Not so much technical communications related, but worth noting: In many western cultures today is Mardi Gras (“Fat Tuesday”), a final day of celebration before the Lenten season begins. Like New Year’s resolutions, Valentine’s Day and other “modernized” traditions, it has morphed somewhat, and many, technical writers included, vow to give up some vice, or [...] Read more of this technical writing article »
Technical Writer Poll: Profess Your Love for All Things Tech Comm
So when February 14th rolls around, what's a geeky, diabetic technical communicator with pollen allergies to do? Survey the technical writing community of course. So I'm sending the chocolates over to the nearest SME who owes me a favor, putting the flowers in vase where the cats can't get them and compiling a slightly different kind of poll this week. Read more of this technical writing article »
Technical Writer Poll: What Qualities are Important in Technical Communications Content?
As the technical communications profession grapples with fast changing tools, emerging channels by which to distribute our content, and the perennial questions of roles and responsibilities, participants on the TechWhirl email discussion list have been having an interesting and timely discussion on how these factors impact the actual creation of content. Is technical writing, or technical communications, relegated to the role of K-rations or MREs--nutritious and complete but utterly lacking in visual or taste appeal? Read more of this technical writing article »
Moving Technical Communications to the Author-it Cloud®
The technical communications industry has been anticipating and asking for authoring and publishing tools that follow the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. In December, Author-it Software launched Author-it Cloud as a “breakthrough for enterprise content authoring.” I caught up with Author-it President Steve Davis in the midst of a flurry of launch activities to chat about the company’s remarkably successful year, the new cloud solution, and future directions for Author-it. Read more of this technical writing article »
Integrated Technical Communications & the Content Revolution
A highly regarded content development consultant, Joe Gollner, the Content Philosopher, uses his wide-ranging experience and interests to inform his insight into the current challenges and future opportunities presented to technical communications by the content revolution. TechWhirl met with Joe during LavaCon 2011 to discuss the role of technical communications in enterprise content strategy. Read more of this technical writing article »
Technical Writer Poll: What Kinds of Visuals Do You Include in Technical Writing?
We invite you to take the poll, and start a conversation on the intersection between technical writing and visual communications. It's going to be a lively, and perhaps even picturesque, month as we cover "More than 1,000 words, techniques for visual communications" on TechWhirl and Tech Writer Today. Read more of this technical writing article »
Technical Writer Poll: Quality Control on Technical Communications Content
Most of the technical writers and technical communicators we know take pride in their work, and want quality to be a basic work ethic. But most of these same technical writers have significant pressure just to get the stuff out the door by set, too-short deadlines. So that begs the question, and thus this poll, about the kinds of quality control performed on technical communications content. Read more of this technical writing article »
Technical Writing Basic Conundrum: Can Less Really Be More?
Technical writers should provide as much documentation as is required for a user to use a product to its fullest potential; and that documentation should be delivered in way that is usable and easily accessible to the user. This seems pretty straightforward, but why is it that so many companies still fail to do this; still fail to take their documentation seriously; still fail to adequately resource technical writing staff? Read more of this technical writing article »
Integrated Technical Communications: A Map to Better Understanding
Technical communications overlaps with all the other fields involved in the software development lifecycle and often our job objectives dovetail with the business analysts, interaction designers, software architects, product managers, marketing specialists, and so on. Integrated Technical Communications (ITC) defines an approach that supports the business side as well as the technical side of product development. Professionals focused on these disciplines can create ITC Mall Maps to increase visibility to key audiences and demonstrate strategic value to the organization. Read more of this technical writing article »