Top Technical Writing Blogs
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Word 2007: Using SEQ fields for numbering
There are a couple of ways you can set up Word 2007 to use SEQ fields for numbering — you can set them up as AutoCorrect entries or as Quick Parts. Both ways work; the method you choose is up to you. This long article describes how to create the...
For all the geeks, nerds, and science types out there, Popular Science magazine has now made available its entire 137-year’s worth of archives — for free. You can search away to your heart’s content here: http://www.popsci.com.au/archives [Link last checked March 2010] Filed under: Websites ...
Using graphics to convey an error message
I have occasionally purchased books from Fishpond.com.au, an online bookstore in Australia. Their standard logo includes a happy fish: However, their happy fish becomes a sad fish with a broken fishbowl if their site is down: I like this use of graphics to display the error. While such graphics may not be suitable...
Microsoft Ribbons and the like
Do you need to know the official terms that Microsoft uses for various parts of the recent Ribbon interfaces? Well, look no further than these resources: Office 2007 Ribbon features: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/FX102774021033.aspx Ribbons (in Windows): http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc872782.aspx (for developers but useful for the rest of us too) Windows 7 UX (user experience) Interaction Guidelines (for...
Looking at this map, it’s amazing to think that no-one’s thought of it before! What a clever, practical design — you start with your overview map, then fold out the sector you need for more details. So far, the Zoomable Map people (http://www.thezoomablemap.com/) only have a map of London, but I’m...
As I mentioned earlier, we’ve moved into a new house. A house with a reticulated garden. I’ve had reticulation before and the programmable controllers are a bit of a mystery — not at all helped by the invariably incomprehensible user manual that comes with them. This system is a Rain Dial...
HelpScribe
SEO for Technical Writers | Optimizing your content for search engines
Technical writers are seeing an increasing amount of their documentation move from print and local installation to online (server-based) formats. As your documents move online, you'll need to consider how to help your users find the information they need. Grab a fresh cup of coffee, this is a long and information-packed...
Technical writing | A dying field?
Over the last decade, the nature of my job has shifted considerably. I remember flipping through thousands of pages of proofs to make sure our user manuals were ready for the printer. Many hours went into these printed manuals, and piles of paper covered my desk on most days. Anyone who...
Standard operating procedures formats and template
The format of your standard operating procedures is very important. Because such documents coordinate tasks for critical operations, often across multiple units, they must be presented in a format that provides clarity and consistency. Uniformity of presentation allows for greater usability in crisis situations. The following guidelines will help you structure...
Screencasts are quickly becoming one of the primary instructional tools used to train people on developing software skills. Because they show actual screenshots of the software and how it is used, they make a great compliment to written documentation and cater to viewers with a preference for visual learning. A visual...
Screencasts 2.0 | How to create engagement and add integration
Slowly, but surely, statistics are emerging that show screencasts are a cost-effective and engaging way to provide instructional content. Now technical writers can focus on how to most effectively integrate screencasts into their documentation in an engaging manner. Video content seems to be very effective for grabbing and holding the attention...
When you write your next training manual, you may find it handy to have some examples to refer to. This post will serve as a repository for examples of training manuals. I will add to it as I find additional resources. Manuals and tutorials - High Tech Center Training Unit: A...
Computer Books / Human Readers
What Ed Emberley's Make a World Can Teach Every "How To" Author... the Illustrated Guide!
The sprightly Barnes Blog's writing advice robot vanquishes the shambling beast of boring technical books. It occurred to me this morning, as I lay unable to get back to sleep after my son woke for a feed, that Ed Emberley's drawing books are the perfect How To Cookbook. It just...
The Traffic Peak -- How To Prepare Your Tiny-Traffic Blog for an Unexpected Deluge
This is what my Google Analytics graph looks like for the last few days: (It's National Doodle Day here in the UK, so I'm hand illustrating my blog posts today.) An article that I'd written several weeks ago got onto the front page of Hacker News,...
Lots of people think they can't draw. Fact is, you probably can draw -- you simply don't draw. Most adults are scared of drawing -- if you overcome your fear and try to learn, you'll be amazed how quickly you can get the hang of it. I'm not talking about intricate stuff here....
