Alltop

All the top Technical Writing news.

See also Writing and Consulting.

Watch the video

Share this

Go to

ffeathers -- a technical writer's blog
Writing a guest blog post

ffeathers

25 Jun 2009 | 12:22 am

Scott Nesbitt has asked a number of technical writers, and I’m one of the privileged, if we’d like to write a guest post on the DMN Communications blog. So I did: What makes a technical writer tick? Writing for someone else’s blog is fun! It’s also interesting. What’s different You suddenly have all sorts of new considerations. You don’t know exactly when your post will be published. Potentially, you don’t know your audience as well as when writing on your own blog. You’re not sure how much editing the blog owner will do on your post after…
Twitter as a medium for release notes

ffeathers

7 Jun 2009 | 7:04 pm

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been trying an experiment — using Twitter as a medium for release notes. It’s been interesting, so I thought you’d like to read about it. We could use Twitter in other ways related to technical documentation too, such as hints and tips or FAQs. Let me know if you’ve done that already! I’m going to start with a short introduction to Twitter, mentioning particularly the aspects that I found useful when tweeting release notes. If you’re already a twitterologist, you may want to skip that bit. Then I’ll describe how…
AODC 2009 wrapup

ffeathers

27 May 2009 | 1:46 am

Last week I attended the2009 Australasian Online Documentation and Content Conference (AODC) in Melbourne. This is the second year that I’ve been to this conference, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in technical writing or communication. A big “thank you” to the AODC organisers, and especially to Tony Self, Penny Bradley and Mick McMahon. The conference ran without a hitch. It’s worth attending just for the social events and networking. As a bonus, the speakers and sessions were interesting too There were 19 sessions in total. I have blogged about some…
AODC day 3 – Pattern language for information architecture

ffeathers

26 May 2009 | 8:43 pm

Last week I attended the2009 Australasian Online Documentation and Content Conference (AODC) in Melbourne. This blog post is part of a series about some of the AODC sessions I attended. Here are some notes I took from the session on a pattern language for information architecture, by Matthew Ellison. I hope these notes are useful to people who couldn’t be at the conference this year. Pattern Language for Information Architecture Matthew introduced pattern languages by saying that they may give you a practical way of capturing the techniques that work for you — a way of documenting…
AODC day 3 – Content, standards, learning and SCORM

ffeathers

26 May 2009 | 1:32 am

Last week I attended the2009 Australasian Online Documentation and Content Conference (AODC) in Melbourne. This blog post is part of a series about some of the AODC sessions I attended. Here are some notes I took from the session on content, standards, learning and SCORM, by Allyn Radford of Learn’ilities’. I hope these notes are useful to people who couldn’t be at the conference this year. Content, Standards, Learning and SCORM Allyn started by giving us some context of what is happening right now. Within content domains, the key themes of the information age are being…

just write click
What’s your favorite JustWriteClick post?

annegentle

30 Jun 2009 | 7:39 pm

I like to keep an eye on what posts are popular, although with a blog, you can define popular in many different ways. Most comments, most views, or highest average daily views. So if you’re new to my blog, (and the recent uptick in subscribers might indicate that some of you are, so welcome!) you might enjoy these previous posts. Here are the most popular posts based on total views (I think this is slightly inaccurate for the life of my blog but still interesting): Wiki as forum, FAQ, HTML editor, XML editor, or CMS?: Wiki as the new FAQ I discovered and have been meaning … 7…
Conversational robots

annegentle

25 Jun 2009 | 7:23 pm

Photo courtesy a voir etc... Move over qmail mailer-daemon*, Little MOO from moo.com is my new favorite polite responder. Check out the auto-response I received after asking their support team a question using their webform. New favorite polite robot responder: “Remember, I’m just a bit of software, so please don’t reply to this email. You’ll find our Service Agents far more conversational.” Plain awesome. But obviously written by a human, unlike this robot chat program that won a prize last year for being most likely to fool people into thinking it was a human.
Does designing content for scanning devalue the content?

annegentle

14 Jun 2009 | 6:25 pm

I just read a great post by Rajesh Setty on the Lateral Action blog called 9 Ways People Respond to Your Content Online. Maybe it’s because I’m in the final countdown before my book is permanently affixed to the pulp of dead trees, or maybe it’s because I’m looking at online user assistance tools to see how they can enable conversational documentation, but it struck me that user assistance gets stuck in that first low value category often. Here’s the excellent visual that shows how return on investment increases as the response to the content becomes more and…
Webinar available now from Scriptorium Publishing

annegentle

10 Jun 2009 | 10:18 pm

I gave a webinar this week for Scriptorium that will be available online titled “Documentation as Conversation.” The fact that it’s recorded lets you avoid scurrying around rearranging meetings in Outlook just to attend it. It sold out which was great to hear, but I like that the message and conversation continues through the recording. One of my fun examples was the Wordle visualization of my tags from the social bookmarking tool, del.icio.us. During the question and answer session, someone mentioned they felt like social media made her feel like we’re becoming…
Dangerous future for technical writing?

annegentle

3 Jun 2009 | 2:21 pm

I finally got to watch the final season of The Wire and was fascinated with the interplay of the media in the plot lines that included journalists and editors a the Baltimore Sun. Over at the Duo Consulting blog, Diane Wieland wrote a great entry titled “Why Pay When You Can Get It For Free.” In it, she discusses the general freaking out of old media and their dated business models. Yes, people want news. Yes, people can get news for free. Previously the best way to get your news was through journalism and your daily newspaper – but the publishing systems have changed and…

one man writes
Coming soon…

Gordon McLean

28 Jun 2009 | 9:11 am

As we approach the end of our migration from FrameMaker 7 to Author-it, I’m going to try and pull together some lessons learned, some tips, and useful links that I’ve found along the way. I’m not claiming to be an expert (I’ll leave that to Rhonda Bracey and Char James Tanny, amongst others!) but, as they say, a problem shared is a problem that you might just find via a Google search… or something like that… Pre-empting this, I thought I’d open things up to anyone who might have any questions about the process we’ve gone through. So, if you want…
Bye bye STC

Gordon McLean

23 Jun 2009 | 2:32 am

Before I say anything on this topic I’ll confess that I am not fully versed in the history of the organisation. I am not a member, this is merely my take on some of the blog posts I’ve read on this matter. And there in is the my main point. I’ve read a lot about the issues the STC are currently facing but have yet to read anything from the STC itself. No doubt there is an STC mailing list ablaze with such news but given the amount of negative press currently floating about on blogs and on Twitter I’ve yet to spy any sort of formal, or informal, word from the STC.
Landing Pads

Gordon McLean

20 Jun 2009 | 12:48 am

I’m guessing that you don’t want to miss that landing pad because if you do you’ll end up ditched in the ocean, floating around aimlessly and with no real idea of what to do next. Can you imagine how horrifying it would be if that happened? Floating there, unable to get back to land and with who knows what swimming around underneath you… Yet this is the predicament that many users of online help find themselves in, having strayed into the online help they have been cast into an ocean of information with no real idea of how to get back to shore. Ohhh sure, we tell…
Helter Skelter

Gordon McLean

17 Jun 2009 | 1:13 am

When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide Where I stop and turn and I go for a ride Till I get to the bottom and I see you again!!!! Ever get that feeling that you’ve been here before? I write this blog post with haste as I’m halfway through the penultimate week of a particularly arduous project. Not only are we releasing a new version of the product, but we are completing the first major stage of our move to Author-it. Overall the migration has been pretty painless. There are still some Word templates issues to work around and getting to grips with Variants has…
Returning thoughts

Gordon McLean

11 Jun 2009 | 3:03 pm

Back from Spain, lightly roasted and still not quite up to speed with a working day (what, no siesta?!). As I normally do, I reviewed the list of actions I jotted down before I left and looked over some of the last bits of work I completed, just to make sure I had been focussing on work and not been too distracted in the run up to the holiday. One thing that leapt out at me was how I still, all these years later, struggle with consistency. It isn’t something that comes naturally to me and, truth be told, I’ve still to find a working system that helps. It’s all well and good…

The Business Insider
The Age of Outrageous Ideas

Tim

22 Jun 2009 | 8:28 am

By Jack B. Rochester, Managing Editor A remark attributed to the great French philosopher Voltaire goes something like this: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." It seems a fitting phrase for the plethora of views of our modern world, economic systems, ways of life, etcetera: think of a problem or issue and somebody's written an article, blog, or book on how to correct it.The latest entry is Joshua Cooper Ramo, weighing in with his first book, The Age of the Unthinkable. Ramo, a former editor at Time [a magazine - remember?] and…
What Do Ruth Madoff and Sasha Grey's Chelsea Have In Common?

