Oh boy. I feel like a kid at Christmas. I’ve signed up to go to WordCamp Seattle, taking place next month. That’s because, of course, WordPress is the coolest thing ever. I think that every tech writer needs to know it. How I ever lived without it before now I can’t say. I could easily [...]
Legal Requirements in the New Age
July 31, 2009 By Leave a Comment
With the recent news this past week about a woman being sued $50K for a tweet she wrote and the resultant backlash on the company that was suing, it started me thinking about legal ramifications of using social media for business. I’m all for using social media as part of an overall tech doc strategy, [...]
Cut, Cut, Cut your Content and Procedures
July 20, 2009 By 2 Comments
Sure. We’ve been reducing word count in procedures for some time. It’s time to do more, however. As noted in an earlier post, we have to think mobile. Think small screens and small devices. Screen real estate will be at a premium.
With that in mind, I’m offering some suggestions on how to cut back. Remember [...]
The Changing Roles of Writers and Editors
July 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment
As my friends and family know, I’ve been mesmerized of late by a box of old letters I had stashed in my closet. The letters were from long ago – the late 70s and early 80s – before computers were in use, and definitely before e-mail.
The letters are a joy to read, as they recall [...]
Think Mobile When You Write
July 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment
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 [...]
Let’s Reinvent Technical Writing
June 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment
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 [...]
A New Doc Strategy
March 31, 2009 By Leave a Comment
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 [...]