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    Archive for 2007

    “The great new tool for writing a book today is a blog …”

    December 31st, 2007 | Posted in blog | 21 Comments »

    In a recent episode on The Engaging Brand podcast, business coach Anna Farmery interviews Mark Sanborn, author of You don’t need a title to be a leader, on the topic of self-confidence. Farmery says many people have aspirations to write a book, but lack the self-confidence to do it. Sanborn says you can use a blog as a tool to build confidence and write a … more »

    My Blog and Podcast Site Are Now Merged into One — Steps on How I Did It

    December 29th, 2007 | Posted in blog | 9 Comments »

    I merged my blog (idratherbewriting.com) and podcast (techwritervoices.com) into one site. If you go to techwritervoices.com, it redirects to idratherbewriting.com. All the posts that were on techwritervoices.com are now on idratherbewriting.com. See the right column for podcast information. All podcasts are in a category called Tech Writer Voices, which has its own podcast feed, the same feed as before (http://feeds.feedburner.com/techwritervoices). Why Merge the Two Sites? … more »

    Jeter Interviews Mike Hamilton at Former Blue Sky Software Office in La Jolla, Calif.

    December 29th, 2007 | Posted in blog | 17 Comments »

    Charles Jeter recorded an excellent podcast with Mike Hamilton, V.P. of product management at Madcap Software, and posted it on his blog yesterday. Jeter is a technical writer in the California area who has been carefully analyzing the online help tool market. The following are some of my takeaways from the podcast:

    “Could you please tell me what the job of a technical writer is like?”

    December 21st, 2007 | Posted in blog | 27 Comments »

    I recently received an email from a reader who asked to know what the job of a technical writer is like. Anoop writes, I am a computer science Master’s student at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. I am in my second year and I am on the lookout for jobs. Other than the system software engineer posts, I am considering applying for a job … more »

    Adventures with the New Technical Communication Suite from Adobe (mostly RoboHelp 7 and Captivate)

    December 19th, 2007 | Posted in blog | 25 Comments »

    Rob Houser’s recent article in Writers UA, “What’s New in RoboHelp 7?“, is a thorough, insightful article I highly recommend. After reading his review, I thought I’d post a few notes from my experiences with the same. (For more about Rob, see his site.) This past month I’ve been heavily using the RoboHelp 7 and Captivate 3 components of the Technical Communication Suite. RoboHelp 7 … more »

    The Hardest Part About Blogging: Coming Up With Something Interesting to Say

    December 19th, 2007 | Posted in blog | 3 Comments »

    I’m going to be presenting on blogging within the next several months, and without a doubt, the hardest part about blogging is not the technical aspect. The hardest part is writing interesting posts. Here’s a technique I find works well. Start with the premise that every day, some new thought will strike you as being intriguing. When that moment occurs, write a descriptive word on … more »

    Why People Think Help Is Useless, and How To Change This Thought

    December 19th, 2007 | Posted in blog | 20 Comments »

    I’ve been rethinking a previous post I wrote about the best response to the remark, “Nobody reads the help anyway. ” A better response is to ask people (at just the right time) to raise their hands if they’ve ever searched a help file. Unless someone is totally unique, most likely everyone has tried using help. When everyone has his or her hand raised to … more »

    Myths of Innovation: Brilliant Ideas Come From Constant Reflection, Not Random Chance

    December 15th, 2007 | Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

    After reading Scott Berkun’s essay on the how to be a genius, I listened to some of his podcasts too. One myth is that geniuses get their ideas almost out of the sky — Newton is watching an apple fall from the tree when he suddenly discovers gravity. Archimedes is taking a bath when he realizes the physics of buoyancy. Here’s an excerpt of this … more »

    Interesting Technique for Discovering Software Changes and Building Rapport with developers

    December 15th, 2007 | Posted in blog | 2 Comments »

    You know the typical scenario — the technical writer is the last one to be notified of changes to the application (be it interface or functionality), and developers hate reviewing the manuals we write. Recently a business analyst explained an interesting technique to me for not only discovering software changes, but also building rapport with developers. He said that in a previous company, he bought … more »

    Reading this post made me want to be a workaholic

    December 12th, 2007 | Posted in blog | 6 Comments »

    Reading this post by Scott Berkun made me want to be a workaholic. Here’s an excerpt: Show me a genius and I’ll show you a workaholic. Van Gogh produced 2000 works of art between 1880 and 1890 (1100 paintings and 900 sketches). That’s 4 works of art a week for a decade, and he didn’t start making art until his mid twenties. DaVinci’s famous journals … more »

    A Good Response to “No One Reads the Help Anyway”

    December 11th, 2007 | Posted in blog | 16 Comments »

    In this three-minute STC Atlanta podcast, Judy Glick Smith says she’s tired of trying to convince sales people of the value of documentation. She says she’s “tired of fighting the good fight.” No doubt as a technical writer you’ve heard the phrase, “No one reads the help anyway.” They let out a small chuckle to indicate that they’re only kidding, although deep down they’re being … more »

    Goodbye Podpress, it’s time for a new mp3 player

    December 10th, 2007 | Posted in blog | 22 Comments »

    I’ve been using PodPress, a WordPress plugin that adds an audio player to your posts, for about a year now. But today I’m saying goodbye to this plugin. Although Podpress includes size and duration, adds iTunes tags, and shows download counts, it is filled with compatibility problems with WordPress. It seems every time WordPress updates to a new version, PodPress breaks. Lately PodPress has failed … more »

    Technical Communication Suite from Adobe — Interview with RJ Jacquez

    December 10th, 2007 | Posted in Podcasts | 7 Comments »

    [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Download MP3 Duration: 22 min. RJ Jacquez, senior product evangelist at Adobe.com, talks about the new Technical Communication Suite from Adobe, which includes RoboHelp 7, Captivate 3, Acrobat 3D version 8, and Framemaker 8. Topics we discuss include the following:

    Adding a Send Feedback link to Your Online Help / RoboHelp Project

    December 7th, 2007 | Posted in blog | 8 Comments »

    I was reading an article in a previous STC Intercom magazine about how to add a Send Feedback link to your online help project, but the javascript didn’t work. Here’s an alternative method that does work.  This Send Feedback link grabs the page title and URL and includes it in the e-mail that the user sends. The method below describes the integration using RoboHelp, but … more »

    99% of people who buy iPods don’t realize several simple things …

    December 6th, 2007 | Posted in blog | 10 Comments »

    99% of people who buy iPods don’t realize several simple things … iPod doesn’t mean MP3 player. Even though most people use the term iPod interchangeably to mean MP3 player, iPods are only a brand of MP3 players. Unfortunately, iPod is now a term like Band-Aid or Kleenex. (My wife is often asking me where my iPod is, even though I have an iRiver.) You … more »



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