Tim

17 Jun 2009 | 6:40 am

By Jack B. Rochester, Managing Editor The New York Times ran a cover story in its Sunday Styles section last week about what's happened to Ruth Madoff, 68-year-old wife of Bernie, and how she can't get a hairdo or a latte in her old haunts anymore. Nobody wants to be seen letting her in their establishment because she's viewed as complicit in her husband's Ponzi schemes. I found this comment interesting: "Alexandra Lebenthal, who is a friend of one of the Madoff sons, Andrew, as well as a fixture in Manhattan financial and social circles, said that Mrs. Madoff has not…
Big Brother Redux in China

Tim

12 Jun 2009 | 6:40 am

By Jack B. Rochester, Managing EditorIs it a coincidence that, within a day of the 60th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell's prescient novel, 1984, the repressive, dictatorial, Communist Chinese government issues an edict that all imported computers must have its homegrown filtering software installed? As if Vista wasn't slow enough to begin with!Chinese officials say that "unhealthy information" must not be exposed to its people. Under the guise of blocking pornography, this "Green Dam" will block other topics the Communist leaders don't want,…
"Getting" Market Segmentation

Tim

10 Jun 2009 | 6:55 am

By Jack B. Rochester, Managing Editor Tuesday night, June 9, Boston: cold, spitting rain, the Red Sox playing the Yankees at Fenway. Instead, I went to see a band called The Decemberists at the Bank of American Pavilion. A tent, really, dry but not warm. Robyn Hitchcock and his mates tried to warm up the audience, but it took the poofs of smoky mist and the appearance of 34-year-old Colin Meloy and his band to do the trick.It did. The crowd of about 5,000 was on their feet about fifteen minutes into the performance and remained standing throughout. I looked around: lots of young people, of…
Kindle: The Final Chapter

Tim

4 Jun 2009 | 6:00 am

By The Business Insider EditorsTwo previous posts here have discussed the business potential for the Kindle. For the last post on this phenomenal new device, we discuss what's happened to its core technology.But before we do so, we thought it worth a yuk-yuk to mention that the future of electronic publishing was discussed last week in New York at a bookseller's fair, where The New York Times reported that author Sherman Alexie saw a woman on an airplane reading on a Kindle and said, "I wanted to hit her." ( Alexie subsequently said he'd meet with Amazon folks to…

Technically Speaking
The STC Crisis: the take of a “young” writer

paul

22 Jun 2009 | 1:02 pm

As a “young” technical writer, I thought I might share some of my feelings on the STC crisis. First, a little background on me. I knew while I was in college that I wanted to be a technical writer after graduation. I switched to an English major for that purpose, and picked classes that gave me a “technical communication emphasis”. I joined STC while I was in college because I wanted to connect with people in my field. I got a chapter scholarship to attend a regional STC conference, and had a great time meeting people who did for a living what I was studying. When I…
Flare 5 is now available

paul

8 Jun 2009 | 9:38 am

According to MadCap’s website, MadCap Flare V5 is now available for everybody! If you have a maintenance agreement, I guess that means you can expect your Flare V5 license to arrive shortly! If you want to know more about what is coming in the latest version, check out my pre-release blog post.
Pre-Release Review of Flare V5

paul

3 Jun 2009 | 1:00 pm

Soon MadCap Software will be releasing the next major version in the Flare product line, Flare V5. I’ve been beta testing Flare 5 for a couple of months now, and there are some great new features in Flare 5 that you are going to love. In this review, I want to point out some of my favorite new features, as well as some of Flare 5’s other great enhancements. Let me begin by saying that I love Flare, and I think Flare 5 is a great enhancement on an already great product. I am biased; I’m a certified Flare instructor, have been a VIP in the Flare Forums for 2+ years, and am a…
Mozy to the rescue

paul

30 Apr 2009 | 2:39 pm

Several months ago I bought a new laptop for my side business. I’ve tried to figure out a backup solution that would work for my computer, and after doing some research, I decided that I wanted an online backup solution that would work automatically in the background. I picked Mozy for several reasons. I got it installed, selected my directories I wanted to back-up, and let it go about its business. Mozy has been great. It runs in the background and every so often updates the online storage with the latest files from my laptop. At under $5.00 a month, this is a solution that works…
Twitter and Tech Communication

paul

31 Mar 2009 | 12:33 pm

Twitter is an interesting tool. In case you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard of it, Twitter is a social networking tool that lets you share updates (or tweets) with the world. People can subscribe to your twitter feed, and will see your tweets (mixed in with the tweets of anybody else they follow). The limitation, though, is that an individual tweet must be 140 characters or shorter. I follow lots of technical communicators and increasingly I’m seeing people reach out for help on the software they are using. That is really cool in some ways. I follow several…

News
DITA Workshops in Wisconsin; Outstanding Value!

29 Jun 2009 | 2:37 pm

The STC Wisconsin, Four Lakes and Twin Cities communities are cooperatively presenting three DITA workshops this July. DITA Content Modeling - July 11, Milwaukee; DITA-In-a-Day: Authoring - July 13, Minneapolis (FULL, Waiting list only); DITA-In-a-Day: Authoring - July 15, Madison; DITA Production - July 18, Milwaukee. Cost: $50 for STC members, $85 for non-members, $25 for students. You can’t beat this value anywhere. If you don’t sign up for these classes, you are really missing a BIG opportunity to learn at a deep discount.
Adobe Announces Acrobat.com Presentations

2 Jun 2009 | 6:25 pm

In keeping with the trend of creating free software that runs in a web browser, Adobe Systems has announced Acrobat.com Presentations web-based tools designed to help you create, edit, and share presentations with others online. Built on the Adobe Flash platform, Acrobat.com Presentations allows you to create beautiful professional presentations online, using built-in tools and layouts. And, if you’re someone who works well with others, you can create, revise, and collaborate on the same presentation online—at the same time—with your co-workers. No need to e-mail attachments…
Book Review: “Managing Writers: A Real World Guide to Managing Technical Documentation”

13 Apr 2009 | 5:22 am

In this review of “Managing Writers: A Real World Guide to Managing Technical Documentation” (Richard L. Hamilton, XML Press, 2009), Emma Hamer writes, “This unassuming little book (238 pages, plus templates and index) is a MUST-READ for new and existing managers of technical communication teams. For the price, $24.95, it is a steal; an absolute treasure-trove of valuable information. Trust me; you will go back to it again and again. And it will make you a better and more effective manager.” Read the review. Then, buy the book.
Web Content 2009 Chicago - Early Bird Registration Ends March 31

28 Mar 2009 | 9:57 pm

Consumers are flooded with information created and delivered using outdated tactics. Poorly-targeted pitches and mass messaging are being replaced by laser-targeted, measurable methods that promise to deliver the right information, to the right people, at the right time, in the right format and language. This requires new thinking. So, we’re bringing together nationally-recognized technology, design, content, and marketing authorities at Web Content 2009 Chicago, June 15-16, at Gleacher Executive Conference Center, to help you understand how global organizations are “Delivering…
[Great Ideas] Globalization Partners Announces Template Analysis Service

22 Jan 2009 | 5:40 am

We’re always tracking ways companies try to be creative in offering new services. translation company Globalization Partners International has announced a new service for analyzing document templates (Word, PPT, FrameMaker, InDesign) so you can see if your document content structure is optimized for localization and globalization. “It could happen to you” author Maxwell Hoffmann leads the effort.

I Came, I Saw, I Learned...
Adobe Captivate 4: Run It... Automatically

Kevin Siegel

2 Jul 2009 | 7:27 am

by Kevin A. Siegel Ever wondered why, when inserting a CD or DVD into your computer, an application sometimes appears on its own? More likely than not, a tiny file called an INF (a Setup Information File) is working behind the scenes to automate the startup process of a specific program or file. If there is an INF file working behinds the scenes, it's a good bet that the INF is located on the same CD as the program that automatically opened.You can harness the power of an INF file from within Captivate. The result: your published Captivate lesson will automatically open…
Reader Feedback

Kevin Siegel

2 Jul 2009 | 7:26 am

David and Kevin... HUGE kudos on the simple OCR article in the last Skills and Drills newsletter. I was LITERALLY looking at the OmniPage software when I opened the newsletter and found out that Acrobat does everything OmniPage does! I am re-formatting a book I published about 10 years ago and need to update and upgrade it. I only have a scan of a hardcopy (no softcopy). You just saved me dozens of hours of re-typing (or about $100 if I'd gone with OmniPage). -Cal Cooley
Link of the Week

Kevin Siegel

2 Jul 2009 | 7:26 am

A Trip Down Memory Lane: The World Before Acrobat This one is sure to bring a smile to your face. Dave Mankin, who teaches our online Acrobat classes, has a BLOG containing a wonderful video showing what the business world was like before Adobe's introduction of Acrobat in 1993. Back in the day, sharing documents with coworkers and friends was, well, CHALLENGING!Click here to watch the video. And thanks Dave... I remember those days well. (I mean, I watched a television show about those days on the History channel. ~kas)
Why Not "Do Less With Less?"

