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Guest post on editing efficiently with Microsoft Word
Scott Nesbitt, one of the guys at DMN Communications in Toronto, Canada asked me to write a guest post for their blog. I decided to write one on editing efficiently with Microsoft Word, as that’s where my work focus has been for the past year or so. My guest post...
Screen capture tools have improved outta sight since I first started using the PrintScreen key and Windows Paint! My next step was to use PaintShop Pro v4 (!) to capture and manipulate screen shots. But even with PaintShop Pro, capturing screens for display in user documentation or web pages was...
Browser support for HTML5 and CSS3
As HTML5 and CSS3 support grows, you might need to know which browsers support the various new features. While there are many tables that give this information in text form (see http://caniuse.com/ for an example), some of you might find that a graphic explains it better. The screen shot below...
Word 2007: Taming multilevel list numbering
I think I’ve finally figured out how to get proper multilevel numbering happening in Word 2007! A client called me in desperation — they had an employment contract with multilevel numbering, but somewhere along the way the numbering got screwed. Instead of 12 followed by 12.1, 12.2, 12.3 etc. they...
… that their discovery will be available commercially in <insert time period here>, here’s what they really mean: (from XKCD: http://xkcd.com/678/) [Link last checked June 2010] Filed under: Humor...
(from XKCD: http://xkcd.com/664/) [Link last checked June 2010] Filed under: Humor...
EServer TC Library: Recent Additions
I can’t remove all the scariness from the process, but here are some tools for navigating through it. Ask the following questions, and you’ll be more likely to have a good experience with a freelance writer. Kerschbaum, Bill...
Visio Power Tips #11: Rotate, Change & Flip Text
How to add, change, flip and control the text in your diagrams. For example, if you have a lot of shapes in the same flowchart – and need to add text instructions – it can be hard for the reader to see the text clearly. This makes your diagram looks...
Help Smash Tech Writing Dogmas!
Seeing how much I’ve learned from your great comments and opinions to my previous posts, I’d like to invite you to chip away at my preconceived notions. Maybe my dogmas are unfounded and silly. Weber, Kai...
WTF is HTML5 (and Why We Should All Care)
HTML5 is being developed as the next major revision of HTML. How does this matter to you? ...
Student Project: With Free Machine Translation, Is International English Better than Plain English?
With free machine translation software such as Google Translate, is the translation of 'international English' better than the translation of 'plain English'? ...
Discovering Relationship Tables
Lately I’ve been creating context-sensitive help for an online application. As part of my strategy, I’ve been trying to follow Theresa Putkey’s advice in “Usability in Context-Sensitive Help.” In her article, Theresa recommends providing more than just the steps for a specific task in the context-sensitive help window. Instead, she...
HelpScribe
For years you've been hearing about how structured authoring and XML-based workflows can help technical authors reuse content more efficiently. By converting all of your topics to an XML standard, investing in a CMS, and building custom DTDs and XSLT translations, you can avoid having to maintain duplicate content. The downside?...
RoboHelp is an industry-standard tool for creating user assistance. Let's chat a bit about the basics of creating help with this tool. Adobe RoboHelp is a topic-oriented tool. Each topic has an individual topic id assigned for easy reference and linking. You can view topics by ID or topic title in...
Freelance technical writing | Getting started
Are you a writer with an interest in technology? Do you want more freedom and greater control of your income? If so, perhaps freelance technical writing is for you. By using your skills to build your own client base, you can reap the following advantages. Increased income potential Freedom to choose your clients Ability...
Technical writing skills that increase your value
Technical writing is a challenging field because technology is constantly reshaping how we deliver information. By keeping up with these changes, you can increase your reputation as an expert and add value to your organization. Let's take a look at some of the skills that you can develop to increase your...
Filtering traffic on your Help servers
So you've moved your help content onto a server. Wonderful! Server-based content offers a lot of advantages, including the ability to analyze how users are accessing that content. Such feedback allows you to optimize your help topics accordingly. However, how can you tell if those help visits are from internal testing...
How to add value to mobile applications
If you have a smartphone, you've probably noticed how little help content is available for mobile applications. Most technical writers are used to large applications that require extensive user assistance. However, the lightweight, intuitive GUIs present in most mobile apps don't require such extensive instructional content. So how can technical writers...
Computer Books / Human Readers
There's a Drupal card game. Who knew? the "winner" is the "developer" who contributes most to Drupal by providing patches to modules, and/or builds lots of high-profile sites using Drupal. Winning by prestige in the community, in essence. Read all...