Packt's World Book Day #Drupal Costume (pic for @infowonders @packtauthors @packtpub @ramoonus)
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Rare Gets New Birmingham Facility, Moves Toward Film-Like Staffing Model (via @gamasutra)
Packt is based in Birmingham. I wonder if I can find an excuse to go see these guys... they look fun: Microsoft-owned Rare is opening a second facility next month, launching Fazeley Studios in Digbeth, Birmingham to act initially as...
The 3 Kinds of Blog Post Worth Writing
If you want to get a lot of attention in return for your blogging time, I've found there are 3 types of post worth bothering with. They're quick to write, and they get a disproportionate response compared to other (more laborious) approaches. If you want to blog but...
ffeathers -- a technical writer's blog
We held a doc sprint and it was awesome
We’ve just held a “doc sprint”. We put twenty developers in a room for three days with some computers. And some chocolate. We didn’t know whether to expect some shiny new tutorials or the complete works of Shakespeare. Or perhaps a new motif for a chocolate wrapper. So, what did happen?...
Students requesting participants in survey of authoring tools
A student has posted a comment on my blog, asking for any technical writers who are willing to fill out a survey on authoring tools. The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete. I’ve filled it in and it seems harmless so I’m letting you know, in case...
Sharing responsibilities in agile technical writing
Recently we shuffled responsibilities in our technical writing team. Andrew Lui and I now share responsibility for a number of products and documentation sets, instead of each person “owning” separate products. I’m totally enjoying it, for a number of reasons. One of them is that Andrew is awesome! Another is...
Did you ever buy anything just because of the writing on the package?
Have you ever bought something purely because of what’s written on the package? Today I saw this small, medical-looking box in a store’s confectionery section: It’s a bar of chocolate! It was expensive and I already had a couple of bars in my basket. Even so, I bought it. Why? Because I...
Last week I wrote about getting started as a blogger. Now I’d like to tell you how I go about writing a blog post, in the hope that this will give you some tips on getting those blog posts written. While I was writing these two posts, the DMN guys published...
It’s a question often asked of us: “What does a technical writer do?” We tell people how to do technically complex things, mostly by writing instructions but also by drawing pictures and making movies. Want to know more? I’m impressed by the write-up in the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition, from...
2moroDocs
Twitter Hashtags: Which Ones to Use – and When
You’ve seen them on tweets, no doubt. The hashtags. They provide a way to group and organize tweets, to bring them front and center, and to enable one to participate in a discussion with the Twitter community at large. In case you’re wondering about using some, but not sure which, I’ve...
Two facts: we have to try and keep up with all the changes in IT, and we don’t have much time, if any, to do so. What can you do? Here are some ideas. They’ve been working well for me. Hopefully they will for you as well. Blogs Bloggers are out there...
5 Reasons to Write Procedures in Twitter
Recently, I’ve been exploring the need for writing procedures in real-time, focusing on Twitter in particular. This is the fourth post in the series. In my last post, I was asked by Larry Kunz in a comment for thoughts on situations in which one might write procedures in Twitter. Five...
Lessons Learned: Procedure Written in Twitter
Last week, I thought I’d experiment and write a quick procedure in Twitter. This goes right along with my thoughts that new methods should be used for creating docs. Given that microblogging is here to stay, as is real-time, I decided to give it a try. There were two main...
My First Procedure Written in Twitter
All I’ve been thinking about the past week, it seems, is real-time and how it affects docs. Yesterday I wrote a post about it. Today, I tested it out. I wrote a procedure in Twitter. Tech writers – take a look at it and let me know what you think. Tweets...
Real-time: it’s sooooo last second
Who has time to think? These days, actions do speak louder than words. The world has changed to an immediate, need-it-now mentality. Real-time is turning into all-the-time, and tech writers need to address it. Can’t ignore this one! The luxury of time is slipping away from us. Time to research. Time...
A Tech Writer's World
I recently attended an STC conference where one of the topics discussed was user-centred design. I met with usability experts and interaction designers whose sole job is ensuring that a product is intuitive and easy to use from a user's perspective, and not from the business's....