Kevin Siegel

2 Jul 2009 | 7:25 am

by Jon Lloyd Have you considered doing less with... well, less? Seems like the phrase of the moment is "do more with less." Even the latest marketing email from Harvard Business has all the answers for you--a collection of articles for a measly $89, what a deal! In today's challenging business climate, managers are under pressure to produce better results with the same or fewer resources than before. Maximum productivity is now absolutely critical at both the personal and organizational levels.I agree that many organizations are looking to do more with less. There are less…
Questions of the Week

Kevin Siegel

2 Jul 2009 | 7:25 am

Adobe Captivate 4 Question: What Do I Need to Use Captivate? What are the system requirements needed to run the application?Answer:Captivate will run on most computers running Windows XP. If you are using Vista, most things will work fine but there are documented issues here and there. If you are using Windows Vista 64, careful. Captivate is not Vista 64 bit certified. You can read the specific system requirements here. *** Adobe Captivate 3 Question: Are Simulation Time Limits Possible?With Captivate 3, is it possible to put a time limit on a simulation? We'd like to…

I'd Rather Be Writing - Tom Johnson
Implementing a Department Wiki? A Writer Shares Some Dos and Don’ts (Guest Post)

Tom

30 Jun 2009 | 6:33 am

This is a guest post by Cathy Wildhaber about her experience implementing a wiki in her department. Cathy is a technical writer in Kansas City. For the past 4 years, she has worked for a company that provides computer systems and services to financial organizations. Ever take a look at some slick wiki technology and think “Wow, that’s really cool…I want one”? I did, and the results (an internal wiki for the documentation department where I work) were…less than stellar. Here’s how you can avoid my mistakes. I had been working on a continuing education SharePoint…
I Need Your Human Aggregated Content

Tom

29 Jun 2009 | 6:34 am

If you have a way of tagging or marking the good content you read online — such as adding it to a specific category on your blog, bookmarking it through Delicious, or putting the link on some other online site — send me the RSS feed for it, and I’ll add it to the Yahoo Pipes aggregated feed that I have going with Writer River. Here’s what the Yahoo Pipes feed looks like at the moment. Writer River Yahoo Pipes feed It’s simple compared to other Yahoo Pipes feeds. Basically the pipe takes RSS feeds from as many sources as I add here, sorts the posts by the date…
How Google Does Help

Tom

27 Jun 2009 | 9:22 pm

With all the talk about latest trends and avoiding extinction as communicators, and integrating web 2.0 and wikis, blogs, podcasts, and other interactive social media into help, it’s a good time to look at how Google — practically the leader of the web — does help. Last week Google released Google Voice, a service that allows you to integrate all your phones into one number and includes a host of features, including voice mail, recording, conference calling, and other services. To help users get started, Google Voice has a list of 20 short videos. Only the overview video…
Real Projects for Entry-Level Writers Trying to Build Their Portfolios

Tom

26 Jun 2009 | 6:40 am

Beginning writers trying to break into the field of technical writing face a paradox: almost all jobs require experience, but they can’t get experience without first having a job. In the past, I’ve recommended that beginning writers create documentation for any open-source project they can find, such as WordPress, Audacity, or projects on SourceForge.net. However, our organization now has about ten open source projects that would provide an ideal opportunity for entry-level writers to gain real experience in technical writing. These projects are located at…
Page Layout and Design Tips from Jean-luc Doumont’s Trees, maps, and theorems

Tom

25 Jun 2009 | 6:55 am

Trees, maps, and theorems, by Jean-luc Duomont I’m currently reading Trees, maps, and theorems: Effective communication for rational minds, a new book by Jean-luc Doumont. The reason I wanted to read the book is for Jean-luc’s expertise in visual design and page layout, because I thought it could help me design better quick reference guides. Although very little of the book deals with design and is more geared toward engineers (the “rational minds”), he does address page layout and intuitive design in a couple of sections. Here are a few passages of advice:…

Palimpsest
Congratulations to contest winners...

1 Jul 2009 | 10:27 am

...Bjørn Smalbro and Dave Truman, who will receive printed copies of Technical Writing 101.Thanks to everyone who entered the drawing. Even if you didn't win, you should have received an email with a coupon code for $5 off the PDF download of the book. (If you indicated that you teach technical writing, you should have received a code for a free review copy.)Keith Soltys posted a review of Technical Writing 101 on his Core Dump blog yesterday. I'm pleased to report the review is positive.A special alert to my fellow bargain hunters out there: Amazon.com is selling Technical Writing 101 at a…
This is the future of technical communication

29 Jun 2009 | 7:39 am

First, read this article in the New York Times about the struggle to keep a reporter's kidnapping quiet:For seven months, The New York Times managed to keep out of the news the fact that one of its reporters, David Rohde, had been kidnapped by the Taliban. But that was pretty straightforward compared with keeping it off Wikipedia.Now, think about these issues as applied to technical communication. Let's assume that your organization has online community -- forums and a wiki, maybe. Technical communicators are responsible for monitoring and managing the community. Under what circumstances do…
Enter soon: Technical Writing 101 contest ends tomorrow

29 Jun 2009 | 5:05 am

We're giving away two printed copies of Technical Writing 101 (third edition) on Wednesday. Please enter the drawing before it closes tomorrow.We're giving away the books to celebrate the book's wider release to online bookstores such as Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, and BN.com; you can also place a special order for Technical Writing 101 at your local bookstore. If you want instant access to the book, you can download the PDF version for $20 from our online store.We achieved this wider distribution by working with another print on demand (POD) company, Lightning Source.
Win a printed copy of Technical Writing 101 (third edition)

24 Jun 2009 | 7:01 am

As of this week, the printed version of Technical Writing 101 (ISBN 9780970473363) is available at online bookstores, and you can also special order a copy from your local bookstore. To celebrate the book's wider distribution, we're giving away two printed copies.Enter the contest by June 30 (next Tuesday). We'll pick two winners at random on July 1.The printed book is now listed at many online stores, including Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, and BN.com. (FYI to all you bargain hunters out there: some of these stores are selling the book at a discount and with free shipping,…
Automated trademarking in structured documents – DITA in particular

22 Jun 2009 | 10:21 am

Unabashed plug warning: The following entry gives a conceptual overview of a solution Scriptorium has implemented for managing trademarks in structured tagging. And we're proud of it. You know the problem. According to your style standards, only the first instance of a given trademarked term should display the trademark symbol. Structured documentation allows you to re-use document parts (such as DITA topics) in just about any order you like. In Manual A, the first file containing the trademarked text is, say, Topic A; in Manual B the first file containing the trademarked text is Topic E,…

Anything Tech
Touchscreen Cellphones

admin

29 Jun 2009 | 1:25 pm

Communication is a series of action which result to transfer of information from one person to another. As learned from the history, our ancestors communicate through talking personally, writing, shouting from one mountain to another, making signs, or even drawing. But as time flies up towards the modern world, the way of communication has changed [...]
Satellite Navigation Devices

admin

19 Jun 2009 | 10:02 am

When Christopher Columbus first set sail on his voyages, there was little to help him navigate his way around the seven seas. While the compass was first invented to help improve navigation on the sea, there was nothing really out there to help with directions and navigation on the road. All this has changed since the [...]
Hydo(Water) Fuel - The Fuel of the Future

admin

16 Jun 2009 | 8:40 am

Hydro power, hydraulic power or water power is the power that is driven from the force of moving water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes. Prior to the widespread availability of commercial electric power, hydropower was used for irrigation and operation of various machines like watermills, textile machines, sawmills, dock cranes, and domestic lifts. [...]
The Nintendo DS Lite gets upgraded to the Nintendo DSI

admin

27 May 2009 | 6:41 am

Nintendo has shocked the world yet again with another spectacular addition to the family. The new NDSi is a hot new upgraded model of the long running NDS. Released in Japan late last year, the DSi has been a great success. With the recent US release it’s sure to be a sensation with both kids [...]
OLED - The Future of Television

admin

12 May 2009 | 12:59 pm

The future of television is the OLED television set. This set is different from the LED television set because it offers clearer, brighter projection and consumes less energy to operate. It is virtually weightless, weighing in at only a few ounces and is flexible as well as almost indestructible. The screen itself is paper thin [...]

Your Writing Dept Blog
Outsourcing vs. offshoring, and how U.S.-based technical writers can stay competitive

Ron Creel

24 Jun 2009 | 3:00 pm

After reading a discussion posted in a LinkedIn group for technical writers, I was struck by a poster who appeared to completely miss the distinction between “outsourcing” and “offshoring.” Sadly, I was not clear on the actual points she was trying to make in her post, other than being upset that she was displaced as a staff technical writer because the company was trying to save money by outsourcing her work to “non-Americans.” (Her word choice, not mine.) Being passed over for a job would be frustrating for many of us, but she did go on to seemingly…
Will Bing become the new Google? [Revised]

Ron Creel

10 Jun 2009 | 7:29 pm

As search engines go, Google has pretty much set the standards over the years. I remember first using Web Crawler, and then moving to Altavista, and then Yahoo!, until Google came along. So I am not set on one search engine over another. I just want the best that a search engine can offer me. I want it all is one location. I want to search for video and images on the same site I’m using for web searches. So is Bing going to bring it all together? From what I can tell after using Bing for less than a day, it looks as though it might just provide everything I need. But, I ask, is it…
Laid off technical writer? We want to hear from you.