MicroISV on a Shoestring is my favorite tech / business blog. It's great. It charts the progress of a 1 man software business that sells a simple piece of software for teachers that makes it easy for them to create custom bingo cards. ...
Where There's Muck There's Brass
Of all the books I've published, I reckon the ones that sold best either: Showed readers how to do something fun that they'd enjoy doing. Showed readers how to do something they hate doing... faster. It's like any book is...
Writing the Juggling Act - A Lesson from a Special Needs Teacher
My mum of all people has posted a useful worksheet to remind us just how hard good writing is: Think about how much is going on when you sit down to write a blog post, article, chapter or book. Your brain's having to do loads of different things...
Seth's Blog: Sentences, paragraphs and chapters
Seth Godin tells us why editors are / should be useful: It's laughably easy to find someone to critique a sentence, to find a missing apostrophe or worry about your noun-verb agreement. Sometimes, you're lucky enough to find someone who can tell...
iPad Big for Apps, Not So Hot for Ebooks
In just 28 days Apple has sold one million iPads. But for publishers, ebook sales are more important. And they don't look that encouraging to me: 12 million application downloads so far -- so on average, each iPad user has...
ffeathers -- a technical writer's blog
Twitter is ubiquitous. People will read tweets because they’re short and punchy and because they go where we go. Rumour has it that, in contrast, people don’t read manuals. We’ve been trying a few different ways of using Twitter’s sweetness in and around our documentation. Our latest experiment is...
Technical writer’s pick of presentations from Atlassian Summit 2010
Last week I attended Atlassian Summit 2010 in San Francisco. Summit is a conference hosted by Atlassian (the company where I work, though I’m in the Sydney office) for our customers. Because I was “on duty”, I didn’t get to attend as many of the sessions as I would have...
Social media in technical documentation – a presentation
Last week I attended Atlassian Summit 2010. This was a conference in San Francisco focusing on Atlassian products such as Confluence wiki, JIRA issue tracker and more. At Summit, I presented a session on using social media in technical documentation. We also got a bit emotional about the docs. This...
A couple of weeks ago I was in Darwin – ya know, that place where evolution started. It’s a bit warm up there. The insects are the size of Sydney’s birds. The spiders are the size of Sydney’s fruit bats. Crocodiles lunge out of the drains and grab your ankles. Technical...
AODC 2010 day 2: Engaging your readers in the documentation
Last month I attended AODC 2010, the Australasian Online Documentation and Content conference. Over the last few weeks I’ve been posting my summaries of the conference sessions. Now it’s the turn of my own presentation. My presentation was called “Engaging your readers in the documentation”. Conversation, the social web, community...
AODC Day 3: I can’t spell Ambliance!
Last month I attended AODC 2010, the Australasian Online Documentation and Content conference. We were in Darwin, in Australia’s “Top End”. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been posting my summaries of the conference sessions, derived from my notes taken during the presentations. All the credit goes to the...
2moroDocs — 2moroDocs
Proposal: Expand Use of Tech Comm Hashtags
Hashtags have long been an integral component of Twitter. They offer much: ability to sort tweets into categories, quickly find and track information for a particular topic, and customize as needed for a brief interval or long-term use. Given the transient nature of tweets, hashtags also provide a way to...
The Magic of Touchscreens and HTML5
This grabbed me yesterday. The info I want to discuss is longer than a tweet, shorter than a regular blog post, but I just have to get this out until I can start testing it. So – here’s an interim thought. Just can’t drop everything to think about this at the...
(1-Yr Archive) The Future: Doc Management
Yes, everything has changed. These posts relate more to documentation planning and management, and ways to keep up with changes. Changes These posts cover my thoughts on managing the new methods and changes. Let’s Reinvent Technical Writing A New Doc Strategy The Changing Role of Writers and Editors Methods Keep up. Keep up. Keep up. The world...
(1-Yr Archive) New Writing Methodologies
Tech writing is changing, has changed, and the old ways won’t work any longer. Many of my posts over the past year address those considerations. Here they are. Writing Styles Smaller screens. Smaller devices. Smaller word counts, don’t you think? Think Mobile When You Write Cut, Cut, Cut Your Content and Procedures Video and Touchscreens Well,...
