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Create Technical Writing Consistency While You Write—Or Add it Later

One of the primary tasks any writer or editor must perform is to impose consistency on a manuscript. Consistency is particularly important for technical writers, because it makes the task of writing easier: if you don’t have to develop a new solution each time you face the same problem, you can simply find a solution that works for all occurrences of that problem and use it thereafter. From the technical writer’s perspective, it’s best if you try to build in that consistency right from the start, because it can save you a lot of time both in your initial draft and in your subsequent revisions. Continue reading ...

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Best Tech Writer Tips & Tricks from the TechWhirl Email Discussion List

When technical communicators chat amongst themselves, vast quantities of really valuable information can be passed along, about tools, management techniques, trends, and lots of little ways to make the job go more smoothly. In 2011, Techwhirl’s email discussion list continued to provide a treasure trove of opinion, facts, recommendations, suggestions and ideas. As we close out the year, we thought it would be worthwhile to mine this vast expertise and provide you with some wide-ranging tips and tricks you can use in 2012 and beyond. Continue reading ...

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TechWhirl Recap for November 25, 2011

TechWhirl Update: Saying thank you during this time of thanks giving. Connie and I have been managing TechWhirl for nearly nine months now. And while we are preparing for next month’s “Santa, All I want for Christmas …” series, we thought it would be a good time to say thank you and appreciate what we have right now. Continue reading ...

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Book Review: Effective On Screen Editing: New Tools for an Old Profession

One of the things that helped me make the transition from paper-based to (mostly) on-screen editing was reading Geoff Hart’s Intercom columns on electronic editing. They were full of tips on how to make the best use of Word’s built in features and tips on streamlining my work flow. These columns, revised and updated, form the core of Geoff’s book, Effective onscreen editing: New tools for an old profession. Continue reading ...

MS Word Master Documents

This chapter from Steve Hudson’s Work in Progress on Advance Word Usage covers topics such as when to use (and when not to use) master documents, as well as “The Ten Heretical Rules of Masters,” which provides advice on how to use master documents for large or complex document production. In PDF format. Download: Microsoft-Word-masterdocs.pdf [...] Continue reading ...

Replacing FrameMaker with OpenOffice.org Writer

Replace Adobe FrameMaker with OpenOffice.org Writer? Most people’s first reaction is amused disbelief. “FrameMaker is a hugely capable publishing product,” my editor at Newsforge admonished me. “OOo is a marginally competent word processor.” However, a functional comparison of several important desktop publishing features in both products shows that the products are more comparable than you [...] Continue reading ...