You’ve started writing DITA topics and maps, you have your processes in place, and your publishables looking darn good. But are you wielding the full power of DITA? Read more of this technical writing article »
Tech Writer Tips & Tricks—DITA
Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is a sweeping revolution in technical writing and training. Consider carefully, and if you choose to make the switch to DITA, it’s already time to start planning. And it’s no simple task. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the forest and lose sight of the trees. DITA implementation is a big undertaking, but doable if you stay focused on some salient points it becomes a lot easier. Read more of this technical writing article »
The Five W’s of Online Help for Tech Writers
Lately, I've become a vocal critic of modern online help for a variety of reasons. But my biggest criticism is that despite the usability improvements offered by context sensitivity and modern indexing tools, many help systems become formulaic descriptions of procedures that fail to truly address the needs of their users. This problem arises partially from the inherent difficulty of writing online help, since users may need a range of reference, contextual (e.g., why a dialog box exists), or task-based "how to" information at different times and in different places. Read more of this technical writing article »
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 [...] Read more of this technical writing article »