(1-Yr Archive) Writing Procedures in Twitter
I ran a series of posts about the effect that real-time is having on documentation. Real-time is, of course, changing everything, and impacts documentation as well. As part of research, I tested some procedures in Twitter to see what would happen. The emphasis was on dealing with a “crisis” situation...
(1-Yr Archive) Fav Post: Might We Become Walking Computers?
I’m going to be going through my archives from my first year (see other post) and present some again. This archive post is a definite peek at the future. I had been reading about cool technologies either in place or in development. The post ties it all together, envisioning a time...
A Tech Writer's World
British Petroleum (BP), responsible for the worst oil spill in U.S. history, should be given an award. Not for their oil drilling abilities (which one could fairly say are a tad below par), but on their naming abilities.Specifically, whoever coined the term top kill to describe...
If you only have time to read one news article today, read this one from the Financial Post.Don't leave IT to the techies - Three problems lead to system failures describes in sickening detail the amounts wasted on failed information systems, and the main causes of these failures.An astounding 68%...
General Stanley McChrystal, head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has provided a perfect example of how not to create document: a PowerPoint slide that purports to explain the U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan.Afghanistan "Explained"“When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war,” General McChrystal said. In other...
One can discover great technical communication in the unlikeliest of places.Here's a sample from the bottom portion of a restaurant bill I came across recently:Gratuity not includedSuggested tip at 15% - 2.10Suggested tip at 18% - 2.52Suggested tip at 20% - 2.80Why oh why did someone not think of this...
The Tech Writer vs. The Volcano
After a week of chaos-inducing activity, the volcano in Iceland finally ran out steam, or in this case, lava and smoke. If a mountain could be arrested for causing a public disturbance, surely this one would qualify.Fortunately in our profession, we don't have to battle lava and smoke. However, we...
The Mother of all Engineering Feats
British scientists were able to create human embryos with genetic material from one man and two women. The goal is to produce genetically altered "designer" babies and thereby eliminate hereditary diseases by combining the best bits of each person. It's a controversial idea, but if saves lives and improves health,...
Kay Whatley's blog
Monday-Tuesday DITA sessions in Raleigh, NC
This upcoming Monday-Tuesday, we'll have the following DITA presentation topics covered at the RealWorld DITA 2009 Conference: How DITA Changed the TechComm Landscape - Overview of DITA 1.2 - DITA and Publishing - DITA in an Agile Software Development Environment - DITA and Dynamic Publishing - DITADoclet tool - DITA...
DITA By the Bucketful: Applying DITA to YOUR Content
Please note: If you are planning to attend the subject two-part session at the RealWorld DITA 2009 Conference, you must email the conference organizer in advance. The presenters must have your info in advance and will provide you with details on what to bring for these sessions. Also, seating is very...
Just a heads up to FrameMaker folks that Adobe will present on TCS and DITA, and separately on FrameMaker/books and ditamaps, at the upcoming RealWorld DITA 2009 Conference. More conference presentation details at http://www.aboveandbeyondlearning.com/ditaschedule.html . ...
UPDATE on the RealWorld DITA 2009 Conference in Raleigh NC (Sept 2009)
Those of you who have attended our Raleigh DITA conferences before know that we work to set a high quality schedule with technical speakers and relevant topics. If you know me, you know that I strive to produce events that help users move up from their current level by building...
Yesterday, we had a DITA session covered by Leigh White. She jumped right in when another speaker had an emergency. With no planning, she made it happen, which was great for the attendees interested in learning about DITA....
Companies are contributing to the upcoming RealWorld DITA 2009 Conference. Adobe Systems and XyEnterprise have stepped up as sponsors. Additional companies are "vending" at the event. Adobe is also sponsoring the Summer XML 2009 conference! Here is a link to a recent post by Mahesh from Adobe on their blog: http://blogs.adobe.com/techcomm/. This...
one man writes
Information is serious stuff and must be treated with the appropriate earnest respect it deserves. Stop laughing at the back, this is not a joking matter. How do you feel when you go looking for information and can’t find it? Or find what you think will be helpful information only...
This blogging thing seems to be catching on, so much so that my company will soon have a blog looking at industry specific issues and thoughts. And yes, I’m one of the bloggers. I’ll link to it once it’s up and running (we are testing it at the moment) and provide...
One personal flaw (I have a few) is that I can make decisions a little too hastily. Case in point, in our hunt for a team wide task tracking application, after some searching and experimentation we plumped for a bastardisation of Remember The Milk. It’s not as ideal as we’d...