Ron Creel

29 May 2009 | 10:34 am

Our experience has been that technical writers in software and product development companies are sometimes looked at as the canary in the coal mine and can help indicate the general health of a company. When development life cycles slow down, the tech writer is one of the first on the team to be laid off. And then, of course, when things pick up again, they are the last to be hired. If you have been laid off in this current economic crisis, we would like to hear your story. Tell us about the industry and product you were supporting. Tell us what you are doing now and whether you are looking…
NSFW question: are you more inclined to open a site if labeled NSFW?

Ron Creel

21 May 2009 | 9:41 am

Be honest, if a site is labeled NSFW, are you tempted to lean forward a little to block your monitor from prying eyes and click on the link? Do these four letters that serve as a warning that a site is not safe for work make you want to take a peek–no matter what risk you might run by going there? Come on, be honest! Your Writing Dept is a Sacramento-based writing firm that specializes in developing technical manuals and user guides. We’re the leaders in technical communications in Northern California. Email us for more information about our services at info@yourwritingdept.com.
.99 cents — less than a penny, or less than a dollar?

Ron Creel

20 May 2009 | 8:10 pm

While driving past a local gas station/food store, my daughter pointed out this sign. Always looking for a bargain, we wondered if this was 99 cents, as in one cent less than a dollar, or if these bottles were actually being sold for just a fraction less than a penny. Oh, what a difference a decimal and a cent sign make when a couple of numbers are sandwiched between them. Less than a penny for a 2-liter bottle of 7-up? Sounds like a bargain to me. I just wonder if I would actually get change back if I gave them a penny. Your Writing Dept is a Sacramento-based writing firm that specializes in…

Kay Whatley's blog
Presentations for The Summer XML 2009 Conference (Raleigh NC, July 2009)

Kay Whatley

15 Jun 2009 | 5:25 pm

The Summer XML Conference presentations were carefully selected to be highly technical, marketing fluff free, and presented by real users and technology experts. Presentations are set up in 3 tracks, with keynotes each day. Here is what you can expect. Keynote: Survivor: XML (Leigh W. White, Allscripts) Introduction to XSLT Concepts (Debbie Lapeyre, Mulberry Technologies) Introduction to DITA (Kristen James Eberlein, IBM) Ex-XHTML HTML (Doug Schepers, W3C) read more
Seeking a DITA map presenter for DITA conference

Kay Whatley

10 May 2009 | 4:43 pm

I produced the first fully DITA conference in the US a few years back. Each year since then, I've had the pleasure to work on one or two DITA conferences per year. For each, I pushed to ensure the conference provide a well-rounded user education experience. So, one of my main tasks over the next week or so is to locate a speaker for a conference presentation on DITA maps. A low-to-high technical presentation, maybe with a corny title -- cartography or navigation or something in the title. :-) read more
Introductions to XML, XSLT, and DITA offered at conference

Kay Whatley

4 May 2009 | 9:09 am

The XML conference I'm producing covers many aspects of XML. The audience is always varied, with engineers, gurus, newbies, managers, tech comm folks, IT folks, and others coming to learn and network. read more
XML, DITA Conference exhibitors-sponsors

Kay Whatley

17 Apr 2009 | 2:11 pm

Come and exhibit at these two technical events, geared toward IT manager, tech comm managers, IT workers, authors, editors, and tech comms. We expect to have a strong technical audience with a range from newbies through experienced gurus, with significant additional interest this year due to the strained job market. The Summer XML 2009 Conference -- http://www.aboveandbeyondlearning.com/xmlconference.html The RealWorld DITA 2009 Conference -- http://www.aboveandbeyondlearning.com/ditaconference.html read more
RealWorld DITA 2009 Conference - Raleigh NC USA this September!

Kay Whatley

25 Mar 2009 | 4:44 am

We are getting great response for the RealWorld DITA Conference here in Raleigh and have great speakers lined up -- including multiple speakers from IBM. Conference info is online at http://www.aboveandbeyondlearning.com/ditaconference.html

Technical Writer
A Farmers' Market in Frederick, Maryland

Ann

2 Jul 2009 | 2:14 pm

With $14 in single bills in my pocket, I set off for the farmers' market at Church and East streets this afternoon, just a few blocks from my house in Frederick, Maryland. I took the big basket because I needed lettuce, beets, and eggs from free-range hens, which Wendy sells at her Persimmon Pond farm stall. Wendy is trained as an economist, but she threw it all over and became a farmer, and I hope she has never looked back. To go with fish for supper, there will now be a salad of red leaf and Black-Seeded Simpson (an heirloom variety) lettuces, and red and golden beets…
Saturday Flowers June 27; Birds of Culler Lake

Ann

28 Jun 2009 | 7:49 am

This immature night heron was fishing this morning by the edge of Culler Lake, about 20 feet from the security of his roost in the tall trees. His siblings were spaced along the edge of the lake, those who weren't strolling nearby under their heronry. They are wary city dwellers, but as long as I stay on the path and do not venture onto their territory, they seem content to fish and stroll, not too bothered by me. Here is the great blue heron, which stabbed a small something a moment after I took this photo this morning. He is fishing well downstream from Culler Lake, in Baker…
Night Heron Fishing

Ann

23 Jun 2009 | 3:55 am

With all the hungry young at home high in the tangle of trees by Culler Lake in town, this night heron is getting a jump on the day by fishing downstream from the family brood. The immature herons were too high in their trees this morning to capture on camera, but I found a parent, already at work on their behalf. I hope the kids appreciate the fish.
Nine Herons Sitting in a Tree

Ann

23 Jun 2009 | 2:20 am

My feet hit the floor at 4:21 this morning, and I felt a surge of gratitude toward the cat who acknowledged me with a low, specific purr, "Yes, I let you sleep in, but don't get used to it." Leaving my husband sleeping quietly behind, I have come downstairs to begin the morning routine. I feed Miss Tammietta. She examines her kibble, then goes to the kitchen door with another expectant purr and I let her out. One minute later, she's back inside having breakfast. I have a friend who gets up every morning at this time. Her forebearers are from an old village…
A Dietary Revision

Ann

17 Jun 2009 | 9:08 am

Recently, around the time I began to take long early morning hikes through my town, I changed my dietary habits of a lifetime. I have always liked Haagen Dazs, for instance, but I no longer eat ice cream. I really like ice cream. When I lived on Stone Mountain, before leaving the grocery store I would roll a newly purchased pint of ice cream in the day's entire newspaper, wrap that in plastic, and pack it all into a special bag to preserve cold foods. I would drive the jeep home to the bottom of the mountain and hike to the house. I would unpack my treat and sit on the porch to…

Gryphon Mountain Journals
Quick Reference, Videos, and FAQ in Front; Help in the Back

Ben

2 Jul 2009 | 11:33 am

I’m becoming increasingly convinced that a help system is the dead last thing that people use for assistance. (Sometimes, though, if customer support is sufficiently lacking, that’s the dead last thing.) No matter how much we optimize help systems to make the information accessible, we just may never overcome the bad reputation that online help has. I’m more and more persuaded that quick reference guides and videos are preferred formats. Brainwashed by Tom Johnson? Maybe. But users of an application where I’ve provided these materials have provided feedback about them,…
STC: Help the Communities Provide Value

Ben

1 Jul 2009 | 1:01 am

Much has been said about the problem the Society for Technical Communication has found itself in, including on blogs, Twitter, and email listservs. (If you’d like to see some posts about it, Sarah O’Keefe has provided a list.) I’ve deliberately kept quiet here until I had some semblance of perspective to offer. But I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe this is a crisis STC needed—an impetus to get us all thinking together about how to improve the model, how to offer more direct benefits to the members. We’re past the point where talking about what previous…
Visualization Can Improve Writing

Ben

30 Jun 2009 | 7:11 pm

In an effort to improve a set of Captivate demonstrations I created for an application, I have started adding diagrams to the introductory slides where the voiceover exceeds 20 seconds. It’s a fairly arbitrary number, but I had to draw the line somewhere. After the introductory slides, I go into the demonstrations, so things move along at a pretty good pace. But I recognized that I’d put users to sleep if I didn’t throw some graphics or diagrams in to illustrate what I was talking about in those first slides. Some concepts are easy to illustrate, but I’ve run into some…
JIRA Notifications: A Helpful Nuisance

Ben

29 Jun 2009 | 8:27 pm

In the two projects I’m working on, I’ve been given the role of administrator in Atlassian JIRA, the application we use for tracking tasks and bugs. This has its pros and cons. The reason I was given this role is that it’s required to move tasks and bugs through the workflows that our department has set up. In the past, I’ve had to pester project managers to move my items into the status where I could then resolve them to be tested. Usually, I didn’t remember to do this until I was ready to resolve the item. So the workflow wasn’t really work-flowing if you…
Small Ways to Convey Doc Accuracy

Ben

27 Jun 2009 | 1:43 pm

One of my colleagues asked another about changing the icon in Flare that you can use to indicate new or updated topics. The answer: Change it in the output. I see people in the RoboHelp forums ask for a comparable feature too. But it probably doesn’t matter because how much do users care what’s new in a documentation set? In this Web 2.0, connectedness-driven world, we acknowledge that to some extent, people seek out the most up-to-date information. If it was published in 2008, it’s ancient history. If it was published last month, it’s not as bad, but still not…

HelpScribe
Writing user manuals | tips and templates

23 Jun 2009 | 6:51 pm

Writing user manuals isn't so difficult if you start with a clear understanding of the structure of such documents. This post will provide you with some guidelines for producing a great manual, and links to templates to help you get started. Gathering information The ultimate success of your manual depends heavily on accuracy. If you fail to correctly document how a product works, users will lose faith in the reliability of the guide and stop referring to it. Also, such mistakes can be dangerous and/or expensive for the user. To ensure that your manual is accurate, refer constantly to the…
First time here?