We all know (and love) our five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Apparently, these senses are not enough. Science, psychology, and the arts have been on the hunt for a sixth sense since the time people knew they had senses.Candidates for a sixth sense include:intuitionemotionintelligenceextra-sensory perception (ESP)equilibrioception -...
I admit I'm not a huge hockey fan. For me, the ability to insert a small, black plastic cylinder into a mesh just doesn't give me a warm fuzzy. However, even I have to admit it is remarkable that Canada won gold in both the men's and women's hockey at...
Karl Rabeder is an Austrian millionaire. But he's sad - so sad that he's giving away his entire $5 million fortune, to charity."My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing," he said. "Money is counterproductive --it prevents happiness."Karl continues: "For a long time I believed that more wealth...
Apple has given technical communicators a new mantra.The Apple slogan is: There's an app for that, to market the fact they have an app for everything and then some, for their ubiquitous iPod touch and iPhones.Our new slogan should be: There's a doc for that, to market the fact...
Tiger Woods has apologized for his behaviour.I'm also sorry.I'm sorry for all the trees that gave their lives so that user guides could live.I'm sorry for all the dumb questions I've asked SMEs over the years, just so our users wouldn't have to call tech support with those same...
EServer TC Library: Recent Additions
Technical writers need to be involved in the creation of usable error messages. After all, it’s the technical writer who is the first advocate for the customer in any technology company, and often, the last line of defense for quality. ...
Why the BlackBerry Still Trumps the iPhone in the Enterprise
I’ve used the BlackBerry and the iPhone on a regular basis, and I believe the BlackBerry continues to trump the iPhone in terms of its suitability in the enterprise. Here are three reasons why. Mah, Paul...
Ten Web Testing Questions that Matter
Visitors who are new to your site come with many questions and few answers. In a few moments they answer the questions to their satisfaction and move on or become your customer. ...
This article is for software developers who have never implemented context-sensitive help. It explains the concepts and the basic types of context-sensitive help. A demonstration application with context-sensitive help is available. ...
Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS)
The term Electronic Performance Support System first appeared in 1991. Although technology has changed, the original definition is useful. ...
Single Sourcing and Small Projects
Single sourcing is used successfully for large documentation projects thousands of pages or help topics. However, single sourcing is not useful for most small documentation projects. ...
Shanghai Tech Writer
The Bored Security Guard Outside Our Office
The Bored Security Guard Outside Our Office is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer The Bored Security Guard Outside Our Office is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Recent few weeks, security has tightened around the Shanghai office in light of all the news/media coverage regarding Google and China. There’s a security...
Dogfooding the Motorola XT800 Android Phone
Dogfooding the Motorola XT800 Android Phone is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Dogfooding the Motorola XT800 Android Phone is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Around Christmas time last year, all the Google employees in the U.S. and several other countries received a Nexus One Android phone to dogfood prior to...
The New Guanglan Road Subway Station Opens
The New Guanglan Road Subway Station Opens is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer The New Guanglan Road Subway Station Opens is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer After almost two weeks of construction, the new Guanglan subway station (Line 2) finally opened! The area around Guanglan station is still a big...
A Day in the Life of a Construction Worker in China
A Day in the Life of a Construction Worker in China is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer A Day in the Life of a Construction Worker in China is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Just read a translated article from ChinaHush about the life of a migrant construction worker in...
Being a Woman in a Male-Dominated Workplace
Being a Woman in a Male-Dominated Workplace is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Being a Woman in a Male-Dominated Workplace is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Here at the Google Shanghai office, the majority of engineers are men. I can count the number of female engineers with one hand! At...
Take a Nap inside a Google Pod to Boost Productivity
Take a Nap inside a Google Pod to Boost Productivity is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Take a Nap inside a Google Pod to Boost Productivity is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer When I was working at GooglePlex in Mountain View a few months ago, I saw these futuristic-looking pods...