Later this week I’ll be sitting down to talk to some people. Some very important people as it happens. Yes, I’ll be talking to some customers. I’m slightly ashamed to admit this is the first time I’ll have done this, formally at least and I’m not quite sure what to expect....
I’m in the midst of interviewing to fill a vacancy for a technical writer in our team. I’m also thinking ahead as to how to get them integrated into how we do things. And then I remembered what we have done previously. “Hello, welcome to our wonderful company. Here is a...
Publish2 Technical Communication Newsgroup
Top strategies to embrace cost metrics « Kai's Tech Writing Blog #techcomm
Ensure useful metrics and appropriate cost attribution!...
Knowledge Management – Return on Investment or Return on Impact
Thanks to @prettysimple for sharing this article. I like the author's alternate take on the concept of ROI....
Top 10 things that users want to do in a help system « Kai's Tech Writing Blog
Top 10 user experiences in help systems that make users happy and efficient, just as successful libraries and department stores....
Help smash tech writing dogmas! « Kai's Tech Writing Blog
Kai invites you to consider - and maybe overcome - two dogmas about tech writing tools....
Ragged-right or justified alignment? - Kai's Tech Writing Blog
Kai explains when and why ragged-right beats justified alignment in print....
Trends in technical communication 2010 - Kai's Tech Writing Blog
Kai reports on a recent webinar and comments on trends that see tech writers branch out into new skills....
TechScribe software documentation
ISTC online groups. This review is about legal disclaimers, MAs in technical communication, reuse of content, and the Rank Xerox award....
Global English for global business: a review
International readers have problems with standard English. 'Global English for global business' by Rachel McAlpine helps people to write and to speak English that their international customers can understand....
Technical writing newsletter 36: June 2010
The latest news from TechScribe. Issue 36 is about TechScribe's new address and telephone number, a student project about language translation, internationalised English, and operation manuals for Japan....
ISTC online groups. This review is about callouts, project management software, data backup, technical illustrators, and tag clouds....
Some problems with document-sharing websites
If you let people copy your documents to a document-sharing website, you can cause problems for your business....
Technical writing newsletter 35: March 2010
The latest news from TechScribe. Issue 35 is about how to decrease the cost of translation, problems with plain English, and trademarks in technical documentation....
Technical Writer
My Lunch at Volt Restaurant in Frederick; Plates by Picasso
Joe and I have dined at Michelin-starred restaurants in France and Germany, where restrained and well groomed staff in their multiplicity of functions are devoted to one's dining experience; and we have eaten at Gallic bistros and Rhineland beer halls......
For the Plankton and Diatoms and All That Gyre and Gimble in the Wabe
There will be eulogies to come for small, destroyed lives of the water and land of the Gulf written in word and sung in music that will be of a piece the same grief ever entrained by the most sere......
The world is full of highly skilled and focused cybersecurity geeks, and not all are on our side. Most of them live in countries (and states) where the national sport appears to be hacking into our corporate and government systems,......
Quiet Sunday Afternoon Interrupted
Occasionally I hear loud shrieks and curses of low order—the same word, over and over—lofted over the fenced garden retreats in my Frederick city neighborhood. Within the expanse of the historic city center, where land holdings were laid out in......
The cold North Wind whistled around the snowy hills of the Highlands and hammered its icy gusts against the barn, where inside, Sampson the Bactrian camel had settled into a reverie. As the wind blew outside, Sampson was in his......
He told me years ago that the programmers had whipped up a little something that enabled them to view the Internet traffic of some bad guys in Columbia and elsewhere in South America. What did you see? I asked. It......
TheContentWrangler.com
We’ll Keep Buying Our Own Pens Thank You: The Problem With IT Human Resources Strategy
By Lisa Woods, Woods & Williams Consulting, special to The Content Wrangler I interviewed recently for an IT position with a Prestigious Downtown Indianapolis Company (which I’ll call “PDIC”). While I waited for the “HR Generalist” to retrieve me from the lobby, I studied the sparkling showcase of service awards given...
Why You Should Adopt An ‘Accessible Content Strategy’
By Scott Smith, Invisible Fist Before diving too deeply into this discussion about the need for an accessible content strategy, I have a confession to make. I have never worked on a project in which content accessibility was included in the requirements. You may think that makes me a little bit...
Internet-Based, Socially Enabled, Interactive Reality Show: BLU Is What’s Next
Interview with Ryan Gordan by Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler As many of our readers know, I’m a big fan of personalized content delivered on-demand: the right content, to the right people, at the right time, in the right format and language, and on the device of their choosing. Although my...