9 Jun 2009 | 4:12 am

Welcome to HelpScribe. If this is your first time visiting, you might want to check out the following posts. How to become a technical writer (my story and stories from other writers) 6 ways to improve user retention of help content Why we become technical writers Current trends in technical communications 22 tips for writing software documentation users will actually read The art of technical writing Also, don't forget to subscribe to the RSS feed. Just use the link in the navigation section. Thanks for visiting!
Strategic use of FAQs on Communications from DMN

9 Jun 2009 | 3:42 am

I just wrote a guest post on the Communications from DMN blog about using FAQs effectively. If you check it out, don't forget to subscribe to the Communications from DMN RSS feed. They publish highly informative posts on a regular basis, so you don't want to miss anything!
Why internal communications is the land of opportunity

30 May 2009 | 1:22 am

When we think of technical writing, most of us think of end-user documentation. However, technical writers have skills that can be leveraged inside the company as well. By acting as a communications service for other departments, technical writers can build a reputation for quality work and contribute to the bottom line. What does this mean for you? A lot, actually. Greater respect from coworkers - You'll spend less time explaining what exactly you do, and justifying your existence to the powers-that-be. Awareness of recent changes - You'll have deeper involvement in projects from other…
Is your help missing vital information?

14 May 2009 | 4:00 pm

There's a lot of evidence indicating that online readers have short attention spans, and that we should dumb down electronic content accordingly. In fact, I myself have suggested simple FAQ-based help in past HelpScribe posts. But... there are two sides to every story, and I think it's necessary to tread with a bit of caution. Reader attention likely varies quite a bit, and making the help too light-weight can cost you in the long run. While it may be vital to address those users who are looking for a quick answer to a problem, I'm guessing there are still quite a few users who work through…

THE BOGGLISH HUDERON
here's to hoping

Mike Frasciello

11 Jun 2009 | 4:47 am

There's something prescient in Roxanne's post here. I've found a similar theme through much of Derek's public writing a few years ago. There's been plenty of it in my own anguish over qualifying exams that I never seem to get closer to. I'm like that guy in Kafka's The Castle -- you know, the idiot who can't seem to gain entrance to the castle? The sad (and most frustrating) part of the story is that all he had to do was walk in. So you're left wondering, did he really want to get in or was he happy enough just sitting around bitching about how everyone was making it so hard for him?I think…
catfish are jumpin'

Mike Frasciello

11 Jun 2009 | 4:25 am

I can't blame this gap on the way things tend to slow down in the summer. Things don't slow down for us in the summer. WE ARE SUMMER! Yeah, baby -- we are summer damit! Beyond the administration's hysteria about making that point clear to all staff, there is a marked excitement around here from late May to early August. It's the excitment of purpose. Despite our organizational issues, we continue to be extremely good at providing programs, support, and services to part-time SU students. Between the spring and fall, that excellence extends to all SU students enrolled in courses and non-credit…
da da da

Mike Frasciello

1 May 2009 | 11:48 am

"Teaching presence is referred to as the design facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes for the realization of personally meaningful and educationally worthwhile learning outcomes."This is exactly why faculty are coming to our Introduction to Online Learning workshops with that pleading look on their faces. They don't want this blather. They can read this crap five different ways in five different academic journals. This isn't what they want. This isn't what they need. Faculty want plain language help. They want models and examples. They want someone to hand them the…
timeless

Mike Frasciello

30 Apr 2009 | 5:18 pm

In 1905, Sir T. Clifford Allbutt penned the following sentence in his still relevant text, Notes on the Composition of Scientific Papers:"At present few people have time to wade through pages and pages of discursive and ill explained writings on the off chance that they may ultimately light on an interesting result."There's a couple of reasons why I like this sentence. Nothing has changed in the 104 years since Allbutt made the claim. He was writing within an argument for concision, clarity, and simplicity from scientists and authors of scientific (specifically, medical) articles. Today,…
the lowly engineer

Mike Frasciello

21 Apr 2009 | 11:14 am

OK, last one and I'll leave it alone:"Indeed the engineer does bungle language deplorably. He makes a fetish of efficiency, yet he shows no regard for the effective use of one of his most important tools -- the pen; he believes devoutly in accuracy, yet he employs a weapon of precision as carelessly as a small boy handles a gun." ~ T.A. RickardThis is how all technical writing texts need to be written. Analogy, metaphor, whit, and humor. Can you imagine Markel or Lannon trying to pull this off?I'm going to drop this line on my WRT 407 engineers next fall -- all 50 of them.

CyberText Newsletter
Classic t-shirt

Rhonda

3 Jul 2009 | 3:05 pm

The Venn Diagram on this t-shirt says all you need to know about ’social media’: Where do you fit? T-shirts are available for purchase from: http://site.despair.com/socialmediatee/ [Link last checked June 2009] Posted in Humor, Websites
Remote user and user interface testing

Rhonda

2 Jul 2009 | 3:06 pm

Five Second Test The Five Second Test site is in beta. They offer: A simple online usability test that helps you identify the most prominent elements of your user interfaces. So far, tests are free. You can submit images of your interface/web page or can participate as a tester. (The people behind this site are an Australian company too!) Remote usability testing resources Liz Bacon, a member of the STC Usability and User Experience Community, has put together a comprehensive Google spreadsheet of several remote testing offerings. She has summarized their features, costs, etc. here:…
Word: Keyboard shortcut to paste unformatted text

Rhonda

1 Jul 2009 | 2:54 pm

Copying text from one Word document to another can be problematic, especially if you’re using templates and styles. Things can go wrong. Text can take on the styles of the destination document/template or keep its own styles. And sometimes you don’t want to keep any of the styles in the original text — you just want to paste in the text without any formatting. Word has several ways you can achieve this, some more convoluted than others, but as far as I know, there’s no standard keyboard command to paste text in as unformatted text. Some of the standard methods within…
Presentation: Reviewing Screen-based Content

Rhonda

30 Jun 2009 | 3:19 pm

In 2006, I delivered this presentation to the annual AODC Conference in Cairns, and to the annual ASTC (NSW) Conference in Sydney later that year. There are two sets of slides: the first set contains the presentation, the second set contains the examples I used. All accompanying handouts, resource lists etc. are available from the CyberText website. The focus of this presentation was: what to look for when checking a website, a CHM, and an animated tutorial or demonstration how to capture screen-based content in a form suitable for printing (for hand mark-up) or electronic delivery (for…
Don’t make the next step difficult

Rhonda

29 Jun 2009 | 3:55 pm

I got a replacement wireless access point a few weeks back. And like a good citizen, I tried to register my purchase on the Netgear website. The screen shot below is part of their product registration page (there’s another section to the right that I didn’t capture, which is for Returning users with existing login details): Netgear's product registration page So, what’s wrong with this, you might ask? In summary, neither the process nor the ‘call to action’ are clear. Specifically: The Registration button in the navigation bar returns you to this page. The…

UAX (User Assistance Experience)
Collect Underpants

Michael Hughes

30 Jun 2009 | 5:57 am

Thanks to Miranda Bennett for posting this on her blog a while back. As I struggle with trying to define what our New Normal for STC will be like, I keep wrestling with Phase Two.
Balsamiq

Michael Hughes

26 Jun 2009 | 11:42 am

Shout out to Balsamiq for believing me when I said I had a license but I changed laptops. They sent me a new license (thanks, Val).Check out their product Balsamiq Mockups. It's a low-fidelity wireframing tool that has an informal hand-drawn look. I have used high fidelity wireframe tools and one of the problems is that people fall too easily into pixel pushing if it looks like it's meant to be a
Online vs. on-line

Michael Hughes

26 Jun 2009 | 5:27 am

No this isn't a discussion of hyphenated vs. not hyphenated. It examines the difference between putting a PDF file on the Internet (what I call an on-line document) and having a truly electronic Web presence for that content (what I call an online document). Unfortunately, the two often get bundled together.I have a UXmatters column called PDF Manuals: The Wrong Paradigm for an Online Experience
State of the Ark

Michael Hughes

22 Jun 2009 | 6:20 am

State of the ark: A phrase I coined (I think) to represent feeling that the technology you are using is so cool when in reality it is like so yesterday.For example, I got a new phone this weekend that I think is neat because it slides open, and I can display my wife's picture and have a special ring-tone when she calls. Other than that, it just makes and takes calls. Someone wanting to mock my
How not to update your look and feel

Michael Hughes

19 Jun 2009 | 4:51 am

Mike Hughes, STC 1VP not afraid to embrace new technologiesOne of the themes that keeps coming at me as an officer of STC is that STC needs to modernize its image so that it has more appeal to the upcoming generation of technical communicators. Our demographics certainly show that we have to increase our appeal to a younger segment of the industry.It reminds me of when I was speaking at a CDC

TechScribe software documentation
ISTC online groups, spring 2009

ISTC online groups. This review covers security clearance, online communities, management commitment to technical communication, and video for user assistance.
Technical writing newsletter 31: June 2009

The latest news from TechScribe. Issue 31 covers our ten years of technical communication, and a free offer worth $249 to attend Mike Unwalla's audio presentation on 9 June about international English.
ISTC online groups, winter 2008

ISTC online groups. This review covers document management, psuedo-cleft sentences, and user input in Microsoft Word
Technical writing newsletter 30: March 2009

The latest news from TechScribe. Issue 30 covers machine translation, writing for people who read English as a second language, technical author training in Ireland, and the 'Communicator' profile of Mike Unwalla.
Machine translation or human translation?

