Tech Writer Today Magazine - TechWhirl
Technical writing and technical communications news, articles and resources for technical writers and technical communicators.
As I begin my stewardship of the Users' Advocate column, I think it is important to begin by asking, where have all the users gone? Thirty years ago, tech comm had a more or less captive audience. If users wanted information on your product, they looked at the manual. They didn't have much choice. Today, when the user has a question or encounters a problem with your product, the first thing they do is to Google it. Continue reading ...
E-books are not a new, or even recent, phenomenon. I encountered my first e-book no later than 1994 (although it might have been earlier) with Project Gutenberg, which was started by Michael Hart in 1971 when he started typing classic texts into his mainframe computer terminal. But the role of e-books has changed drastically in the past few years, and now more e-books are sold than hardcover books. Continue reading ...
The Adobe Acrobat XI release bridges the gap between PDF creation and other software applications with improved compatibility with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as Sharepoint integration. The tools in the Acrobat XI suite also support standards compliance for accessibility, ISO and electronic signatures, as well as improved workflows for review and extended in-PDF editing capabilities. Continue reading ...
Over the past few years, I’ve had to manage the translation into French of user guides and online help for TSX SecureFile. The documentation consists of PDF user’s and administrator’s guides produced using unstructured Adobe FrameMaker, and web-based online help produced using Quadralay’s WebWorks ePublisher. This article is based on a relatively simple scenario – a lone technical writer with a small number of manuals being translated into one language. Continue reading ...
Adding bookmarks to PDF documents is key for improving the user experience with your documentation and your product. Minute Bytes' Julie Clarke demonstrates some surprisingly easy shortcuts that technical writers can use to add bookmarks to PDF documents in this 3.5 minutes how-to video. Continue reading ...