What Is A Book And Why Does It Matter? [Part Two]
By Richard Hamilton, special to The Content Wrangler Part one of this two part series looked into what a “book” really is. While I suggest you read that article first, for the impatient, here it is in one paragraph: Beyond the now obsolete “dictionary” definition of a book as a physical object,...
Opening Video: MarkLogic 2010 User Conference
As is customary, the MarkLogic User Conference opens with a video designed to get the audience excited about the show, the company’s products, and all the really innovative solutions users can create with them. This year’s video was created from content fragments pulled from the databases of MarkLogic clients and...
Norm Walsh: XML Rock Star (You’re Gonna Love This!)
The winning video from the MarkLogic employee video contest. Created by Paxton and featuring XML guru Norm Walsh as the “XML Rock Star”, this humorous video is sure to make you chuckle, especially if you know Norm....
Cherryleaf Technical Authors Blog
Please help us with the Cherryleaf survey
If you received an email to our two Cherryleaf surveys, please take the few minutes needed to complete it. Thanks. The surveys are to help us develop the right business strategy for Cherryleaf in the... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]]...
When will the Technical Author become the Customer Engagement Manager?
Rahal Baillie posted on Twitter a link to an article which, in passing, made reference to “Customer Engagement Management“. Julie Hunt described it as: The activity of monitoring of brand... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]]...
Life as a Technical Author - a case study
Prospects, “the UK’s official graduate careers website”, has published a case study on being a Technical Author. It’s actually a case study on someone at Cherryleaf,... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]]...
Aligning documentation with the business - free guide
The Projects team at Cherryleaf has just finalised a second free guide. This one is for documentation managers and technical authors - it’s a guide for aligning documentation with your business... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]]...
Vacancy - API Documentation Writer, Maidenhead, £42K-£50K
Our client is looking for someone to join its documentation team and be responsible for developing the documentation required by software developers using its software. This is a fast growing... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]]...
Free guide for Project Managers on planning documentation projects
The Projects team at Cherryleaf has just finalised a free guide for Project Managers on planning documentation projects. This will be sent out as series of emails over a number of days. Use the... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]]...
Gryphon Mountain Journals
Information Deluge and the Age of Distraction
Because the Internet has provided a way for millions of people to self-publish, the amount of information available has become astronomical in a matter of a few years. I don’t think this is a surprise to anyone who is at least casually acquainted with the Web. The Bursting Dam and...
When a User’s Confusion Becomes Evident through the Interface
Tech writers enjoy—in a schadenfreude-ish way—stories about problems that result from users’ confusion about using a product, especially when the problems are monumental. We love those examples because they typically illustrate how good user assistance would have saved the day. Some examples aren’t so dramatic, such as one I ran across...
A Look Back on a Year as an STC Chapter President
Near the end of May, the Intermountain Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication installed the officers for the 2010–11 year. I handed the presidential position off to Paul Pehrson (otherwise known as Doc Guy), who had been my vice president. The last year wasn’t as amazing as I’d hoped, but...
You may have noticed that Gryphon Mountain has been silent lately. I realize that the pro bloggers tell you not to write posts about how you’re not going to be writing posts, but this one’s different. It’s about why I’m not going to be writing AND why I haven’t been...
Adobe Community Help and AIR Help: A Disconnect?
In 2008, Adobe introduced Adobe Community Help, “an integrated online environment for instruction, inspiration, and support. Community Help combines content from Adobe Help, Support, Design Center, Developer Connection, and Forums—along with great online community content—so that users can easily find the best and most up-to-date resources.” Peggy Harvey, a graduate...
Interview with a Gryphon 2: Old and New in STC
Ben: Welcome to our second installment of Interview with a Gryphon. Today, Gryp and I are discussing a subject that has a lot of technical communicators enthusiastically speaking up. Gryp: You mean how that Sauron guy forged one HAT to rule them all? Ben: You’re getting a few universes confused...
I Came, I Saw, I Learned...
by David R. Mankin Metadata is information about a document and its contents (including the author's name, keywords and copyright information). These bits of information are used by search utilities. Do all PDF files have metadata? No. If you don't......
Adobe FrameMaker 9: Adding Tabs to a Table of Contents
by Barbara Binder "Discoverable." That's a new Adobe buzzword for features that users can discover on their own. I'd say that adding a tab character between the entries and page numbers in a table of contents does not fall into......