Communications from DMN
10 usability questions that matter Anne Gentle talks about putting the user in user assistance 2010: the year of reinvention? (it’s a PDF file) Why the BlackBerry still trumps the iPhone in the enterprise Some interesting thoughts about writing error messages How to improve the appearance of your technical documentation Related posts:Weekly links roundup Weekly links roundup Weekly...
Posting will be practically non existent this week
It’s been … interesting. To say the least. Last week, Scott was laid out by the migraine from the lower depths. And Aaron was up to his forehead in many, many things. And that’s why you won’t be seeing any new posts in this space (beyond the weekly collection of links)...
Here’s a crash course in usability 10 mistakes you can make with XML Part one and part 2 of a really good article on virtualization Some lessons for the technical communicator here: why Web site microcopy matters 7 of the best Linux document processors Craig Haiss wonders if technical writing is a dying field Related posts:Weekly...
Last week, we wrote some thoughts about Ivan Walsh’s post “Who Makes The Most Money – Technical Writers with Strong Language or Deep Technical Skills?. A comment from Kai Weber got us thinking about this in a slightly different way. From Kai’s comment: As long as you’re personally not quite there yet,...
Some advice on using Twitter to boost your freelance business A PDF production handbook from Adobe (a PDF file, of course) How and why technical documentation is commonly used What have we forgotten about user assistance? A neat video showing how to use Google Docs for collaboration For the style guide junkies out there: the...
Recently, the ever-insightful Beijing-based technical writer Ivan Walsh tossed an interesting blog post to the Web titled “Who Makes The Most Money—Technical Writers with Strong Language or Deep Technical Skills?“. It wasn’t the salary part that interested us (although earning a good living is nice!). It’s the part about skills. A...
I'd Rather Be Writing - Tom Johnson
2. Sounding Natural [Developing a Personal Voice in Audio Series]
One of my goals in creating engaging video tutorials is to develop a warm, personable, natural voice, like the voice of an encouraging friend or mentor. In search of this more personable voice, last year I attended a voiceover workshop in my area. The voiceover coach explained that good voiceover artists...
1. Finding an Acoustic Environment [Developing a Personal Voice in Audio Series]
For several months I’ve been looking for a quiet room to record screencasts at my work. Our building has four floors for more than 600 IT professionals. I investigated more than 20 conference rooms, poked my head in empty offices, walked around unfamiliar floors, inquired here and there. When people see...
Developing a Personal Voice in Audio Series
At the upcoming STC Summit, I’m presenting a session called “Developing a Personal Voice in Audio.” In this presentation, I’ll explain how to “deliver video tutorials with a friendly, personable voice by implementing several audio techniques common to professional voice talents and sound engineers. One way I prepare for presentations is...
In an effort to give more visibility and exposure to the companies who advertise on my site, I’m providing a regular “Messages from the Sponsors” post. In this post, I asked my sponsors if they have any messages they would like me to share with my readers. Since it was...
Podcast: What’s New in Flare 6 — Interview with Mike Hamilton
Download MP3 Length: 45 min. Flare 6 is available today from Madcap Software. This weekend I interviewed Mike Hamilton, VP of Product Management, about the new features Flare 6 contains. In this podcast, we talk about five of the new features in Flare: Batch processing GUI and macro targets Topic metadata (e.g., owner, status) The...
Podcast: Documentation in the Cloud
Download MP3 Length: 80 min. In this podcast, Michael Hiatt at mashstream.com presents to the STC Intermountain chapter on documentation in the cloud. By documentation in the cloud, he’s referring to our move to the web of everything we do on the computer — the running of applications, the saving of our...
Metalique
We have had a wonderful experience blogging all through this year. Even though we have had some rough times when our systems crashed and we were not able to blog for a long time, we got back up and started blogging again. Wee would like to thank a few people...
It seems as if new real time web start-ups are popping up each day. The reason for this is that Internet users have begun to show an affinity for real time data. In the past, search engines would show static search results based on relevancy. Today, users can find out...
Top 15 must follow Search Engine Optimization Blogs
Every one wants to learn and optimize their blogs and website and rank better on search engines. What better than following some of the top 15 blog that we consider the best in providing information on Search Engine Optimization. Be it an e-commerce website or an information blog or a...
