Introduction to Technical Writing (podcast)
Download MP3 (to download, right-click and select Save Target As) Length: 43 min. In this podcast, I talk with Ricardo Amigo, a translator and podcaster in Mexico City and Costa Rica, about the field...
View ArticleThe State of Structured Authoring in Technical Communication (podcast)
Download MP3 (to download, right-click and select Save Target As) Length: 11 min. In this podcast, Sarah O’Keefe of Scriptorium Publishing explains the results of their recent survey about the state of...
View ArticleAnne Gentle on her Forthcoming Book, Conversation and Community: The Social...
Download MP3 Length: 9 min. In this podcast, I talk with Anne Gentle about her forthcoming book, Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation. Anne explains how we’ve transitioned from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Structured Authoring Survey from Scriptorium
Sarah O’Keefe at Scriptorium is running a survey on structured authoring. You can take the survey here. Sarah defines authoring as “a publishing workflow that lets you define and automatically enforce...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From DITA to VITA: Tracing Origins and Projecting the Future
With my recent reflections on long versus short text, a comment by Michael O’neil made me wonder whether the “reading to do” mode equated with DITA’s task type, and whether the “reading to learn” mode...
View ArticleWiki Culture, Reader/Writer Distinctions, and Divergence from Structured...
In my last post on wikis, Mark Baker added an astute comment: I’m not a wiki fan myself — I’m a structured text guy bred in the bone — but I am fascinated by the trend, and by the variety reactions to...
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Interview with Ugur Akinci about Technical Communication
Ugur Akinci The following is an interview with Ugur Akinci, a technical writer for Honeywell Corporation. Ugur asked me these same questions for an interview on this site. After answering them, I was...
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Moving Between the Agora and the Desert
I had a conversation with a developer the other day about help material. He said that when he sees static pages, he assumes the content is out of date. He prefers forum threads because he can see the...
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Why Long Topics Are Better for the User
table.special { border-width: 1px; border-spacing: 2px; border-style: outset; border-color: gray; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom:10px; } table.special th { border-width: 1px; padding: 5px;...
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Is Structured Authoring (like DITA) a Good Fit for Publishing on a Website?
5/22 update: This post generated a lot of controversy, and I believe part of the controversy could have been avoided if I had articulated my ideas better. I’ve gone through and updated parts of this...
View ArticleTrends in Technical Communication: a review [TechScribe software documentation]
Trends in Technical Communication: a review [TechScribe software documentation]. Excellent detail. Wish everyone wrote up their conference experiences like this.
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What Constitutes “Intelligent Content”? Interview with Ann Rockley
Ann Rockley A few years ago, I wanted to better understand content management, so I picked up Managing Enterprise Content, by Ann Rockley, and read it through. It opened my eyes to a lot of new...
View ArticleTrends in Technical Communication: a review [TechScribe software documentation]
Trends in Technical Communication: a review [TechScribe software documentation]. Excellent detail. Wish everyone wrote up their conference experiences like this.
View ArticleClik here to view.
What Constitutes “Intelligent Content”? Interview with Ann Rockley
Ann Rockley A few years ago, I wanted to better understand content management, so I picked up Managing Enterprise Content, by Ann Rockley, and read it through. It opened my eyes to a lot of new...
View ArticleIntroduction to Technical Writing (podcast)
Download MP3 (to download, right-click and select Save Target As) Length: 43 min. In this podcast, I talk with Ricardo Amigo, a translator and podcaster in Mexico City and Costa Rica, about the field...
View ArticleThe State of Structured Authoring in Technical Communication (podcast)
Download MP3 (to download, right-click and select Save Target As) Length: 11 min. In this podcast, Sarah O’Keefe of Scriptorium Publishing explains the results of their recent survey about the state of...
View ArticleAnne Gentle on her Forthcoming Book, Conversation and Community: The Social...
Download MP3 Length: 9 min. In this podcast, I talk with Anne Gentle about her forthcoming book, Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation. Anne explains how we’ve transitioned from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Structured Authoring Survey from Scriptorium
Sarah O’Keefe at Scriptorium is running a survey on structured authoring. You can take the survey here. Sarah defines authoring as “a publishing workflow that lets you define and automatically enforce...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From DITA to VITA: Tracing Origins and Projecting the Future
With my recent reflections on long versus short text, a comment by Michael O’neil made me wonder whether the “reading to do” mode equated with DITA’s task type, and whether the “reading to learn” mode...
View ArticleWiki Culture, Reader/Writer Distinctions, and Divergence from Structured...
In my last post on wikis, Mark Baker added an astute comment: I’m not a wiki fan myself — I’m a structured text guy bred in the bone — but I am fascinated by the trend, and by the variety reactions to...
View Article
