clunky'.  I cant simply place an image anywhere on a page because it seems to be bound by margins or page justification.  I am very interested in the other 2 suggestions.  Illustrator and Publisher.  In your opinion, of these 2 which one would you seriously consider?

In Him,

John

---

Yes I agree with niels in that indesign is the better program (but may be overkill IMO).

As far as Word/bound by margins comment...you can easily change that.. Right click on the image and see the "text wrapping" options.. 

[bibleje]

Thank you sir for this input as well.  I will take all into consideration and make a decision soon.  Thank you.

In Him,

John E. Bible

[jeremy_wasserstrass]

Where I work we use Tex Maker(LaTex editor) to make our equipment documentation. It is a very capable document creator the downside being that you need to use GIMP or Photoshop to edit your images.

[bibleje · Accepted solution]

Thank you sir.

In Him,

John E. Bible

[Anonymous]

Scribus is a nice open-source alternative to publisher...

https://www.scribus.net/

[bibleje]

Thank you for your response.