Sometimes, machine translation is a good option. Sometimes, human translation is a good option. A new flow chart will help you to choose the best option for your website.

Cherryleaf Technical Authors Blog
Trust is the new critical currency in the connected age

ellis

3 Jul 2009 | 7:15 am

Trust is the new critical currency in the connected age.” This is a Twitter post by Scott Berg, Director of HP Global Digital Strategy. Assuming technical communicators produce highly... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]]
Saving content from oblivion: If it’s not online, it’s invisible.

ellis

3 Jul 2009 | 7:10 am

Oxford University Press’s Tim Barton, in an article on the Google Book Settlement, states: What once seemed at least debatable has now become irrefutable: If it’s not online, it’s... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]]
Ten key issues for CEOs of software companies

ellis

3 Jul 2009 | 6:49 am

At Intellect (the trade association for UK technology companies) yesterday, there was a meeting looking at how UK software companies are faring in this current economic climate. At this event,... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]]
Lessons for technical communicators from the telecommunications sector

ellis

29 Jun 2009 | 9:03 am

It’s often useful to look at the economic and technological pressures in other industries, to see if the trends emerging there are relevant to the technical communications/publications sector.... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]]
If your Technical Publications department was a business

ellis

29 Jun 2009 | 8:32 am

Sometimes it’s good for managers to look at a department in a slightly different way from normal. What, for example, if the Technical Publications department was a business? If a business... [[ For the full article, see http://www.cherryleaf.com/blog.htm]]

Communications from DMN
Martial arts and technical writing

Scott

2 Jul 2009 | 2:00 am

Over the decades, I’ve practiced or been exposed to a number of martial arts. My technique was never very good, but I got to meet a lot of … interesting individuals. While I’ve never had to use what I learned on the job (there have been times when I was tempted, though), some of the principles of learning martial arts can definitely be applied to technical communication. How? Well, read on. The basics are the key Any good instructor spends a lot of time on the basics. How to stand, how to move forwards and backwards and to the side, how to form a fist, and the proper…
Faceted search and applying it to tech comm

Scott

30 Jun 2009 | 2:00 am

As Keith Soltys mentioned in a comment on a recent post in this space, librarians are the people that companies shoud turn to wen creating a taxonomy for … well, for just about any content. But librarians also have some interesting insights into search. Not just about what to look for and where, but how to search. And, just as important, the connections betwen items and (of course) the taxonomies that apply to those connections. I really believe that technical communicators and content strategists can learn a lot from librarians, and the techies who work along side them. That belief was…
Weekly links roundup

Scott

26 Jun 2009 | 2:00 am

A little humour: the 13 greatest error messages of all time Tim O’Reilly discusses Twitter as publishing Some notes on user experience and design from the UXLondon conference Should your documentation go deeper or wider? Solid advice on writing clearly and simply Freelance translators clash with LinkedIn over crowdsourced translations. Could this happen with crowdsourced docs, too?
What makes a technical writer tick?

Scott

24 Jun 2009 | 2:00 am

by: Sarah Maddox We’ve all seen those lists of characteristics that make a good technical writer, as posted in job ads or course descriptions. They’re more like a wish list than anything based on fact. I’d be a pretty weird person if such a list described the whole me. “The ability to turn geek-speak into baby talk; the ability to spot a mizplaced (sic) zed from ten yards out; unflappability when informed that the deadline that everyone else knew about has just passed; unquestioning acceptance of the ineffability of product management; flexibility to the point of…
A new guest post coming tomorrow

Scott

23 Jun 2009 | 12:29 pm

This one by Sarah Maddox, who you may know from her blog or from her work at Atlassian. What has Sarah written for this space? Check back tomorrow to find out. Her post is definitely worth a read.

Core Dump
Pogue trashes router because of docs

Keith

3 Jul 2009 | 3:55 am

At first glance, you'd think that D-Link's DIR-685 router was pretty neat - it's a wireless router with Network Attached Storage capabilities, and it even has a built-in LCD screen that can display web pages, router settings, and pictures. But, (and there's always a but, isn't there?) you'll never figure out how to use the advanced features because the documentation sucks. It's not just that it's
DITA 101 launched

Keith

2 Jul 2009 | 8:38 am

The Rockley Group has officially launched their new book, DITA 101. We’ve designed DITA 101 for writers and managers. We’ve taken our years of experience helping organizations to move to DITA and distilled it into an easy-to-read and understandable format. And since the move to DITA often goes hand-in-hand with an organization’s adoption of content management, we’ve made sure that our expertise
How Google does help

Keith

2 Jul 2009 | 3:04 am

Tom Johnson looks at the help for Google's new Google Voice service and finds that it could be better. Google puts a lot of effort in the overview video. That’s a smart move. When people want to learn about Google Voice, the overview video communicates the service in a catchy way, with more of Google’s branding. This video is probably watched thousands of times (a lot more than any other video),
Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3 - great live rock

Keith

1 Jul 2009 | 10:52 am

If you want to hear some good, live rock music, go to the NYC Taper site and download his recording of Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3 from June 27 at the Bell House in New York City. I have to admit that I wasn't familiar with Steve Wynn - he was with a band called the Dream Syndicate back in the 1980s, but has been pursuing a solo career since. The concert recording is an audience/soundboard
Hitler's stealth fighter

Keith

1 Jul 2009 | 5:45 am

National Geographic has a TV documentary about the Horten 2-29, a stealth fighter that the Nazi's were prototyping at the end of the war, and which could have changed the course of WW II if they'd had time to produce it in quantity.With the engines buried in the fuselage, exterior surfaces blended together, and plane constructed almost entirely out of wood (possibly to prevent radar from

Tech Writer News
Technical Writer, Content Managment

2 Jul 2009 | 3:38 am

Technical writer available for short term projects.More...
Salary and Rate Reporting for Q3 2009 Begins July 1

30 Jun 2009 | 12:35 pm

Participation is required in order to gain access to the detailed results without paying 1200 NIS + VAT. You must login to participate. Data that cannot be verified or clarified will not be used in the survey to ensure accuracy. If you do not have a username and password you can create a free user account at http://elephant.org.il/register. Reporting takes place at the start of each fiscal quarter.More...
VAT Increases to 16.5% on July 1

30 Jun 2009 | 12:08 pm

This is a reminder to all freelance writers.More...
Effective Strategy To Estimate Time For Your Design Projects

11 Jun 2009 | 11:16 am

Smashing Magazine posted a great article entitled "Effective Strategy To Estimate Time For Your Design Projects" which is relevant to anyone doing freelance work.More...
5th Annual Tech Writers Picnic

6 Jun 2009 | 4:45 pm

Mark your calendars. This year's picnic will be July 10 at the the Kibbutz Hazorea swimming pool. The picnic is open to all technical writers, marcom writers, copy editors and members of similar professions. You do not need to be a member to come. It is always great fun for the whole family and fun to meet your colleague's families. There is a great swimming pool for kids and infants, and an even better one for the adults. There will be an entrance fee of 20 NIS per person charged by the Kibbutz. This fee covers entrance to the area and will be charged regardless of whether you use the pool.