Adobe Captivate 5: Quickest Quizzes Ever!
by Kevin Siegel Adding Question Slides has always been a necessary evil in Captivate. I'm not saying that including a quiz in your eLearning isn't a good thing... certainly quizzes are an integral measuring stick for the effectiveness of your......
eLearning & mLearning: Using Color in Learning, Part II
by AJ George Last week I went over how colors affect mood and how implementing certain color stories into your learning courses can encourage (or discourage) participation. This week I am going to shift away from how color affects mood......
Adobe FrameMaker 9: Table Rules
by Barbara Binder Ever wondered how to edit the rules listed in FrameMaker's Table Designer? When you are designing a new table format, or refining an existing one, you need to make decisions about how the ruling lines should look......
Writing & Grammar: "If I Were" or "If I Was?"
by Jennie Ruby How many times have you heard someone say "If I was you"? In some regions of the country, you might hear it every day. This popular expression, however, is grammatically wrong. The correct grammar is "If I......
Shanghai Tech Writer
Welcome Joelle Yuna Wong is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Welcome Joelle Yuna Wong is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Posting on this blog has been and will continue to be sporadic because . . . Friday was my last day of work. Sent out my last email and...
A List of Over 400 Free Wi-Fi Hotspots in Shanghai
A List of Over 400 Free Wi-Fi Hotspots in Shanghai is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer A List of Over 400 Free Wi-Fi Hotspots in Shanghai is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer USA Today compiled a list of over 400 free Wi-Fi hotspots in Shanghai. That’s quite a list! Check...
Cool Optical Illusion Image is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Cool Optical Illusion Image is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Here’s a really cool optical illusion image from Digg. Is the girl in the middle twirling clockwise or counterclockwise? Look at the left or right to change directions! Share and Enjoy: Related...
Fixing Moon River Art Park on Google Maps
Fixing Moon River Art Park on Google Maps is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Fixing Moon River Art Park on Google Maps is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Last December, my husband and I went to She Shan for a weekend getaway. She Shan is about an hour from city...
Entertaining Read About the Lack of an Em Dash Key
Entertaining Read About the Lack of an Em Dash Key is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Entertaining Read About the Lack of an Em Dash Key is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Here’s an entertaining read about the lack of an em dash key on the keyboard. Excerpt: Why care? The em-dash...
Video: Walking from Beijing to Urumqi!
Video: Walking from Beijing to Urumqi! is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Video: Walking from Beijing to Urumqi! is a post from: Shanghai Tech Writer Below is an awesome time lapse video of a man who walked from Beijing to Urumqi over the course of a year, taking photos of him...
Communications from DMN
Tips for efficiently editing in Word
by: Rhonda Bracey Recently, Bill Swallow stated on the HATT list: I’ve been a long-time advocate for efficient process and documentation. I base this on one key truth: I’m lazy. I’m so lazy, in fact, that I bust my butt to make things easier. And so it is with me...
New guest blog post coming tomorrow
This time around, it’s from Rhonda Bracey. It’s a post packed with information that you can use. Wondering what that post is about? Well, if you’ve read Rhonda’s blog then you probably have a good idea of the subject matter. If not, than check back tomorrow. Related posts:New guest blog...
Giving users incentives to contribute to the documentation
Milan Davidovic left a thought-provoking comment on a recent post in this space. It had to do with giving users incentives to learn lightweight markup languages when they contribute community-generated documentation. We’ve been thinking about that comment, and have been wondering what incentives companies (and free/Open Source software projects) can...
Sarah Maddox reports on a session from the AODC conference about converting to structured content One person’s opinion about why Open Source documentation lags Some of the do’s and don’ts of usability When giving a presentation, avoid overloading the audience with information Tom Johnson on organizing Web-facing help for SEO...
Ramblings about lightweight markup languages, user-generated docs, and pulling it all together
As the title of this post states, what you’re reading is the result of some woolgathering I’ve been doing about a topic that I recently discussed in this space. Don’t expect any conclusions or deep insights … If you’ve been reading this space for any length of time, you know...
Some (slightly different) advice for presenters
While we’re not the most prolific of presenters, we enjoy getting out in front of an audience to share ideas and to (we hope) teach something new. We enjoy the challenge. We enjoy the stress (well, Aaron does …). We enjoy teaching and, also, learning. Once a presentation is done,...