Helping the world explore and understand content management and technical communication
Another busy year comes to a close here at TechWhirl. The members of our Special Writers Group have a simple job description: write stories that matter to technical communicators, whether they read the discussion list or are otherwise occupied. The most popular TechWhirl technical communication articles of the year reveal a readership interested in both the big picture and the more practical. Continue reading ...
With the US celebration of Independence Day comes another American tradition—baseball’s All Star Break. That period between July 4th and the “Midsummer Classic” that pits the stars of the American League against those of the National League. Baseball fans get to vote on who the All Stars will be each year, and the game is accompanied by hoopla of involving fans and sponsors, the inevitable seventh inning stretch, and the partaking of mass quantities of hot dogs, peanuts, and various adult beverages. In addition to the weekly roundup and Independence Day wishes, TechWhirl presents its own All Star Break, in which we bring back the top five posts of 2012... Continue reading ...
As technical communicators, we’re often assigned to projects that appeal to more than one sense—words, visuals and sounds—to convey a message. A multi-media technical communications project requires not only creative skills, but organizational skills as well. We can settle on a concept, a delivery method, and come up with ideas for visuals and copy points. But, we need feedback before we invest the time producing our project, or we may find we’ve gone down the proverbial rabbit hole and missed the intended goal of the project. The storyboard provides organization and makes it easy to get feedback before production begins. Continue reading ...
Happy Spring! Or, at least happy that it’s a little warmer somewhere on the map that you look at each day (like us folks in Dallas and Charlotte enjoying 75 degrees yesterday). The springtime brings giant parties (Mardi Gras) and sacrifices (for some Lent), and the chance not only to finally be caught up from our holiday time off, but also to get out and meet a few people. The birds, the bees, the sound of clicking of mobile phones with Twitterific quotes – from wherever you technical communications world travelers happen to be. Continue reading ...