STC AccessAbility SIG
2009 Apex® Excellence Award Winner

Web Diva

25 Jun 2009 | 1:18 pm

Hooray! We are proud to announce that this blog won an Excellence award in the 2009 APEX® Awards for Publication Excellence in the category of "Blogs, Forums & Wikis"! Information about the competition is available at http://www.ApexAwards.com/. APEX 2009 awards were based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content and the success of the entry—in the [...]
How would you resolve the financial crisis in STC?

kmardahl

21 Jun 2009 | 2:30 pm

Your society needs your input yesterday! Last week, Cindy Currie, STC President, sent out a message to all STC members asking for input to help resolve the financial crisis that the Society is facing. The Society really does need your input now! All members are request to please submit any suggestions that you have to stc@stc.org. Please [...]
Surgical Bras

CynthiaL

17 Jun 2009 | 7:53 am

X-chrom.com at https://www.x-chrom.com/ provides surgical bras, sports bras, and women’s activewear for every body to inspire every body to live an active lifestyle and do more with life. The site shows surgical bras by the type of procedure: shoulder surgery, heart surgery, lung surgery, breast surgery, etc. Their Custom Online Fitting Service provides personal service [...]
The ATAG 2.0 Working Draft Call for Review

kmardahl

21 May 2009 | 2:35 pm

The call for review of the working draft of ATAG 2.0 – the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines – is now open. You can submit your comments until June 11. What needs to be reviewed? This 2.0 working draft of the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) published 21 May 2009. How to review ATAG 2.0 If you accept this [...]
Accessibility in Technical Communication and the Workplace conference

CynthiaL

18 May 2009 | 3:52 pm

[ June 13, 2009 to June 14, 2009. ] Are you ignoring an important market sector? How do we make our communications usable by people with hearing and sight difficulties? How do we work with colleagues and customers who have hearing and sight difficulties? The Society for Technical Communication UK and Ireland chapter is pleased to announce this major event that will give you the answers. The [...]

Answers for All
Learn How Much You Don’t Know

paulm

27 Jun 2009 | 5:53 pm

If you have seen The Matrix, you may remember the scene where Neo awakens in his “power cell” cocoon, looks out at all the other cocoons, and realizes how much he never knew was happening around him. This scene raises the point for me that…the more you know, the more you know you don’t [...]
Technical Communication Trends and Ideas

paulm

13 May 2009 | 2:47 pm

Technical Communication continues to change as we find new ways to meet the needs of our audiences. I have attended several conferences recently and discussed several of the latest trends with other technical communicators. This article provides a quick list of several of these trends and ideas: Wikis are becoming more widely used as [...]
Attend a Conference without Attending

paulm

12 May 2009 | 11:14 am

Both the WriterUA conference and the STC Summit in 2009 have proved that you can attend a conference without being there. Don’t get me wrong…there is a lot of value from being involved in the discussions within the program sessions. However, Twitter and ScribbleLive provide several important ways for us to share ideas [...]
How Embedded User Assistance Impacts Documentation

paulm

12 May 2009 | 10:51 am

Why don’t users read the documentation? In many cases, they need to stop what they are doing, go into the documentation, and find the information they are looking for. Then, they need to return to the user interface, remember what they were doing, and start again where they stopped. Embedded user assistance relieves this [...]
HTML No Longer Needed

paulm

17 Mar 2009 | 8:01 am

With blog and wiki tools and technologies, are HTML, XHTML, and XML no longer needed? Blogs and wikis allow you to type text entries and these technologies figure out how to display it, often with little or no tagging markup. Their WYSIWYG interfaces continue to improve and expand. As the technology advances, these tools may add processing that [...]

User Assistance
Collect Underpants

30 Jun 2009 | 5:57 am

Thanks to Miranda Bennett for posting this on her blog a while back. As I struggle with trying to define what our New Normal for STC will be like, I keep wrestling with Phase Two.
Balsamiq

26 Jun 2009 | 11:42 am

Shout out to Balsamiq for believing me when I said I had a license but I changed laptops. They sent me a new license (thanks, Val).Check out their product Balsamiq Mockups. It's a low-fidelity wireframing tool that has an informal hand-drawn look. I have used high fidelity wireframe tools and one of the problems is that people fall too easily into pixel pushing if it looks like it's meant to be a
Online vs. on-line

26 Jun 2009 | 5:27 am

No this isn't a discussion of hyphenated vs. not hyphenated. It examines the difference between putting a PDF file on the Internet (what I call an on-line document) and having a truly electronic Web presence for that content (what I call an online document). Unfortunately, the two often get bundled together.I have a UXmatters column called PDF Manuals: The Wrong Paradigm for an Online Experience
State of the Ark

22 Jun 2009 | 6:20 am

State of the ark: A phrase I coined (I think) to represent feeling that the technology you are using is so cool when in reality it is like so yesterday.For example, I got a new phone this weekend that I think is neat because it slides open, and I can display my wife's picture and have a special ring-tone when she calls. Other than that, it just makes and takes calls. Someone wanting to mock my
How not to update your look and feel

19 Jun 2009 | 4:51 am

Mike Hughes, STC 1VP not afraid to embrace new technologiesOne of the themes that keeps coming at me as an officer of STC is that STC needs to modernize its image so that it has more appeal to the upcoming generation of technical communicators. Our demographics certainly show that we have to increase our appeal to a younger segment of the industry.It reminds me of when I was speaking at a CDC

Writer River
Feedburner Add Customizable Subject Lines to Email Subscriptions

2 Jul 2009 | 10:56 pm

Feedburner Add Customizable Subject Lines to Email Subscriptions. Holy smokes, I’ve been waiting for Feedburner to roll out this feature forever. For all of your subscribed to email updates of my posts, you can now look forward to customized subject lines of the actual post, rather than just seeing the blog name.
Mind Hacks: In our wildest dreams

30 Jun 2009 | 4:21 pm

Mind Hacks: In our wildest dreams. Okay, I realize this has little to do with technical communication, but it will change the way you view your dreams at night. Rather than escape, fantasy, or just plain nonsense, dreams are “night-time survival training.” Those dangerous situations of aggression or pursuit are your body’s way of conditioning a response to danger. It’s your training for those really dangerous situations you might find yourself in when you’re actually awake.
From the Desk of David Pogue – What’s in Pogue’s Travel Bag? Literally. – NYTimes.com

30 Jun 2009 | 4:19 pm

From the Desk of David Pogue – What’s in Pogue’s Travel Bag? Literally. – NYTimes.com. It’s interesting to see what kind of tech gadgets David Pogue carries when he travels. Perhaps the culture of James Bond gadgets has inspired such a fondness for gadgets.
How to apply syntax highlighting to code snippets in MadCap Flare

30 Jun 2009 | 2:19 am

How to apply syntax highlighting to code snippets in MadCap Flare. The anonymous blogger at kungfuwit.wordpress.com describes how to use the SHJS (Syntax Highlighting for JavaScript) resources to make code snippets easier to digest, and easier on the eye. My documentation rarely ever contains code, but it's the kind of thing that may come in useful one of these days. Note: He/she says this doesn't work in WebHelp - only for .chm - but there's a workaround I'll blog myself when I get some time.
Palimpsest: This is the future of technical communication

29 Jun 2009 | 1:28 pm

Palimpsest: This is the future of technical communication. Sarah O’Keefe explores an ethical dilemma about including potentially dangerous information in documentation (even if it’s accurate). Her post made me reflect. Fortunately, I don’t document anything that has any impact on one’s life (except death by boredom in a meeting).

EServer TC Writing
A Brief Orientation to E-learning

1 Jul 2009 | 8:07 pm

What is E-learning? E-learning is a general term that refers to education delivered using various forms of digital media such as the internet, video conferencing, audio, animation, and virtual environments. A course delivered using these tools, combined with face-to-face learning from an instructor, is referred to as blended learning. Hall, Julia
The Global English Style Guide

1 Jul 2009 | 8:06 pm

A review of "The Global English Style Guide: Writing Clear, Translatable Documentation for a Global Market" by John R. Kohl. Wenger, Andrea
Web Application Design Patterns

1 Jul 2009 | 8:06 pm

A review of "Web Application Design Patterns" by Pawan Vora. Dick, David
Best Practices for Online Review

1 Jul 2009 | 6:45 pm

Marking up paper is still the most common way to review documents, but online review is critical if you work as part of a distributed team. There are advantages to online review even if you sit only a cubicle away from your reviewer. Here are few tips for making your online reviews go smoothly. Smith, Terry
Outsourcing vs. Offshoring, and How U.S.-Based Technical Writers Can Stay Competitive

1 Jul 2009 | 5:37 pm

A reluctance to learn new skills holds you back and complaining about potential employers raising the bar hurts us all.