AWESOME 18×24” Rolled Poster Print giveaway from LargeFormatPosters.com
Thanks to LargeFormatPosters.com for offering Metalique and my blog readers an opportunity to win an AWESOME 18×24” Rolled Poster Print. It even gets better, this giveaway is a 100% FREE GIVEAWAY. That’s right! No shipping or handling fees will be charged to claim prizes for this week’s Giveaway. Awesome isn’t...
21 top blogs that inspired me to blog
Three years ago, I was not aware of something called blogging. But today, I’m blogging and also making money doing so. I’ve learnt a lot and am still learning and find it interesting. The process of making money makes the process of blogging much more interesting. Today I’m sharing with...
Greet your visitors with a Welcome message – WP Greet Box
Welcoming a visitor as they enter is a good habit and also creates a positive feel. Always wanting to greet my site visitors, I stumbled upon WP Greet box a Plug-in that greets visitors for you. It’s simple and easy to install. This is plug-in is built on WordPress CMS...
Anything Tech
Now, the technological age has begun. In the past few years technology has taken a major leap. Nowerdays a lots of home improvement gadgets have made life simpler and easier. Such as the Automatic washing machine, dishwasher, vacuum cleaner, LCD TV, Plasma, High defination HD TV, laptops, netbooks, digital camera, microwave...
The revolution of the Compact Disk
The compact disk, commonly known as CD, is an optical disk used to store digital data. It was originally invented to only hold audio but later on it can store video, software, text, and graphics. The compact disk contains transparent coating, which allows information to be received from a laser...
Microsoft and Apple have been in competition since Bill Gates and Steve Jobs shared a dorm room together. The advance in technology is directly due to their battle for market share. Out of their rivalry the computer was born and the lap top later on. The newest gadgets are cell...
Virtual Reality: The Techno Trend
(Enter the dream world of virtual reality—find yourself in a different world—very much like what you see in a video game. But this is different. You are inside the game yourself.) Imagine this. You put on goggles on your eyes. Then you wear a glove on your right hand. The goggles...
External Terabyte Hard Drives - The Perfect Solution to Storage Aches and Pains
Most people like to keep things. Whether we are organized about it or not, many of us find it hard to part with souvenirs, mementos, photographs, magazines… items that may have a sentimental meaning but that also take up space that may be at a premium. We don’t all have...
The Apple Laptop Family Affair
Apple’s laptop family constitute the mac pro, mac mini, macbook, macbook pro, macbook air and the imac. In normal circumstances, the computer is manufactured by one company and all the software that run on it including the operating system is built by another. Mac laptop’s come with one of the...
Your Writing Dept Blog
Technical Writer ranks No. 13 with top jobs for 2010
According to an analysis conducted by CareerCast.com, the job of Technical Writer ranks as one of the best jobs to have in 2010. For the complete list of the top 20 best and the top 20 worst jobs, see the Reuters article. Top Jobs for 2010: Actuary Software engineer Computer systems analyst Biologist Historian Mathematician Paralegal assistant Statistician Accountant Dental hygienist Philosopher Meteorologist Technical...
Web site, web site or website? A quick poll.
Time for a quick poll. Which is your preference? Web site (W in caps) web site (w in lower) website (w in lower and one word) Respond with your preference and explanation, and I will compile the results. Your Writing Dept is a Sacramento-based writing firm that specializes in developing technical manuals and user guides....
Quick Reference Guides are more useful than a 150-page user doc
By Ron Creel Tom Johnson’s blog, I’d Rather Be Writing, posted Minimizing Documentation not a moment too soon. I’m working on a project to boil a 150-page software user document down to a one-page reference guide that can be tacked to a CSR’s cube wall. Our goal with the one-page reference guide...
More InfoPorn: Our new favorite site
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I love InfoPorn. This is what we consider the presentation of what could be considered dull information in interesting and fascinating presentations. Trust me, these are not your typical MS Excel bar charts. The site Information is Beautiful seems to have it...
Technical Writing Jobs: Salary Information
Interesting reading: United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) (free and available to the public) about how technical writers are paid. This provides some interesting reading for anyone wishing to determine where their state ranks regarding salaries or job availability. There’s a lot of information available,...
