Resources for Technical Communicators
Here are resources for technical writers such as online dictionaries, encyclopedias, and copyright guidelines. See software for tecnical communicators for software listings.Online Dictionaries, Thesauruses, Encyclopedias
- Hypertext Webster Gateway at UCSD. Provided by the University of California at San Diego.
- WWWebster Dictionary. Provided by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
- Roget's Thesaurus Search. Provided by the ARTFL Project at the University of Chicago.
- Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus. Presented by Robert Parks and the ARTFL Project at the University of Chicago.
- Roget's Internet Thesaurus. Type in a word and see synonyms, antonyms, and great quotations.
- Free Internet Encyclopedia. Created and maintained by Clif Davis and Margaret Adamson Fincannon, MLS. Contains a MicroReference, an alphabetically arranged set of links to information, and a MacroReference, a thematic arrangement with an index.
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing. Searchable dictionary of acronyms, jargon, programming languages, tools, architectures, operating systems, networking, theory, mathematics, telecoms, institutions, companies, projects, products, history, in fact anything to do with computing. Maintained by Denis Howe as a free service to the Internet community.
Weights, Measures, and Conversion
- Common Weights and Measures. Provided by the UC Berkeley College of Chemistry, mathematical notation for orders of magnitude, metric prefixes, common U.S. and metric equivalents. (Not sure how many zeroes in a petabyte?)
- EARDC's Unit Conversion Page. Find out how many Ångströms are in an inch! (From the Edwards Aquifer Research and Data Center [EARDC] at Southwest Texas State University.)
Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents
- Communication/Copyright Law and Ethics. A collection of links to information about copyright (for both conventional print and online documents). Provided by the Department of Rhetoric at the University of Minnesota.
- Seamless Website - Law and Legal Resources. Of interest to lawyers, legal professionals, law students, business persons, consumers, and anyone who is seeking legal and law-related information.
Writing Resources
- Elements of Style. The 1918 version made available by Project Bartleby and Columbia University.
- Common Errors in English. A dictionary-style resource in which you can check the usage on fulsome or the difference between nauseous and nauseated. Also contains discussions of non-errors such as split infinitives, ending a sentence with a preposition, beginning a sentence with a conjunction, between vs. among, who vs. that, hopefully, off of, and none as singular or plural noun.
- The Curmudgeon's Sylebook. A good dictionary-style listing of usage rules provided by Bill Walsh and The Slot: A Spot for Copy Editors.
Special Characters, Graphics, Icons & Clipart
- Computer Graphics Hot-List. Click on Links and then on Computer Graphics Hot-List for an in interesting list of computer-graphics resources from Algorithm, Incorporated.
- Resources for Icons, Images, and Graphics. Provided by Aphids Communications, a collection of resources for finding or learning how to use graphics on web pages. Included links to references, tools, and other image indexes.
- HTML Coded Character Set. From the Hypertext Markup Language, version 2.0.
- Clipart Collection. From the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, thousands of images, with a search mechanism for finding the ones you need.
- Clipart Sources. Links to dozens of clipart and icon resources, including tools to create or edit graphics.
SGML & XML Resources
- Robin Cover's SGML Home Page. General introducton to SGML; survey of interesting SGML projects; review of SGML software; links to SGML workshops, tutorials, conferences, news, bibliography.
- SGMLOpen's Home Page. An SGML site provided by OASIS, a non-profit, international consortium of users and suppliers whose products and services support SGML and XML.
- SGML on the Web. SGML resources on the Web, including FTP sites, tutorials, and demonstrations.
- SGML University. A source for education and training on SGML and related standards, and the tools that support them; founded to meet the educational needs of electronic publishing professionals.
- What Is XML? Provided by the Graphics Communication Asociation, a good site with information on XML and links to related sites.
- XML Resources for Publishing Applications. ArborText's resources for XML, including introductions, technical discussions, and applications.
Multimedia
- Index to Multimedia Information Sources. A large list of resources maintained by Simon Gibbs and Gabor Szentivanyi and sponsored by the German National Research Center for Information Technology.
- ACM SIGMM Home Page. The Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group for Multimedia.
HTML Resources
- Web Authoring Tools. Excite's survey of software that facilitates creating and editing web pages as well as mainaining web sites.
- Virtual Library of WWW Development. A huge collection of information and links relating to all things Web: CGI, forms, databases, imagemaps, JavaScript, validation, animation, and more.
- WWW & HTML Developer's JumpStation. Documentation on the World Wide Web and HTML.
WinHelp Resources
- Help University. A group of training, consulting, and management professionals serving the community of WinHelp and HTML developers and their clients. Facilitates learning and networking among online communications developers specializing in WinHelp and Web-based information through its Web site, conferences, and HelpNet courses.
- Hyperact WinHelp Resources. Basic information Helps plus links to other information, resources, and products.
- Windows Help Internet Resources. Software gallery and links to other information and resources.
- Help Authoring Tools. A survey of front-running help-authoring software with links to the producers.
- WinHelp World Web Page Mainained by Paul Arnote, a WinHelp website with resources, links, and software gallery.
- WINHLP-L Mailing List Archive. A listserv discussion group for people who author Windows Help files. See also the WINHLP-L Mailing List Home Page.
General Resource & Resource Collections
- Resources for Scientific and Technical Writers. Provided by Inkspot, links to related associations, publications, and directories, essays and articles, general interest items, mailing lists, and newsgroups.
- Writer's Tools -- Must-Haves for Technical Communicators. Listings and descriptions of hardware and software, plus links to the manufacturers.
- PubsNet's Authoring & Graphics Tool Box. HTML, SGML, multimedia, PDF tools for technical writers.
- TECHWR-L Mailing List Archive. Check the archives of the TECHWR-L mailing list for discussions of desktop-publishing, help-authoring, SGML, encryption and other software.
- Mixed Reviews@Chorus. Mixed Reviews@ Chorus offers reviews of software such as SoftQuad's Author/Editor and Panorama, Corel WordPerfect Suite 8, Director 6, and Photoshop.
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