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Content Management

TechWhirl's articles covering the creation, management, publishing, distribution and disposal of content.

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Getting Started with Topic-Based Writing

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Think for a minute about how you would like to see your writing described by a critic (say for the New York Times): sensible, understandable, logical, resonating, compelling, interesting…topical? Writing content that works for your readers, especially when it covers something technical and complex, doesn't just happen. It takes some thought and planning to structure it, both to be usable and relevant to the reader, and to be reusable and effective for your organization. Enter: Topic-based writing. Continue reading ...

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Being Bilingual Helps: ESL, Localization and Technical Communication

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"'Following your privies e-mail,' is 'privies' the correct word?" Questions like these are pretty common in ESL (English as a Second Language) environments, where you are one of the few, and possibly the only native English speaker in a team, department, or even the entire company. Working in an environment where everyone else is communicating in a strange language (i.e. not English) poses several challenges, especially during this age of globalization. Continue reading ...

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Can SharePoint® Manage your Content?

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If it seems that Microsoft® SharePoint is nearly as ubiquitous as Word and Windows, it’s because SharePoint implementations are a major factor in IT project expenditures today. In fact, if SharePoint were a standalone company, it would rank in the top 50 software companies in the world. It should come as no surprise that executives concerned about the management of technical content often wonder if technical publications in XML can be managed well using Microsoft SharePoint. Continue reading ...

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Assessing the State of Your Content: Applying the Content Management System Maturity Model

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Before you can decide how you can improve your content management practices and get on the road to implementing or enhancing your content management system solution, you need to assess where your organization stands—what kind of content do you have, where is it located, and how is it currently managed? Answering these critical questions is essential to determining your content maturity. Continue reading ...

Best Practices for CCMS File Naming Conventions

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No matter how much technology advances, how to name files for easy organization and retrieval seems to be a perpetual challenge. One of the inevitable decisions to make when creating your content strategy is to develop a file naming convention for your thousands or millions of topics, graphics, maps, documents, and snippets you may end [...] Continue reading ...

Organizing Your Content: Ditching Folders in Favor of Content Tagging

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Content Tagging Best Practices Authors’ note: This best practice article applies to both enterprise content and technical communication content. Think about these content tagging best practices when organizing content in shared drives, CMSs, or SharePoint. Technical communications content in CCMSs is also specifically addressed at the end of the article. The single, biggest mistake we [...] Continue reading ...

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Content Management System Litmus Test

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Executives, managers and content management workers (marketing, technical communications, public relations ... anyone who works with a lot of content on a daily basis) often wonder if they really need a content management system (CMS). We recommend using this content management system litmus test to determine if your company could benefit from a (component) content management system. Continue reading ...

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Convincing Management: Content Management Systems Business Case

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If management hasn't come looking for answers to questions about how to effectively manage all the content floating around your organization in social media, documents, emails and information in various electronic file cabinets, it’s probably just a matter of time. The best thing you can do now is start preparing a content management systems business case. Continue reading ...