Where To Go To Become a Tech Writer or To Find One To Hire?
By Tom Guarnera Related posts… How Do I Become a Technical Writer? What Are the Characteristics of a Good Technical Writer? Finding a single place to learn about Technical Writing is not the easiest task. Because of this, it is even trickier to find a good source for locating potential candidates for the job....
Just Write Click
Respondents needed for user research authoring-tools
Today’s post is from four graduate students from communication and information sciences at Radboud University in the Netherlands. If you work, or ever worked, with Author-it, RoboHelp, MadCap Flare or Help&Manual, we hope that you are willing to participate in user research. You can participate by responding to all answers in...
Content tidbits from a Community Roundtable report
I’m reading (with vigor!) the The State of Community Management Report: Best Practices from Community Practitioners from the Community Roundtable, and finding so many wonderful tips about content from people who are community managers. I had to start a list of items that are relevant to technical communication and web writing...
Google Analytics: Learning about Conversions at their University
I can’t help but admire the design of Google’s Conversion University for learning Google Analytics. They’ve built presentations with voiceovers that alternate between a male narrator and a female narrator. Most lessons are about 3 minutes to 7 minutes long, and I am learning as I go in a...
I’ve put together a Facebook page for my book, Conversation and Community. I’ve had requests for a place for people to talk about the ideas in the book, and after talking it over with others, I settled on Facebook as a good place to bring together all the different sorts...
DITA for Publishers with Eliot Kimber
For this month’s Central Texas DITA User Group meeting we played host to Eliot Kimber. I took some scattered notes, mostly jotting down the great phrases Eliot handed out while nodding and chuckling. He’ll be doing this presentation as a webinar for Really Strategies, Inc. on March 10th, and you can...
I’m late to write up my thoughts on Gordon Mclean’s post, Strange Bias, but I give him a belated thumbs up for great self-inspection and data query in the post. My take? I read ““Why James Chartrand Wears Women’s Underpants” on Copyblogger in December. It’s a great survivor story that...
TVGuide.com: Breaking News
Guy Fieri on Why He Was Born to Host Minute to Win It
Food Network star Guy Fieri is known for his signature bleach blond hair and his skills in the kitchen. But above all, he's known for his high-octane energy which makes Fieri a perfect match for NBC's new game show Minute to Win It (premiering Sunday at 7/6c). In fact, Fieri...
Celebrity Apprentice's Bret Michaels Faces Biggest Challenge Yet: Donald Trump's Boardroom
Bret Michaels has performed in front of thousands of screaming fans, night after night, for more than twenty years, and proudly put his crazy love life on national television. But the Poison lead singer says nothing has been more nerve-wracking than Donald Trump's boardroom. "I never sweated as much as I...
Demi Lovato Admits to Dating Joe Jonas, Well, Sort Of
Is Demi Lovato dating a Jonas brother? Umm...Lovato, 17, was cagey when asked by Billy Bush, but it sounds like yes. "Umm, maybe," Lovato... Read More > Other Links From TVGuide.com Demi LovatoJoe JonasCamp Rock ...
Prosecutor Links Haim Prescription to Illegal Drug Ring
California investigators have linked a drug prescription belonging to the late Corey Haim to a "massive" illegal prescription drug ring, state Attorney General Jerry Brown said. "Corey Haim's death is yet another tragedy linked to the growing problem of prescription drug abuse," Brown said in a statement. "This problem is increasingly...
Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jamie Kennedy Split
Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jamie Kennedy's relationship has moved to the afterlife. The Ghost Whisperer co-stars have split... Read More > Other Links From TVGuide.com Jamie KennedyJennifer Love HewittGhost Whisperer ...
Bachelorette's Jillian Harris on Fiance Ed: "I Forget We Met in Such a Bananas Way"
Bachelorette Jillian Harris swore she'd never do television again, but as soon as Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sun, 8/7c, ABC) came knocking, she immediately went back on her word. As a restaurant designer, Harris fit right in with the crew, hanging up pictures and even digging out trenches. The now-engaged...