Shanghai Tech Writer
China’s Own Little Michael Jackson

Susan

2 Jul 2009 | 6:26 pm

I know this post is unrelated to the theme of this blog, but part of the living-in-China experience is reading about interesting news and giving outsiders a glimpse of “China.” Here’s a video of a Chinese high school student doing a rendition of Michael Jackson’s Beat It. Related Articles: Slashbot: Guitar Hero Robot (1) Sim City Shanghai: 3D Map of Shanghai (1) Accessing YouTube in China (1) Ken Lee: Lost In Translation (0) Competing for Jobs in China (1) Links Roundup: Games (0) Share and Enjoy:
Learning By Reading, Listening, or Doing

Susan

30 Jun 2009 | 5:00 pm

I love to play board games! Over the years, I’ve accumulated a huge collection of board games, including old school games (like Clue, Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, Connect Four, Taboo, Pictionary, etc…) and new school games (like Settlers of Catan, Power Grid, Carcassone, El Grande, Ticket to Ride, Puerto Rico, etc..). Unless you’re a big fan of board games, you’ve probably never heard of these newer games before. Most of these newer games are created by the Germans. I suppose the Germans love to play board games. The thing with German games as well as the newer games is that they are…
Google Wave: A New Model for Collaboration on the Web

Susan

27 Jun 2009 | 9:57 am

I am a big Google fan! I love Gmail. I love Picasa. I love Google Earth. I love Google Sketchup. I love Google Chrome. And when Google Wave comes out later this year, I know I am going to love that too! What is Google Wave? Google wave is a communication and collaboration tool that combines aspects of emails, wikis, instant messaging, social networking, web chat, and project management right inside your browser. Simply put, Google Wave is a wiki version of instant messaging that allows collaborators to organize thoughts, ideas, and conversations in real-time. Google Wave Video Demo If you…
Job Opportunity: Technical Writing Position in Beijing

Susan

23 Jun 2009 | 6:47 pm

Every so often, recruiters and headhunters contact me for information, tips, and suggestions regarding hiring technical writers in China. I also get messages from readers looking for technical writing opportunities in China. Rather than me trying to figure out what’s a good match for everyone, I’ll be posting job opportunities here. If you’re interested in applying for a position, send your cover letter/resume directly to the contact person listed in the job posting. If you’re interested in posting a job opportunity (positions in China only), send me the job description/details…
Internet Connection: Austin vs. Shanghai

Susan

9 Jun 2009 | 10:36 pm

I use SpeedTest.net often to check my Internet connection speed. You’d think that Internet connection should be the same if you paid for a specific bandwidth, but not so in China. I’ve seen my Internet connection speed fluctuate from 0.5 MB/s to 4.0 Mb/s, but mostly in the lower range. Connection speed varies depending on the time of the day or the day of the week. Internet connection in China is super slow compared to the rest of the world. At home, I’m able to tailor my online activities depending on how fast my Internet connection is. If my connection is fast, I can watch a streaming…

David Barnes @ Packt
How Dan Roam's Visual Codex Works for Words too

3 Jul 2009 | 4:50 am

The centerpiece of Dan Roam's excellent book The Back of the Napkin is his visual codex. It helps you to choose the right kind of picture for anything that you want to show: Even if you use words instead of pictures, the framework is very useful... it doesn't matter much whether you want to describe something in words or shapes. When an author introduces a concept to a reader they usually describe what the concept is either at a simple or elaborate level. You can see this right in the top left hand corner of the diagram... a (word) portrait of whatever the concept is. You're telling the…
"Advanced Techniques"

1 Jul 2009 | 10:00 am

I'm not that keen when books have a section of "advanced techniques". Often "advanced" really means "hard to do". A book should show how to get a job done. If you need to know it, you have to cover it -- and the fact that its "advanced" makes no difference. If you don't need to know it, then you can either cut it out or -- if it's fun / useful -- include it near the end. Again, the fact that it's advanced makes no difference. If you mean by advanced "optional, but useful". If that's the case, call it that. Or if it means "impressive stuff", then that's even better -- call it…
Ditch the "History of the Internet" chapters

30 Jun 2009 | 6:38 am

Your book doesn't need to cover the history of the Internet. Unless you happen to be writing a book called "The History of the Internet". If you are, good luck to you. History of the Internet chapters usually appear when a new technology makes use of a whole bunch of preceding technologies. The author can't conceive that anybody could understand this new tool, without learning about all the old technologies that it relies on. Readers hate it when books start this way. Readers are fickle creatures, swift to judge -- and if the first chapter reads like a history text book then they'll assume…
Shoulda, woulda, coulda

29 Jun 2009 | 4:13 am

It's easy to think of things that everybody should be doing. There's probably a million things you should be doing right now, instead of reading this post. There are a million things I should be doing instead of writing it. Rarely do people buy books about things they should do. Even if the argument is unassailable and the eventual benefits immeasurable. If you want to write computer books that sell, look for things that people want to do and are trying to figure out. That's where the sales are. These human beings just don't know what's good for them. Permalink | Leave a…
Deeper or Wider: The Buffet Approach to Computer Book Marketing

23 Jun 2009 | 1:33 pm

Seth posted a few weeks ago about buffets and choosing whether to go deeper or wider. Going deeper or wider is about the only way to compete in a crowded market, even for books. Deeper -- find some aspect of the topic that some readers are obsessed with, and focus entirely on that Wider -- figure out what puts people off the existing choices, and create a book that will appeal to more people In computer book publishing, Dummies is the most successful "Wider" play. They knock down the main factors that put people off buying computer books. In any category they are usually the cheapest and…

MetaliQue.com
Trackback (ProBlogger.net) : Search Engine Optimization tips for bloggers

Eddie Gear

3 Jul 2009 | 6:07 am

Some of the largest sources of traffic that a blog can potentially tap into are Search Engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. Blogs are naturally suited to rank well in Search Engines as a result of their frequent updates, targeted topics, interlinking structure and ability to generate links from other parts of the blogosphere - [...]
Trackback (ProBlogger.net) : How to write your “About Me” page

Eddie Gear

3 Jul 2009 | 12:22 am

How do you write an About Me page? There are four main questions that readers want answered on your About Me page: who you are… your expertise and how it addresses… their problem or goal, and how they can… contact you Here is a sample “About Me” page that answers these questions: Hi, I’m Jane Smith [...]
Trackback (ProBlogger.net) : How bloggers make money from blogs

Eddie Gear

2 Jul 2009 | 12:45 am

As an update to this post Darren has recently written one on How I make Money Blogging which highlights the most profitable ways that he use blogs to generate income. He’s also written extensively on how bloggers make money in ProBlogger the Book. How do bloggers make money from blogs? I’ve been reflecting this week about the [...]
Trackback (ProBlogger.net) : What is a Blog?

Eddie Gear

1 Jul 2009 | 1:57 am

This week’s post is dedicated to ProBlogger.net by Darren Rowse who has been and is doing a wonderful job blogging and helping readers worldwide. ProBlogger.net has contributed a lot towards my development as a blogger and its time I shared some of the top posts from Darren that I found useful. So what is a Blog [...]
Giveaway: 500 standard size business cards from UPrinting.com

Eddie Gear

25 Jun 2009 | 11:06 pm

This week Metalique is hosting a Giveaway (first one). For this one we are giving away, thanks to UPrinting, 500 standard size business cards. The Giveaway… 1 reader will get 500 standard size business cards The Sponsor… The sponsor for this giveaway is UPrinting. U-Printing is a trusted online printing company committed to service, quality and simplicity. They [...]

2moro Docs
Think Mobile When You Write

admin

1 Jul 2009 | 9:19 am

Always keep the small screen in mind when you’re preparing your docs. There are some W3C “mobileOK” guidelines to consider to ensure that your content meets requirements. Here are some highlights: Tables - No nested tables - Tables must have more than one row and more than one cell per row Page Titles - There must be a Title element in the Head section, and it must not be blank. Frames - No frames. These don’t work well for search engines anyway, so it’s best to avoid them. Images - No image maps - Images must have height and weight measurements, and they must be…
Wikipedia to Add Editable Video Functionality

admin

23 Jun 2009 | 12:33 pm

Game over. Print is on its way out. I just read an article about Wikipedia adding video functionality down the road that will enable people to edit videos. I’ve been figuring that video is key, and that people would take some video already made, come up with their own version, and post it somewhere. I’ve seen such videos on YouTube - not for docs, but for other topics. Functionality for people to “annotate your video, edit your video, and improve upon it–in the same way people have been doing to your text posts” makes it a whole new ball game. See the article in…
Use of Flexible Screens in Documentation

admin

8 Jun 2009 | 2:08 pm

Lately, I’ve come across two articles about flexible screens. One is for small touch screens, the other is about video. What’s particularly interesting about the video flexible screens is that the article in Technology Review states that there is a possibility that such screens could be “worn on wrists, and plastered on clothes.” Now imagine this for docs: what if, perhaps, you are working in a manufacturing facility and need some instructions on how to run a machine or something. What if you could just push a button on your sleeve and see a video about how to complete…
Let’s Reinvent Technical Writing

admin

3 Jun 2009 | 11:44 am

More and more, I think it’s time to discard main approaches to tech writing and come up with new methodologies. The world and technology is changing so much that I think it’s time to start fresh. Just as sometimes when you’re working on a sentence and you tweak it and change it, but it’s still not quite right, and you finally just drop it and come up with something different. Perhaps it’s time to drop existing methodologies and develop something new instead of trying to tweak what’s there to fit what’s happening now. Perhaps the old methods no longer work. The old print book…
A New Doc Strategy

admin

31 Mar 2009 | 11:13 am

In years past, a doc strategy was fairly straightforward: prepare print documents that were either in binders or printed into a book. Then came online help, so both were used. Then PDF was added as an option. For many, that’s as far as capabilities have progressed. The new reality is that technology is rapidly changing and different methods of access are popping up all the time. Print and PDF, to some degree, are going to fade away. Some sort of online version will endure, but it won’t be what we’re accustomed to. To wit, here’s yet another example of new technology:…

All the top Technical Writing news.

See also Writing and Consulting.

Your MyAlltop account awaits.